Gall Force: Earth Chapter (1989-1990) Anime OVA Series Review

Gall Force: Earth Chapter was an action sci-fi war anime OVA series that was released from 1989 to 1990 and functions as a continuation to Rhea Gall Force (1989) and it's the fifth installment in the Gall Force franchise. The same creative team with Katsuhito Akiyama and Hideki Kakinuma was incharge of it, with the voices of Naoko Watanabe, Michie Tomizawa, Eriko Hara, Yuko Mizutani, Maria Kawamura, Hiromi Tsuru, Chieko Honda and Naoko Matsui.

We follow the same human resistance against Paranoid machines. Sandy leads her group of guerrilla fighters to face off against their non-human foes traveling across Earth and uniting the entire race against the menace, awaiting Martian reinforcements and meeting a group of ecological christians, the Geo Chris, as the MME menace approaches.

I do think that the post-apocalyptic setting was a nice modification to the Gall Force formula, it was a fun way to show a needed counterpart to the space setting of the first trilogy, but while Rhea benefited from a short runtime and wonderful action this sequel OVA three-parter isn't as fortunate, even with its merits. The drama is pretty weightless and most of the plot points don't really have much staying power with you, the personality of the characters has also been put on a secondary plane, with the exposition-heavy talks taking the majority of the screentime.

It's a shame that they didn't explore more of the characters considering that this time we follow the exact same ones for an increased amount of time, would have been neat to see more of Score and Sandy developing as friends, or maybe the vagrant Mitty could have been fleshed out or could have been given a bigger role in the narrative but not much is done with them. Score never really does anything else besides being a badass chick with weapons who says one liners and mocks others, but she is very good in that role so I cant really complain about that. At certain moments they make her more sensible and she begins to worry a lot about her companions, giving her a bit of character, stopping her from becoming some sort of walking cliche for some brief scenes. Sandy is the same optimist and the intimate relationship she feels, the responsibility, is very palpable and allows her to reflect on the relationship between her enemies and herself as well as her kind. This pays off to some degree in the climax of the series.

We have some pretty awesome action but the overall animation kind of varies in quality throughout the three episodes, it never reaches the level of incompetent but you can tell there were some shots and scenes that feature some stilted or downgraded animation. Nothing awful but it's a bit distracting. The rest of the OVA series has some delightful sci-fi action that keep you entertained, but they aren't the most impressive or fantastic out of the franchise and might not be enough if you want to binge the series.

It's nothing stellar but it gets the job done as a light action anime. It's a bit convoluted at times, which hurts the engagement and the pacing, but in general I believe that even non-fans of the franchise can jump on either Rhea or Earth Chapter and get something out of it, considering that most of the essential elements were removed or altered.

I mostly recommend the show to those who are already into Gall Force and are completists, stick with it until the final OVA to see how the conflict from the previous chapters gets resolved but don't expect a breathtaking script or outstanding animation.

The Inspector Wears Skirts (1988) Movie Review

Today we take a look at the peculiar mix between Police Academy and a Hong Kong Policewomen movie. The Inspector Wears Skirts, produced by Jackie Chan and directed by Wellson Chin Sing-Wai (Prince of the Sun, Super Lady Cop, Inspector Wears Skirts sequels), the film starred Sibelle Hu (Dreaming the Reality, Lethal Panther, China Heat, Fatal Mission), Kara Ying Hung Wai (My Young Auntie, Clan of Amazons), Regina Kent (Club Girls), Ellen Chan (Naked Soldier), Ann Bridgewater (Thunder Cops II) and Sandra Kwan Yue Ng (She Shoots Straight, Peking Opera Blues).

Cynthia Rothrock is also in this film, but she only has a brief appearance at the beginning of the movie and before the third act (even though she gets top billing), but she is such a highlight you honestly don't mind she is absent for a big chunk of the film.

As it's the case with most other Hong Kong exploitation films, the film has a few alternate titles like Top Squad and Lady Enforcers. 

Madam Wu is in charge of creating a new squad team completely made of women, previously unseen because of discrimination but now needed to aid in special missions. The girls recruited will have to prove themselves and face the harassment of the local Tiger Squad as well as Officer Wu's tough training in order to become the best commando around.

As thrilling and silly as any other Hong Kong martial arts action flick but not as solid as the best. The difference being that it lacks the interesting narrative with more noteworthy subjects and themes movies like Yes, Madam! (1985) have, it's also not as deliriously joyful as a Godfrey Ho film like Angel Enforcers (1989), which actually had a better story and more dazzling fights. Most of its plot is very generic and routine, a typical plotline about a first all female commando, troop or army in the modern world. The comedy isn't a strong point (a lot of repetitive and overdone gags) and the logic is sometimes not very believable. 

Certain elements are also somewhat dated, sometimes delivering some rather misogynistic, homophobic and sexist moments, not to mention the stereotypes and badly written girl talk, while other times it goes fairly deep into the feminist aspects. It may come off as very obsolete and probably naive nowadays because of its less progressive aspects. Although, to be fair, the sexist ideas aren't portrayed to be correct, quite the contrary, and there´s nothing truly hurtful or awful about it´s representation in a general sense but details on top of details ruin it.

Bottom line, you can tell a man wrote it, but it's not a horrible entry in the microgenre of action movies consisting only of a women's commando, even if it's flawed and very confused. Weirdly enough, in this regard I think the Americans had the upper hand with some surprisingly more feminist films like The Doll Squad (1973) and Corman's women in prison movies. I still think Yes Madam! is the champion in this field and the best movie we have reviewed here coming from Hong Kong (aside from Come Drink With Me maybe).

The action sequences are as good as ever, but they are not a complete focus this time around. The training sequences make up for it by being just as gripping with all the clever tests and activities the girls do. There´s some very competent and diligent direction work here. 

The romance subplots, the musical numbers, the dumb jokes and the lack of action really bring down the movie a few pegs. Some might argue that the bad parts are entertainingly bad, but I still say they are unnecessary and too long to be funny. It sometimes comes close to delivering an interesting and poignant thought that could make it great satire (the karate encounters, the nightclub scenes, the goofy and horny military men), but it's so clumsy at the execution that the idea gets lost in the silliness.

It's no secret that the script is probably one of the weakest parts of the film, with the dialogue and the plot being faulty at times, but it's not surprising considering the lack of credits in screenwriter Kam Fu Cheng's career, so it's sort of good he didn't write the following sequels.

While it doesn't work well for some of the runtime and while one could say it wastes the potential hidden in this good concept, it's entertaining enough and delivers the pieces of action you wanna see if you like this type of flick. So ultimately I gotta say that it's not one that would completely disappoint fans of the genre. So it is mildly recommended if you can look past its defects.

The film was a hit in Hong Kong and worldwide because of it's premise, it spawned three more sequels and kickstarted some careers as well.