Bloody Mallory (2002) Movie Review

Bloody Mallory is a 2002 action horror film, a Franco-Spanish co-production directed by Julien Magnat, written by Magnat and Stéphane Kazandjian. It stars Olivia Bonamy, Adrià Collado, Jeffrey Ribier, Laurent Spielvogel, Valentina Vargas, Julien Boisselier, and Thylda Barès. The film is also scored by prolific Japanese movie and anime music composer Kenji Kawai. Inspired by the likes of Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, Xena: Warrior Princess and the entire underground geek fandom of the late nineties and early two thousands.

Mallory is the leader of an anti-paranormal commando group that consists of a child with telepathic powers, a drag queen explosives expert named Vena Cava and a government agent named Durand. When a group of mysterious vampires kidnap the pope, Mallory is tasked to rescue him in order to save mankind.

A highly kinetic filmic experience and with a very playful and juvenile energy that never becomes tiresome. Bloody Mallory is a fun romp from start to finish. A film that has one foot on the anime/manga storytelling and stylistic flourishes and another one in the unleashed music video editing and montage. However, none of this means that the film is empty nor that it has zero substance as the characters are all original and fresh, they have very well defined personalities and roles, and they also have some engaging conflicts as the script takes some very sharp turns that go to some very distinctive places. Aside from the frenetic action, there are a lot of poignant moments that open and close the film to give it more tonalities. This insane storyline actually grabs you and takes itself with enough seriousness to never treat it as disposable nonsense, it's more than a one joke sketch.

I will say they also have some great production values for its low budget. The action itself is very lively and well constructed, it takes more than one trick from both Hong Kong and Japanese action cinema, which helps to make things more dynamic. You end up liking the world they constructed because it's so lighthearted and creative. Its aesthetic incorporates very striking anime-like stylizations and energetic fight choreographies as mentioned before, but some other scenes have that European flavor that achieve a lyrical feeling and look.

Highly recommended for people looking for a delightful horror flick with a female action protagonist. There aren't many of those and this one is a pleasure.

Dirty Pair: The OVA Series (1987-1988) Episode 1: Prison Uprising. We Hate People With Grudges!

The success of the original Dirty Pair series based on the light novels by Haruka Takachiho, the OVA movies and the theatrical feature film prompted a sequel show for the home video market in the form of a 10-episode OVA series by Sunrise. The series was mostly handled by director Katsuyoshi Yatabe, but other directors included Masayoshi Tanidabe, Shinji Takamatsu, Shin'ichirō Watanabe, Mihiro Yamaguchim and Osamu Sekita. The writers included Koichi Kasamoto, Hiroyuki Hoshiyama, Yuichi Sasamoto, Hiroshi Ônogi, Hideki Sonoda and Yasushi Hirano.

This first episode has the angels going into a space prison named Karuso after a riot broke out and prisoners took control of the facilities. They are looking to rescue a warden that's being held in the place by the inmates. They meet with some marines as they enter the prison in waves and wearing mechanical suits for protection. The girls enter the prison and beat the crap out of the rogue convicts, finding their target in the process but he makes the mission troublesome.

It's quite fun to see more of the angels working on a case doing paperwork and research at the beginning, something that we didn't get to see a whole lot of before, we even start out turning the tables a little bit with Yuri on her own flirting as Kei works in the office. Some other new characters are introduced but they won't really become all that relevant later on anyway. The function of these new characters is basically to set up some plot devices that will come in handy during the episode. 

The writers and board artists bring a lot of the charm and fun back with sequences like the space surfing one or the dynamic and flashy action sequences and shootouts that abound here. The comedy never fails as the Lovely Angels are as endearing and charismatic as ever, solidifying this new introduction as a pretty nice return to form.

Sukeban Deka (1991) Anime OVA Review

Sukeban Deka is a 1991 action crime anime written and directed by Takeshi Hirota based on a manga by Shinji Wada. The manga series was highly successful in Japan, which gave way for a full live-action TV series and 3 films inspired by the same story. This particular OVA starred Kazue Ikura, Akio Ōtsuka, Akira Kamiya, Hiroshi Takemura, Kenji Utsumi, Masako Katsuki, Naomi Uchiyama and Saeko Shimazu. Juvenile delinquents were a pretty big issue in Japanese society at the time and media related to it gave way for a fiction subgenre that focused on the female variety and it's subculture, Sukeban Deka (Delinquent Girl Detective) being one of the prime examples.

Saki Asamiya is a young delinquent who gets taken out of her cell by the police in order to go undercover into the social structure of a dangerous school ruled by the wealthy Mizuchi sisters, girls who belong to a crime family and fight for control and to be head of the organization. Saki does this in order to get her mother out of death row and to gain her freedom.

Such a premise gives us an action-filled vehicle that goes at 200 miles per hour and has very little time to breathe or rest, establishing relationships, settings and ideas in little time but with a lot of dynamism and a playful nature. It's stylish and lyrical, highly poetic and potently dramatic. It's an excellent piece of the genre that takes advantage of its medium. Everything is executed with precise skill by the animators and the crew.

This is probably the best example of an OVA series that, while surprisingly short, is able to construct a proper dramatic structure that has the same effect in getting you attached to its characters, both main and secondary, in such a small time frame. One example is the girl that the protagonist meets and is then attacked at the end of the first episode. The series doesn't waste time and introduces her right away. Her dialogue is succinct and to the point but the VA's give the lines some personality and emotion. We have some brief scenes of her that are well juggled between other plotlines but also presents us her intimacy (her home, her hobbies, her aspirations, what she sees in life) that gets us closer to her in a single brief but effective scene (through the main character's point of view as well). Because of this, when the tragic event happens we are more invested in her as a person, the stakes moving higher and higher with every event and we understand why the protagonist cares at the same time.

I really love how overdramatic and heightened character's reactions are. The VA's really give it their all and embody their characters with perfection. They yell and grunt and shriek in the right tone and register to make everything more expressive and understandable. This doesn't stop at the voice actors' performances, the direction also emphasizes these intense emotions via angles and visual techniques in order to solidify and express a needed emotion.

The constant array of action and events might have gotten tiresome it wasn't for the tricks they pull and the clever ways they are able to disguise the corners they cut, either by cutting away from the most laborious fight sequences with many characters by focusing on another character while we assume a battle takes place or by using eye-popping visuals to summarize events. You can tell, because of the fast pace, that this was a TV series or a long manga that had time for everything to take place before it became a 40 minute two-part OVA (80 minutes at most) but it all helps to give it some energy and make it consistently entertaining without losing the meat of the story.

A totally recommended OVA in every sense. It's quick and strong. Obligatory for all anime fans.