martin

Mayhem Girls

In many ways, Mayhem Girls continues the trajectory set by Fujita's two previous films, we have the borrowing from other genres, popular works, and tropes. For example, like Minna! ESPer Dayo!, the heroines of this movie get their superpowers (telekinesis, telepathy, teleportation, and travel through Internet). Here, it is the COVID-19 pandemic that gives them the power, not their sexual purity, as is in Sono's series. But the pandemic only lingers in the background - a few masks, less crowded streets - not an intense definer of the characters' identities, as is sexuality in Minna! ESPer Dayo!. There are also the now typical for Fujita's work nihilism and abuse tropes, the man who forces his girlfriend to do illegal things to give him money, but are toned down a lot. This results in a more enjoyable, sweeter movie whose focus is on the friendship between the four supergirls, not on the evils of society or depravity of individuals, as his two previous movies. It's also less shallowly edgy. It's more inspired from tokusatsu and maybe the works of Minoru Kawasaki, it's just more digital. The effects are shoddy, there is almost no compositing, the scaling of people to buildings is all over the place, but that's part of its DIY-like charm. (Though it isn't a DIY affair.) It even ends with a semi-epic fight with almost Lawnmower Man kind of effects. What is missing, though, is the exploitative element that made "W" and "Yamikin Queen" uncomfortable watches. It's still shot from a visibly male perspective (after all, the high school uniforms are among the most fetishized things out there), but it never feels gratuitous, even when the shots are constructed in a way to have it. When characters float above the camera, for example. This is a level of restraint I didn't know Fujita is capable of. After all this is a director whose previous two movies included unnecessary sex scenes and bikini fights. Moreover, there is no sexualization or fetishization of the actresses, even though Fujita continues to work with famous gravure idols. It's as if he almost tried to do something else - a coming of age tokusatsu about the ephemerality of power and the permanency of friendship. He almost succeeded.

Lola

Mayhem Girls

i wouldve done worse things