-1 1/2hr. Q=Master
MOVIES
All movies are in Japanese with no subtitles unless otherwise notedBeauty Pair battle Black Pair in a regular match, but since it's a movie they have to make it ridiculous with all the corny sound effects that sound like rejects from Kung Fu Theatre, dizzying handheld shots, freeze frames, and close-ups of little girls without front teeth screaming "Jackie! Jackie!" Black Pair are made to seem extra vicious, with Ikeshita's headbutts sounding like someone is slapping a bongo drum and slams sound like a cannon firing. Ikeshita repeatedly pummels Jackie's knee with a chair for the count out, breaking her leg and sending her to the hospital. Then they tell the story of the Beauty Pair with Sato being a basketball star who gets the idea to wrestle when an AJW wrestler saves her from a gang of goons. She has to run away to join the league because her mom doesn't approve. Sato is so powerful she accidentally kicks a whole through a wall during training. Meanwhile Ueda is a failed volleyball player who is weak, but Sato believes in her. She toughens her up and Ueda is loyal. Ueda fights singles while Sato does her rehab and Black Pair train in biting and eye gouging. All of this leads to the inevitable climactic big rematch. I thought Beauty Pair had more than one song, but instead it seems to be different sections or versions of the same thing littered throughout the film, a recipe that succeeds in topping Jesus Franco for groovy 70's cheesiness (but unfortunately doesn't come with Soledad Miranda). From 1977. In Japanese with no subtitles.
Onita's 1st movie from 1995.
Also appearing Akira Nogami, Satoshi Kojima, Shinjiro Otani, Tadao Yasuda & Yutaka Yoshie. From 1994.
This is one bizarre movie. There are really only two characters (there's a bunch of other wrestlers and some people walk by Sasuke, but no one else has a speaking role) yet the movie starts off with Sasuke shooting the other main star, PWC's Kenji Takano, at point blank range. We have no idea why Sasuke would do this, and from there it goes to wrestling footage of a Michinoku show where Takano wrestles under a hood as Great Zebra and saves Sasuke & Piloto Suicida from Super Delfin & Gran Naniwa's post match beating. From here it goes to a dream sequence, I guess, of Sasuke wearing only his mask but with his body painted white, pretending to be a sculpture as people walk by. There's some more in ring footage of Sasuke & Takano from actual Michinoku & PWC shows, and finally the tape ends with the revelation that Takano didn't really die after all, apparently because it's a movie so Sasuke & Tanako's guns were only loaded with blanks. Sasuke does some great moves in the ring, as always, but he's not exactly giving Kurosawa a run for his money.
Idol actress Yuma Nakamura is a motorcycle racer who defends her bike shop owning friends from punk biker chicks. She attends a JWP show with the girl from the bike shop, which features Mayumi Ozaki vs. Hikari Fukuoka. Refreshingly this is a whole match taken from a JWP release, they just show Nakamura in the crowd before and after to try to pass the illusion she was in the audience. Nakamura and the grotesque punks have words after the show, with Masatashi Yamamoto, Harley Saito, Utako Hozumi, Maki Kitamura, and Eagle Sawaii helping to prevent a fight then another argument breaking out involving Ozaki. The bikers kidnap the girl from the bike shop, so Nakamura has to go to their warehouse and drive around until the bikers all fall off their bikes or crash into something. It turns out Devil Masami is the leader of the bad gang. She bends a steel rod in half to intimidate Nakamura, but before she can take her apart Ozaki shows up to save the day. The climactic battle between Ozaki & Devil is basically a little match that includes Devil chokeslamming Ozaki into some boxes and Ozaki using the boxes in absence of a top rope. Making of footage follows. In Japanese with no subtitles. From 1991
1991 underground wrestling movie starring Megumi Kudo, directed by Takashi Miike, written by Ikki Kajiwara with English subtitles.
Liger is the dominant junior in New Japan here, but finally may have met his match as the evil gaijin Bounty Viper is brought in for a Super Triangle Match that also involves Liondo Wolf (Shinjiro Otani). Both Liger and Viper have special powers, but Viper abuses his. He faces Wolf in the first part of the Super Triangle, and mames him on purpose. This sets up Liger vs. Viper for the championship, but they wind up leaving the ring and fighting in some deserted street so they can transform into their monster selves without anyone seeing them. At this point it turns into a special effects movie with the two awesome looking monsters battling to the death. Yuji Nagata, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Satoshi Kojima, Manabu Nakanishi, and ring announcer Tanaka are the other New Japan employees that appear in the movie. Liger plays himself when he's in full costume (so he does all the wrestling and such), but to protect Keiichi Yamada's identity (and probably have a better dramatic movie) they have an actor play Liger when he's not wearing the mask. In Japanese with no subtitles.
Sci-fi special effects battle action short where Hikari Fukuoka is a bounty hunter who travels in her space ship to a remote island to exterminate some bizarre looking monsters. From 1995. Comes with other two Monster Commando's.
Sci-fi special effects battle action short where Mayumi Ozaki is a bounty hunter who travels in her space ship to a remote island to exterminate some bizarre looking monsters. From 1995. Comes with other two Monster Commando's.
Sci-fi special effects battle action short where Cuty Suzuki is a bounty hunter who travels in her space ship to a remote island to exterminate some bizarre looking monsters. From 1995. Comes with other two Monster Commando's.
1990 movie directed by Go Nagai with choice of English subtitles or dubbing
Satake movie from 1995. Also appearing KY Wakamatsu & Apollo Sugawara.
2004 movie featuring Shinya Hashimoto & Nicholas Pettas with Yoshiaki Fujiwara & April Hunter. Japanese with English subtitles.
Second installment of the arm wrestling drama starring Yuna Mizumori. Other wrestlers include Riho, Emi Sakura, Nanae Takahashi, Yoshiko, SAKI, Antonio Honda, Mitsuru Konno, Sayaka Obihiro, Mei Suruga, & Yoshiaki Fujiwara.
Movie about wrestlers who stick with their training despite the gym struggling financially. Also with Tsukasa Fujimoto.
Action movie staring Hiroshi Hase and Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Yuki Ishikawa co stars. This movie has a good deal of movie style wrestling matches in it, including Tadao Yasuda putting over Fujiwara, Hase vs. Ishikawa, and the big final match between Hase & Fujiwara. Fujiwara runs a gumi in this movie and Ishikawa is his top student. That must have been hard to think up. Yuji Shimada (PWFG ref), Shoichi Funaki, Minoru Tanaka, Katsumi Usuda, Daisuke Ikeda, Takeshi Ono, Satoshi Yoneyama, Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata, and Shinjiro Otani all supposedly make cameos. In between the wrestling, there's murders involving the Yakuza (actually, this even goes on in the stands during a match), rapes, and a bunch of guys attacking Hase everywhere he goes.