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BluRay/DVD Reviews

WEATHER WOMAN

By • Aug 15th, 2000 •

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(Central Park Media)
1974. 84 minutes. Unrated
Self-classified as an Erotic Comedy and recommended on the DVD box for Mature Audiences.

RECOMMENDED

How to describe Weather Woman… Seeing as I wrote and produced Street Trash, I shouldn’t have a problem. And yet it’s a formidable task. I’d have to say it’s a fetishist screwball comedy. The Japanese like their genres tightly hewn and adhered to, so I’m sure there’s a genre over there that spawns films just like this on a regular basis. I haven’t seen any others yet. But I’d be willing to (including the sequel, which does exist.)

Keiko Nakadai (sultry, agressive and bitchy Kei Mitzutani) revolutionizes weather reporting by flashing her underwear on tv. (Underwear is cross-genre stuff in Japan; it’s in a great deal of their anime as well.) She becomes a controversial hit, the tv station bosses have to keep her on for ratings’ sake, and she has to up the ante to stay in vogue, eventually incurring the wrath of a rival, which leads to a climactic weather woman wizard’s duel. It’s crazy, raunchy fun that aims to shock, but it also always aims to amuse. Sometimes too silly for my tastes, it just as often does exactly what I’d hoped it would do. There’s nudity, violence, musical numbers, fashion…you get the picture.

Ms. Mizutani is effective in her skewed dominatrix-like role, and her supporting players thesp for all they’re worth. The English voice actors deserve special mention (which I did, above). They’re wonderfully accurate in capturing the humorously demented emotions and attitudes of the Weather Woman cast. The transfer is quite good, and the score by Kunihido Ida is ridiculously hyper, in keeping with the lunatic pace and style of the direction.

And as for a double bill…how about Repo Man (Anchor Bay), a lunatic black comedy mixing car reposession, ufos, stolen money, angry slackers… a potpourri very much like Weather Woman in spirit, and it also has Harry Dean Stanton thrown into the mix.

DVD Features:
Widescreen. Dolby Digital. Choice of English dubbed or Subtitled. Video Interviews. Photo Gallery.

Credits:
Written and directed by Tomlaki Hosoyama.
Based on the Manga by Tetsu Adachi.
Music by Kunihiko Ida.

Cast:
Kei Mizutani (English voice actor Wendee Lee),
Takashi Sumida (English voice Actor Lex Lang),
Yasuyo Shirashima (English voice Actor Barbara Goodson).

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