Review of Yo-Yo Girl Cop (2006) by Jason F — 12 Sep 2008

One thing that I hate about Japanese movies being available in the U.S. is the silly way titles are localized. Yo Yo Girl Cop is a stupid title for a long running Japanese TV series called Sukeban Deka. The distributors should have left the title alone and just called it Sukeban Deka.

I first saw Sukeban Deka when I met a lonely male college student back in Osaka. He wanted to practice English with me, so we went to his student apartment that had a filmsy door that looked no thicker than cardboard. Anyway, he wanted to show me a Japanese TV show from the 80's called Sukeban Deka. When I first saw the show it reminded me of the A-Team meets 21 Jumpstreet. I say the A-Team because hundreds of bullets are fired at the school girl cops without any injuries and 21 Jumpstreet because of the undercover cop angle. There is really no Western comparsion and that's what I like about it.

After watching the show, I found two movies that were made back in the 80's. I even went to a bookstore called Bookoff that sells used manga and got the whole series.

So when I saw the title Yo Yo Girl Cop, I knew what it really was.

The new movie is good in that it modernizes the series for a whole new generation that is growing up with cell phones and the internet. One of the differences between this new movie and the old one is that the old show focused on more than one girl. The old movies spent a lot of time telling the story of how the girls would bond together and form a group. There was more emphasis on teamwork and everyone had a vital part to play in the mission's success. Unlike the A-Team, Sukeban Deka members in the movies did die. In this new version, the bonding developed only between two characters, Matsuura Aya playing Saki Asamiya and Yui Okada playing the bullied Tae Konno.

The whole film is about bullying and how someone uses the internet for the wrong purposes which recall the Iwai Shunji's All About Lily Chou-chou. Both films show the damaging results of ijime (bullying) and what happens when society turns away and pretends nothing is going on.

Anyone who travels to Japan to teach at the middle and high school level has probably seen bullying going on.

Anyway, the story is a little weak because the original movies were a lot more fun and filled with more humor, as well as exciting action scenes. They way the girls would work together is sadly missing from this new edition.

The best part of the new film is the ending. The fight is almost as good as anything from the old movies with a new twist added. In the old movies, there was always a big martial arts fight that would involve everyone brawling. This version tones down the big fight but it does add modern filmmaking techinques that make it look just as good as the old movies.

If you want to see some great martial arts sequences by a strong female fighter then take a chance and watch Yo Yo Girl Cop.