CUTIE HONEY (Japan, 2004)
(Watched in the Filmhaus Kino Köln on the 4th Cineasia-Filmfestival)
Director: Hideaki Anno
Actors: Eriko Sato, Mikako Ichikawa, Jun Murakami
The criminal organisation of the Panther-Claw-Gang holds Tokio tightly in their grip. Golden Claw, Scarlet Claw, Cobalt Claw and Black Claw terrorize the population with their Henchmen, Death-Rays, Karaoke and what else your typical Villain-Armory is able come up with. And where Evil is focused in such a strong way, there’s gotta be a Hero as well. In this movie the Hero is a Heroine, listens to the name of Honey Kisaragi and in times of trouble she can transformate herself into “Cutie Honey”. In order to achieve this, she just has to press a heart-shaped button on her necklace and call “Honeeeeeeey Flash”, then there are pink flashlights all around, she loses all of her clothes (just her underwear stays on, so our kids won’t go Columbine in their later teens) and she turns into a Warrior for Love and Justice.
Who hasn’t gone offline with their head shaking in disbelief by now, really seems wanting to learn more about this gaudy-colorful concotion, thrashing feel-good-Kitsch with a sledgehammer right into your cerebellum and your retina. And it works. Whoever watches the trailer, can’t help thinking about the Power-Rangers, but what those nerve-racking US-Teenie-Brats don’t have, “Cutie Honey” got enough of: Self-mockery. Nothing is serious in here: Even Honey Kisaragi’s sporadically appearing reflections about her life in solitude and her lost memories are going to be negated in the next, I’ll bet you, freaky incidence: you’ll hear Karaoke-Songs by people, who apparently don’t care jack, if they can sing or not, you’ll meet a villain, introducing himself with an Andrew-Lloyd-Webber-inspired Song, henchmen in the background pull strings out of their cuffs and start playing W. A. Mozarts “Small Night Piece”, while in the foreground plastic-swords are being crossed. After this, you won’t be bothered with Pinup-Model Eriko Sato a.k.a. Honey Kisaragi, just dressed in a garbage-bag, jogging downtown in order to buy rice-balls and Coke, badly in need of Energy to power up her Imaginary-Inductive-System. Settings, costumes, special-effects, dialogue, everything seems dummy, gimmicky and inexpensive, but, beware, not cheap. Just the showdown is badly paced and not as witty as the rest, the Everbody-Should-Love-Everyone-Message is being repeated once too often, but it really doesn’t spoil the overall immense fun. And because nowadays every second flick out of Japan or Korea is based someway on a Manga-book, the time has come for the first ownage Live-Action “Aika”-Movie. Hello, anyone over there, can you hear me?
Diabetics, LSD-abstainers and Kitsch-Haters: Hands off. In a cool way uncool essay about the japanese Hippie-Movement, which never actually happened. Super-Loud, Super-Childish, Super-Cute and a bit sexy, too.
6,5 out of 10 Lollipops with a dental enamel-attacking glaze.
