Yo Yo Girl Cop
Ages: Not rated

The movie by director Kenta Fukasaku takes its plot from Japan's popular 1980's TV series, Delinquent Girl Detective. Wasting no time, the movie starts with a young girl blowing herself up in a crowded airport. Switch to our heroine being deported back to Japan from the US, who is mysteriously snatched up by the police to be an undercover agent at the school attended by the suicide bomber. In a bargain, to have charges against her notorious mother dropped, she agrees to the assignment, is given a new name, Asamiya Saki, and is armed with a weapons grade yo-yo. There seems to be some significance to the name which completely eluded me.

The school is an unwholesome place – constant harassing, intimidation, and a web site called the Enola Gay that preaches the release and strength of suicide. From here it goes on to a charismatic leader in a long white coat, a questionable undercover agent, a countdown threat to destroy the school as a statement. – it gets pretty incoherent towards the end – so just watch the kung-fu fights.

Pop starlet Aya Matsuura plays Asamiya Saki and does an admirable job as a sullen teenager and it looks as though she does her own fighting. Riki Takeuichi plays Kira, the good cop with a hidden past, and even without any prior knowledge, I could tell he was an established movie presence.

This is not your usual American high school scene, not even in Oakland. The suicide focus is a bit heavy for alienated and susceptible teens. The movie/DVD carries no rating.

Reviewed by: Editor - 07/07