The Gun Crazy Series
Gun Crazy Episode 1: A Woman from Nowhere
(2002) - 5.5
Director Atsushi Muroga knocked off four
straight to video films all centered around women with guns in 2002 and 2003.
All titled Gun Crazy. This one was a decent start with a tough as ball-bearings
woman and a fair amount of action. Low budget but good fun. Nothing very
special really - churn out a script and shoot it quickly. But you know -
a woman and a gun - is all you need sometimes. Especially one not shy about
a large body count. Or taking a bullet or two.
Saki ( Ryôko Yonekura) goes to Okinawa
and ends up in no man's land that has nothing but bars, one seedy hotel and
a garage in an otherwise desolate part of the world. That is because it is
next to the USA military base and where that ends and Japan begins is a mystery.
Pretty much whatever the military base says. She arrives in black clad leather,
a motorcycle and an attitude that will likely get her killed. A I don't take
any shit attitude. Two guys try and mess with her in a bar and leave with
a few bullet holes in them. They are part of Tojo's (Shingo Tsurumi) gang.
In fact, everyone is owned by Tojo who is a weasel who will kill just for
the fun of it. He is in cahoots with some on the base and is protected by
them. He lives inside the base and so even the Japanese police can do nothing.
Which is too bad because Saki has come to kill him no matter what it takes.
Good old fashioned revenge. 60 minutes. Up on YouTube in a murky copy.
Gun Crazy Episode
2: Beyond the Law (2002) - 6.0
The second in the Gun Crazy series of gun
toting killing females. The films are unconnected other than in themes. This
makes one reference to the first film but they are all different characters.
Director Atsushi Muroga ups the graphic violence from the first one with
a fair amount of blood letting and also has higher production values. It
has a soft middle but a good first half and a good ending. The woman in this
one is Yuki played by the very cute Rei Kikukawa who had a major role in
Godzilla: Final Wars. She is fine here as she goes from idealistic dedicated
lawyer to a near cold-blooded killer. It is the "near" that turns out to
be a problem. Rule 3 "Show no sympathy" is one she has a problem with.
Yuki is an up and coming lawyer but who
gets frustrated by cases lost because of a lack of evidence and seeing scum
go free. Her boss forges some documents that provide an alibi for a killer
and when this is discovered her career is over and the gang kills the boss
and is about to kill her when a mysterious man in sunglasses comes through
the door and kills them and leaves. Now with no license to practice law,
she takes up another profession. Killing. She hooks up with Takita the man
who saved her and they begin killing gang members. He for revenge, her because
she finds herself enjoying it. And she gets very good at it. He even gives
her the La Femme Nikita/Black Cat test. Takes her to a restaurant and tell
sher to kill a man protected by bodyguards and escape. But she has
that soft spot and sooner or later you know that will bring her in conflict
with Takita.
Gun Crazy Episode
3: Traitor's Rhapsody (2003) - 5.0
Aka - Gun Crazy: The Big Gundown
Each of these Gun Crazy films begins with
a note - "A Fable of Ladies with Guns". Which is pretty much all that a lot
of men need to know. An attractive woman, a gun and a few dead bodies. We
are easy. In this case we get two attractive women and two guns. So what
is there to complain about, Well, there is way too much exposition and too
little action. Come on. You can't call a film Gun Crazy and then spend most
of it on plot and character. Nobody bought a ticket to watch a woman moping
around because the men won't take her seriously. Only a few short shoot-outs
and the rest narrative? Squibs can't be that expensive. Guys willing to take
a squib can't be that expensive. Hell, I would do it for free. So this one
was a bit disappointing - churlish of me I know but I want a much higher
body count for this kind of film. It is kind of the reason for its existence.
Aki - called Kiki in the subs (Kasumi Nakane)
- has graduated at the top of her class at police academy. She is especially
proficient in shooting targets. A great career is ahead of her with the connections
she has - her father runs the police department. On her first day though
she and two of her police comrades get involved in a situation in which an
undercover cop has a bomb attached to him. As the seconds tick down to about
10 seconds and no one has a clue what to do, Aki does a runner while her
two comrades stay behind and get killed. I am with Aki on this one. In fact,
I would have taken off at about the 30 second mark. Maybe at 45 seconds.
But she is considered a coward and gets shunted aside.
They team her up with a drunken cop who
breaks too many rules. If not for dad, she would probably have been posted
to the most northern town in Japan. But she and the partner have a clue and
go looking on their own for one of them who was responsible - she had gotten
a quick look - and find him in a bar with one of his men and his girlfriend
Mimi (Mitsuho Ohtami) and there is a shootout. Now she is really in the dog
house and told to stay in her apartment. But of course she doesn't. I would
like to say because there is a lot of killing to be done but sadly not all
that much. The bad guys are eco-terrorists who think blowing up a few things
will change the world. Only if it's the Twin Towers.
Gun Crazy Episode
4: Requiem for a Bodyguard (2003) - 4.0
Aka - The Magnificent Five Strike
This is the last film in the Gun Crazy
series and I would like to thank our sponsor. The NRA. Don't leave home without
it because you never know when you are in the mood to shoot someone or even
an entire crowd.
This last one was a bit of a chore to get
through - and then when I get to the end I discover that the rip of my DVD
cut off with about 10 minutes to go. So I go to YouTube and it is there and
so I jump to the 60-minute mark and it cuts off with about five minutes to
go. So I will never find out how it ends. Not a real tragedy but I wanted
to see father and daughter reunited - it would have brought tears to my eyes.
This one basically is nothing but filler until the finale - well my
finale - ten minutes in which there is a big action firefight. Till then
basically melodrama and flashbacks to happier times. So of the four films
- the first is ok, the second is decent, the third is mediocre and the fourth
sucked. It is good the director stopped when he did.
In some made up South East Asian country
the daughter Eri (Fumina Hara) of a high ranking corporate director is kidnapped
by a bunch of hooligans and they set a ransom of $5 million. The father doesn't
have the money and so asks the company - they say sure - but that's a lot
of money and keep postponing any action. So Eri's long time friend Miki (Natsuki
Katso) puts together a group to go rescue her. And then whines for most of
the remainder of the film - did we have to kill him. Yes, you did. Among
the group is a prostitute played by Sora Aoi who I read is a porno star.
She is the only one in the film who impresses and she keeps her clothes on
the whole time, A killing machine. As I wrote in Gun Crazy 3, the only reason
people watch these is to see women killing a lot of scumsuckers. Not the
drama. Not the character development. Not the scenery. The director seems
to have forgotten that after the second film. Such is life.
