Oira Sukeban (2006, Japan)

A low budget sexy slasher film with not much of a plot. The subtitles translate the title as "I'm a barbaric female".

The film starts with our boy hero Sukeban (played by Asami, a female actor), appearing to be a Japanese schoolgirl. He is admiring his work after killing someone with knuckledusters.

When three thugs run up to avenge their friend, one of them says, "Not so fast ... you're not getting away, bitch ... hey you're just a girl ... how dare you act like a man?" But Sukeban tells them that he wears the sailor suit for a reason, and in fact he is a man, lifting his skirt to show y-fronts. In case they still don't believe him, he drops the underwear and lifts the skirt again (although we only see this from behind).

Sukeban makes short work of beating the thugs, and walks away satisfied with his work. But we see from behind that another sailor-suited girl has observed the scene.

Sukeban explains in voice-over that, ever since birth he has had a voice and face like a female. Due to bullying he tried to make himself look more masculine. But without much result, apparently, as a homeless man with an eye for detail shouts to him as he passes, that his eyebrows look so cute.

Sukeban lives with his ex-motorcycle-gang freak father, Bankaku; that evening Dad gets (fully clothed) into the bath with his son to ask him what he is going to do about his bad school reports, due to the bullying. "The only thing that'll help ya at this point is to just pretend to be a girl," says Dad.

So the next day Sukeban turns up at the girls' school wearing baggy trousers and a long coat; he is obviously not keen to go through with this.

But Dad is on hand to force him to transform, and he provides a girly wig too. That's what dads are for. Once again the mysterious girl is seen overlooking this transformation.

In class, Sukeban has to introduce himself, and he does so with some excessively girly body language, and the script is way over the top.

However there is almost immediately a knife-throwing incident, and Sukeban lapses into his barbaric mode and fights. But he gets the wrong girl -- it seems there is a gang leader in the class, and she means business.

However Sukeban fights his way out of trouble, and outside a girl, Mochiko Ishii, (Emiru Momose) introduces herself. She evidently fancies Sukeban, and we guess that it was her overlooking the other scenes, so that she knows Sukeban is really a boy.

She shows Sukeban another part of the school, where the lesson is humility. This seems to mean putting yourself in embarrassing situations, and in the class two girls have taken off their tops and are lifting their bras, saying how humiliating it is.

Now another gang burst on the scene, the Half-Naked Women, and more martial arts follow, with Sukeban having to defend Mochiko's modesty. And we are still only 17 minutes into the film.

Later the Naked Witch gets involved, with more fighting. And much later, Sukeban is in the school corridor, when the three thugs from the beginning of the film appear, menacingly, except for the fact that they are wearing schoolgirl uniforms too. "Why are you wearing sailor uniforms?" asks Sukeban. (I was wondering that myself). "We thought it necessary to follow you and see what you are up to," answers the leader. But Sukeban's Dad appears among the gang. "Haven't you heard?" he asks .... "The Naked Witch Full Frontal Woman is on the move."

However just as the men are saying, "Don't worry, we'll protect you," one of them gets his fingers blown off by a bullet. Who can have done it? Why, the Braless Women of course.

After this the plot just starts to get silly and complicated; but stick with the film if you're watching it for the blow that saves Sukeban from being overcome by his opponent. And there are some gender changes to come too, towards the end of the film.

The English title is Sukeban Boy, and also Delinquent in Drag.

Don't confuse this film with the 1996 animation Oira Sukeban, which follows a similar theme.

HF July 2010

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