Category: Videos

I have become aware of an odd Japanese sub-culture of sexy action heroines, which might be best described as Power Rangers for mature viewers. While it seems they contain rather too much bondage and torture for me to be entirely happy with them, they are certainly within the remit of the site. Here’s a sample clip from Gravure Heroine Gaia Ranger, produced by Zen Pictures, who appear to be the market leaders in such things. Some of them appear to have received distribution in the West, so might follow up there. Obviously, this is the kind of thing where you need subtitles, to follow what’s going on…

Luc Besson has always been one of the directors most intimately connected to action heroines: most obviously in Nikita, The Messenger, and Angel-A, but his other works, such as Leon and The Fifth Element also contain GwG elements. He has been largely absent from the director’s chair of late, except for his trilogy of kid-flicks based on the Arthur books, but returns to the field in April with Les Aventures Extraordinaires D’Adele Blanc-Sec, which translates as The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec (if you hadn’t worked that out). Based on a series of comics, it follows the heroine through her exploits at the turn of the century, which appear to involve… Well, here’s the official synopsis:

The year is 1912. Adele Blanc-Sec, an intrepid young reporter, will go to any lengths to achieve her aims, even sailing to Egypt to tackle mummies of all shapes and sizes. Meanwhile, in Paris, it’s panic stations! A 136 million-year-old pterodactyl egg on a shelf in the natural history museum has mysteriously hatched, and the bird subjects the city to a reign of terror from the skies. But nothing fazes Adele Blanc-Sec, whose adventures reveal many more extraordinary surprises… Set in the carefree world before World War I, Adele Blanc-Sec’s adventures see the brave young woman fearlessly battling crooks, corrupt politicians, demon worshippers and mad scientists.

Given Besson’s skill with action (I just watched Leon again this afternoon, and it remains one of my all-time favourites), I’m fairly hopeful for this one. The trailer is below: it opens in Europe in April.

This month’s offering certainly falls into the category of “stumbled upon.” I started off looking on YouTube for the Resident Evil 4 trailer, and somehow drifted from there to Babes With Blades. There appear actually to be two troupes by that name: one from Britain, under Cecilia Fay, and the other out of Chicago – the latter appears to be more theatrically-based, with the last production listed being an all-female version of Macbeth. The UK version is more…well, see the video below. They appeared on Britain’s Got Talent – yes, the show that gave the world Susan Boyle – and even Simon was impressed. Rule Britannia!

Angelina Jolie is likely the queen of Hollywood action heroines: not just for her roles as Lara Croft, but also in Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Wanted, delivering the perfect mix of attitude and aggression necessary to the genre. Hence, Salt is one of our most-anticipated action films of 2010, in which she plays a operative who finds herself… Well, just watch the trailer, it’ll fill you in on the details.

Thailand seems to be going through what the Hong Kong movie industry did in the eighties – a sudden discovery of action heroines. Chocolate paved the way – we’ll be covering the latest film of its star, JeeJa Vismistananda, next month – but others appear to be leaping on the bandwagon. Here’s a trailer for The Vanquisher [even if the trailer gets that spelled wrong!]. Looks kinda promising.

“In an old apartment building on the wrong side of the tracks, two women, unknown to each other, live across the hall on the second floor. Galia (Olga Kurylenko of Quantum of Solace and Neil Marshall’s upcoming Centurion) is an assassin involved against her will with the local sex-traffic mafia. All she wants is to reunite with her daughter that she left back home in Ukraine. Elinor (Ninet Tayeb) is a grocery store cashier and a battered wife. She dreams of winning the lottery and running away from her abusive husband. Galia and Elinor don’t know each other, but as neighbors they share two things: an adjoining wall and a strong need to plan their escape. After Galia disobeys her latest contract and Elinor discovers that she’s pregnant, the two women decide to take action against their oppressors in a fight for survival and freedom.” I particularly like the line, “You hold gun like little girl. Hold gun like woman.”

There’s nothing worse than going to the convenience store, and you really want to get in and out quickly, only to find that the person in front of you is… Well, you’ll see, in Dylan Pearce’s short, First in Line.

Here’s the trailer for Blood: The Last Vampire. It’s a live-action version of the anime we previously reviewed, and just came out in limited release at the cinema: reviews have been somewhat mixed, shall we say, but I think it still merits a look, based on the trailer. If the trailer doesn’t load, here is the YouTube link.

We coveredBlack Magic M-66, so here’s a clip from the show to illustrate the point. It’s subtitled in Italian, but non-Latin readers should not find this impacting their enjoyment too much. It’s just after reporter Sybel has found herself arrested by the army, and taken to the road-block where they are awaiting the arrival of the two rogue androids. Hilarity ensues…or not!

[Actually, the full film, subbed in English now appears to be on Youtube…]

This month we reviewed Chickfight, and one of the flaws I criticized was that the cage-fight wasn’t up to the standard I expected from such things. To show you exactly what I mean, here’s the cage-match which I mentioned there, between Tomoko Watanabe and Kumiko Maekawa vs. Etsuko Mita and Mima Shimoda. It’s in two parts, so sit back and enjoy it.