Action

Operation Pussycat movie review

Director: Ryuichi Honda
Starring: Kei Mizutani, Nao Iguchi
Genre: Indie, Bad Ass Chicks, Japan, Action

Let’s start with the positives first. I think, outside of experimental art and music DVDs, Operation Pussycat boasts THE best DVD cover art of the past few years. It’s simple, clean, instantly catches your eye… It just pops. Cult DVD distributors would do well to follow its example (here’s looking at you, Discotek Media). As for the film contained within this awesome cover….well, let’s just say, you would think a Russ Meyer homage starring Kei Mizutani would be something a little more fun…or if not fun, at least borderline crazy.

Surprisingly, Operation Pussycat is astoundingly blah, even in spite it’s funky funky music and busty cult star. The story focuses a group of bad-girls (lead by a baggy cat-suited Mizutani) who set out to rob a miserly old pervert — since the film’s only 45-minutes long, I’ll leave it at that. Let’s just say the story features a slave-girl, a mute man-giant, and more tepid chick-fights than you can count on a single finger…

Now, I like low budget cult fare. And, in fact, watching low budget cult fare tends to be, for me, more fun than sitting through oppressively elitist art-house entertainments. That said, the experience provided by Operation Pussycat is something akin to what a high school AV club could do with loaned equipment on a long weekend. It’s exceedingly good natured, if somewhat lacking in direction (both narrative and filmic), and there’s no doubt the people involved in the production had fun… But for those not involved there’s little found to warrant a recommendation. The picture is largely uninspired and cliched — even for a badass girls movie — with the usual gonzo-setups exchanged for tamer campfire-style skit-work. But, again, at least that poster is nice.

Being a Russ Meyer homage, a bit of a discussion on the Meyers’-style content is warranted. Straight off, fans of Meyer’s films will probably be disappointed by the lack of nudity in the picture. Mizutani’s fans will be left even more-so, as it appears years of hardcore smoking, drinking, and collagen lip-implants have worn on the poor Weather Woman. Her bad-girl crew doesn’t fare much better, the latter 2/3 being wasted on a Japanese Cheri Oteri, and a younger girl with an eye-shadow unibrow. But, at least the unibrow girl could wash off her strangeness….(Wow, that kinda sounds mean, doesn’t it?)

So, in closing, there’s really nothing at all to recommend about Operation Pussycat. Even at Rasputin’s $9.00 DVD price, this film is a little too expensive, a little too short, and a little too uninspired to warrant a purchase. Sad, cause I was thinking this would at least be better than Pervert.

About the Author

Chris Nelson has been a film fanatic since age six. A former film and English major, he is now a Software Engineer and contract Technical Writer living in the Silicon Valley.

Tags: Action, Comedy, idol, Kei Mizutani, Nao Iguchi, Ryuichi Honda