月刊松金洋子
Gekkan Matsugane Yôko
Well colour me stunned... when I reviewed Gekkan Hanai Miri, I had no idea that Gekkan was actually a series of DVDs in which gravure idols act in short films. You learn something new everyday. Somewhat paradoxically, while Miri is the better actress by a wide margin, Yôko's Gekkan Matsugane Yôko turns out to be a lot more watchable, and more importantly, a lot more fun. The disc is divided into two parts - the short film and the making of feature.
The short film, Masked Cutie, is an amusing little tale about underground fighting and gangsters. Yoko plays a bunny girl who serves drinks at underground fights. When a customer gets overly amorous; she clocks him and knocks him cold. One of the low lifes observes this, and then tries to turn Yoko into a fighter so they can make some money. Running at less than fifteen minutes, you're not getting any really great cinematic performances, but it's light entertainment for Yoko fans.
Yoko really hams it up when she has to act and is never really convincing, but she looks great, which, I suspect, is all that most of her fans care about. Still, as evidenced by the behinds-the-scenes feature, she does have a certain goofy energy in her scenes which is quite endearing and she seems to have fun with the part. If you're familiar with the Japanese entertainment scene, you also might recognize a few pro-wrestlers and comedians thrown into the cast for good measure.
During the film, Yoko is outfitted in a number of flattering, tight fitting costumes, and ends up in the traditional gravure idol uniform by the end of the film - the bikini. There is also the cliche workout montage where Yoko trains in a number of positions designed to maximize her cleavage and ends up in the shower after her sweaty workout. Cliche, but still nice to see.
The making-of feature runs over twice the length of Masked Cutie - roughly thirty five minutes. There is absolutely nothing new here if you've ever watched any gravure idol videos before, but what is present is quite well done and enjoyable to watch. Yoko chatting with the cameraman, cast and crew, filming of the photo shoots which invariably occur when making idol videos, and general horsing around by everyone. I'm sure it must actually quite boring to make these things, but it's edited in such a way to make it seem quite enjoyable. There are some utterly spectacular shots of Yoko-chan in the making of section though, which does place it a cut above the usual behind the scenes tracks which accompany most idol releases.
The only major complaint about the DVD is the quality of the video. It's really grainy. While this may be understandable for the short film as a stylisitic choice, the lack of clarity in the second feature is very disappointing and detracts from the overall viewing experience. As well, the colour seems quite washed out at times, but this is probably an intentional effect much like the grainy filter.
Gekkan Matsugane Yôko is a light, enjoyable Yoko DVD. If you're looking for something a little different than the standard gravure idol faire, this might be something you should consider picking up.
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