A Weatherwoman

Keiko Nakadai gets the chance to appear as meteorologist on the evening news at the TV company JTV. After her weather report, she throws caution to the wind and pulls her skirt up, flashing her underwear and creating something of a scandal. The following day Keiko is called in to be reprimanded by the company chiefs. Instead the roles are reversed. Hadn't the viewing figures soared? Isn't the TV company on the decline and in need of a bigger audience? Keiko wins the support of the chairman of the board, the ageing Shirashima, and is given a free hand to develop the weather report, which rapidly becomes the most important part of the news. The Japanese nation, especially the men, catch Keiko-fever. Keiko moves into the TV-building and demands total obedience from everyone. But she also has enemies. One such being the ousted weather girl Michiko, not to mention the chairman Shirashima's daughter Kaori. A handful of conspirators, lead by Kaori, plot in the basement of the TV company to rid themselves of Keiko. The film is based upon a very popular manga comic strip, by Tetsu Adachi, about the sexually liberated weather girl Keiko who literally whips men and decides her own destiny. It was a great success in Japan, especially among young women who were attracted by the heroine's independence and her habit of humiliating men, in stark contrast to their own lives. This is Tomoaki Hosoyama's first feature film, though his time spent directing porn-films is apparent even here. He has borrowed much from the aesthetics of manga and also from the fantastic Hong Kong cinema, as can be seen in the final apocalyptic battle between Keiko and Kaori when they fly through the air like heroines from a film by Ching Siu Tung (among others The Heroic Trio, screened at the 1994 Stockholm Film Festival). Hosoyama's film is an example of complete irreverence, a far cry from any suggestion of good-taste, realism or logic. It is seasoned with innumerable visual jokes and shows, in passing, various sexual perversions. The acme of bad-taste is achieved when the TV-team from the programme'' Hello Pervert!'' visits the bizarre enema-lover. The film mocks Japan's grotesque obsession with sex, not least on Japanese TV, whose recent, obscene, late-night shows aren't far from the parodies in this comedy. I can guarantee that you've never seen anything like it at the cinema before. PES