I’ve been on a live-action Japanese TV kick lately. I watched eleven episodes of “Sukeban Deka III” (1986), three episodes of “Shadow Warriors” (Kage no Gundan, 1980), and two episodes of “Space Sheriff Gavan” (1982). All great stuff. I’m really impressed with the movie-quality production values on all of these, in terms of cinematography, sets, location work, effects, etc. In fact I’ve seen Japanese movies from this period that don’t look anywhere near as good, e.g. the second SUKEBAN DEKA movie, which has the same cast as the TV episodes I watched, but is a completely different entity.

In chronological order:
“Shadow Warriors” – each 45-minute episode is like a mini-samurai movie, and as well-written as the average Japanese costume picture. Sonny Chiba gives an extremely effective understated performance as Hattori Hanzo, head of the Iga Ninja Clan, who operates undercover as the owner of a bathhouse, but is busy trying to keep his fellow ninjas undercover amidst growing political turmoil. One of the best things I've seen Chiba do.

“Space Sheriff Gavan” – I had expected to see Kenji Ohba in “Shadow Warriors,” but he’s not in the first season, so I looked up his credits and was eager to see this one, which I’d heard raves about somewhere. I found a set in Chinatown of the first 22 eps. or so, and it’s an amazing series: very fast-paced, with beautiful surreal effects depicting battles in space as Gavan, a mixed-race hero (half-alien, half-Japanese) in his full-metal battlesuit, takes on the monster of the week, first on earth and then in some kind of black hole limbo, with the wildest painted backgrounds I’ve ever seen. Plus, charismatic action star Ohba, who plays Gavan, gets to fight a lot out of costume and do his own stunts as aliens try to take over the earth. The miniature effects are as good as anything I’ve seen in most kaiju movies, including a great bit where the aliens fly an oil-filled pirate ship(!) set to explode in the sky over Tokyo and Gavan calls on his dragon shaped fighter craft to fly down from his mother ship to grab the pirate ship in its claws and fly it into space to explode it out of harm’s way.

“Sukeban Deka III” – this one has three high school heroines—the Kazama sisters—each given a different weapon; Yui wields the yo-yo, Yuma has long needles and strong thread, and Yuka has razor-sharp metal origami cranes that she throws. They fight nonstop waves of ninjas, who seem to have entered modern Tokyo through a time warp from “Shadow Warriors.” There are fight scenes in every episode; some take place in city sites (parks, school grounds, a hillside cemetery, industrial sites, the waterfront) and some in scenic locations (traditional temples, waterfalls, mountain lakes, looming forests). Beautiful deep-focus photography for the artfully composed shots and great closeups of the girls, who are beautiful in a natural, down-to-earth way, not in the "kawaii" idol fashion of late. These VHS pre-records had no subtitles, but I was riveted by all eleven episodes. And the transfer quality and image quality of the tapes are at the very least equal to that of the “Shadow Warriors” DVDs.

I know some of you are more familiar with 1980s Japanese TV than I am. Any further recommendations along these lines?

Hello Brian (and everyone else),

Are you familiar with the work of Yamaguchi Momoe? There's a whole tribute section to her in Tsui Hark's "A Chinese Feast" and she was perhaps the first trans-national idol from the the seventies, adored across all Asia. Here is a brief essay by Mark Schilling of the _Japan Times_:

http://www.chachacharming.com/article.php?id=4

Her TV work was legendary and still may be perhaps the gold standard of Japanese golden time melodrama. To be a fan of Japanese TV and not to be familiar with her work is like claiming to be a fan of modern Japanese fiction and not having read a single novel by Natsume Soseki. Mind you, she's probably more drama-focused than action-oriented but quality stuff nonetheless.

Was she ever a Pink Ranger? Did she audition for Morning Musume? Never heard of her. :P

Seriously, though, judging from the pix, she would have made a great Sukeban Deka. Interesting article. She co-stars with a guy in her first film when she's 15 and then co-stars with him about a dozen more times in the next six years. And then she marries him and retires! What a way to go. Brigitte Lin almost did something like that. But then we never would have gotten PEKING OPERA BLUES, DRAGON INN, SWORDSMAN II, and THE EAST IS RED!

Anyway, the article says that her co-star/future husband, Tomokazu Miura, was 22 when they first acted together, but then the IMDB says he was born in 1958, only a year before her, which would have made him 16, not 22 when they first met. (Wikipedia says he was born in 1952. Two such unimpeachable sources at odds? How can that be?:o)

Here's an IMDB one-line description of one of their films: "A pimp has an adulterous affair with a Japanese girl who studies flamenco dancing." At least she was 20 when she made that one.

I'm curious about their first film, THE IZU DANCER (1974), which is based on a famous story. I've only seen an animated adaptation of that.

It is a very good story too. It must be hard to film though.

Hello,

It's really neat that the both of you picked up on the reference to "The Izu Dancer" from "A Chinese Feast." Are you sure you two haven't seen the Yamaguchi Momoe version on late night TV or something? Anyway, you can find the short story and DVD here:

Kawabata Yusunari's "The Izu Dancer"
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-d...=283155&s=books

Momoe's "Izu Dancer"
http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E4%BC%8A%E8%B1%86...7906032-3265023

Or with *ENGLISH* subs:
http://global.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/...pid-1002908750/

(To Brian): You might find this of interest:
http://global.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/...pid-1000000815/

Track #3 is Momoe's themesong for the movie.

Alas, the first adaptation of "Dancing Girl of Izu" -- pre-TV -- starring a young (but no longer teen-aged) Kinuyo Tanaka -- and directed by Heinosuke Gosho -- is still not available on DVD (even unsubbed).

There's a Japanese store near me that might have some of these items. I'm gonna check it out. Sounds like another Momoe Yamaguchi fan in the making here.

Well, I found one of her CDs, "Momoe Yamaguchi Best," a 2-disc set, and listened to most of it. A time capsule of 1970s Japanese theme song styles, with the earliest sounding like they could have come from anime series of the era, what with the heavy brass backgrounds. What's remarkable is how mature her voice sounds in the later songs, kind of like Meiko Kaji, yet all were recorded before she was 20. The first song on Disc 2 sounds very familiar--I'm sure I've heard it somewhere--but I can't find a track list in English anywhere.

Hello Brian (and everyone else),

Is this the song you speak of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTFAZDO7ir8

If so, then see:

http://www.cdjapan.jp/detailview.html?KEY=SRCL-4117

Knowing your proclivities, you probably are familiar with the standard through Ms Goto:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Te6kRZznUY

I contend, however, the stars of today are but a pale imitation of the stars of yesteryear. And Momoe was certainly the most luminous star of her generation.

Hello,

This too seems a more likely candidate:

http://www.vidilife.com/video_play_1042166...umosu_1977_.htm

From:

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=MHCL-109

It is possibly one of the greatest Jpop songs ever written. And subsequently gets covered quite a bit. I personally like the following acoustic cover:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hslKwT7yzIo

Anyway, the point is Momoe-chan is fantastic.

This second one, "Kosumosu," sounds more like it. I'll have to check when I get home. Although I still don't know where I first heard it.

But thanks for those clips of Momoe. Wow. Idols sure were different back then. They probably didn't even call them "idols." I think they called them by their rightful name--Stars.

Brian - actually not too far back Lai Ying was carrying a few of Momoe's films in their Japanese section on the label Golden Culture which is Chinese but they have both English and Chinese subs. I picked up two out of curiosity - Flag in the Mist and Love in the Mud - both co-starring Miura - but haven't checked out either one yet. Not sure if they still have them but I am sure they could order them for you.

Okay, I found it. It's not "Kosumosu." It's "Ii Hi Tabidachi," a hit single for Momoe back in 1978. I know it from Hello! Project's "Folk Songs 5," a CD album from 2004 in which Maki Goto sings it (quite beautifully, I must add). From Momoe to Maki. I love it.

That first song you linked to, a fast-paced number, is "Playback, Part 2" and it's on the Momoe CD I have. I never heard Maki's recent rendition of it, though, until you linked to it. I hope it's on her next album.

A discussion on another board yielded another key J-pop star/actress I'd never heard of, Seiko Matsuda, Momoe's clear successor on the singles charts. Seiko started performing around 1980, the year Momoe retired, and had 25 consecutive #1 singles, a feat bested only by Ayumi Hamasaki (whom I only just started listening to this past week), the reigning J-pop diva of the last eight or so years.

Seiko's still around and kicking. Here's her official website:

http://www.seikomatsuda.jp/e/index.html


And here's a medley of hers found on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dmnVpdk4oY...related&search=

In the older clips, she reminds me of some of the pop star-actresses I knew as a kid, Sandra Dee, Connie Francis, Annette Funicello, etc. Kind of a squeaky-clean image. For some reason, I'm not seeing her in "Sukeban Deka" mode (or Pink Ranger, for that matter).

And the discussion on the other board yielded yet another '80s J-pop queen, Akina Nakamori. But I haven't had time to research her. Or track down anything by Seiko beyond the links above. Nor am I rushing out to do so. I think I may have overdosed on historic J-pop stars by this point. (Ya think? :blink:)