Kekko Kamen: Surprise!

Title: Kekko Kamen: Surprise!
Rating: 2.5/5
Genre: Comedy, Exploitation
Language: Japanese

The Japanese are often renowned for being a little ‘strange’ shall we say, coming up with ideas so ridiculous that no Westerner could ever come up with. Such is the story of Kekko Kamen, and despite this being her fourth film, is the first to introduce me to the character. The comedy is obvious, and frequently toilet-based and whilst the jokes themselves often fall flat and feel juvenile, the manner in which the film is conducted in an absurdly over the top manner lends itself to the end result.

Perhaps knowing the plot will help understand the full extent of my meaning. Set in a music school run by ruthless and sadistic instructors (who only listen to classical music, and are rendered incapacitated by the power of rock), they ritualistically tie-up and torture these young Japanese school girls for performing below their impossibly high standards. To top all this, there are rumours that they are selling off their students as high-class sex slaves to classical enthusiasts (who of course are all rich, right?). In comes Kekko Kamen, a bare-breasted beauty with her plastic nunchuks, red mask and long red scarf, fighting for young tortured women everywhere! With animé-like fight moves (“Special Move: Flamenco crotch flash” – no, I’m not kidding) she does battle against these evil doers.

Despite the apparent importance of the character of Kekko Kamen, much of the film revolves around the students and their studies. Not least of which is the inclusion of the secret agent, posing as a music teacher despite have no knowledge of the subject, and the student Mayumi (Aki Hoshino – a bikini model recruited for the role) who wastes no time in sticking her cute tongue out at every available opportunity. The acting is always abysmal, straddling a line between hilariously laugh-out-loud bad and just a bit shit, and the use of effects (note, I said ‘effects here,’ not CGI) clearly demonstrates the minimal budget used, at times feeling more suitable for a bad theatre performance, but oddly this doesn’t detract from the end result, in keeping with ‘ridiculously bad’ theme strived for.

This should by all accounts be ridiculously bad; the script is abysmal, acting shoddy, effects looking better suited for the 50s, etc and in many ways it is. And that’s precisely what makes it enjoyable. The extent of just how far they’ve taken everything, creating some truly hilariously bizarre periods of ‘what were they thinking?’ Too absurd to be considered predictable, where it falls flat it gets boring, but when it gets going it leave you with tears of laughter. If you’re a fan of toilet humour, hilariously bad plots and half naked Japanese school girls (which lets face it, what straight guy isn’t?) there are far worse ways to spend your time.

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