Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (1981) User Reviews (14)

A high school girl finds out that she's the leader of a Yakuza clan

[ebiros2 · 6/10 · 1 May 2011]

Based on a novel by Jiro Akagawa that was published by Kadokawa publishing company, "Sera fuku to kikanjyu" (sailor uniform and machine gun) was also Kadokawa's (and then president Haruki Kadokawa's) first attempt at movie targeted for teens and young adults featuring also a teenager in the starring role.

Izumi Hoshi (Hiroko Yakushimaru) is a normal high school student, until one day a horde of yazuka shows up at the gate of her school. Unbeknownst to her, her father was the head of a "Medaka Gumi" yakuza clan. His passing away prompted the soldiers to fetch her to become the next "kumicho" or the head of the clan. Pror to passing away, her father smuggled a heroin, and that becomes the focus of rivaling yakuza clans to take possession. When one of her soldiers gets killed, Izumi reluctantly takes charge and starts to lead her troops to face the opposing yakuza clan - the only problem is Madaka Gumi only has four yakuza soldiers where the other clans have many more.

Hiroko Yakushimaru shows her brilliant intelligence to lead the group of adults much older than her. The story seem to lack focus as different characters comes and goes, but the real focus is where's the heroin, and who hid it ? Everyone is running after the heroin and much killing goes on to find it. This all sound's serious, but it's all done in light hearted fashion (how a killing can be light, you have to see this film) to appeal to the target audiences. Towards the end, Izumi while wearing her sailor suit school uniform takes a machine gun and goes into Futoccho's (Rentaro Mikuni) office to settle the score and fires the machine gun in his office, exclaiming "Kaikan" (Feel's good) which was one of the defining moments in Japanese cinema at the time.

Hiroko Yakushimaru goes on to becoming a successful movie and TV actor and is still active today.

A fun movie

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 6 November 2021]

Shinji Somai (Typhoon Club, Wait and See, Moving) is an influential filmmaker whose work has rarely been seen in the U. S. That's changing with the Arrow release of one of his best-known movies, Sailor Suit and Machine Gun.

A combination of Japan's unique idol and yakuza films with the traditional coming of age story, this film is centered on Hoshi Izumi, an innocent young girl who suddenly finds herself the leader of her great-uncle's organized crime clan.

Hiroko Yakushimaru, who plays Hoshi Izumi, achieved icon status thanks to this movie and its theme song "Sailor Fuku to Kikanju." The song stayed at number one in the charts for five straight weeks and was the second highest ranked song of 1982.

In truth, Hoshi's father should have led the group, but he died in an accident before they could find him. Beyond inheriting the title of oyabun, she also is given her father's secret lover Mayumi Sandaiji.

The kobun, or followers, refuse to take the young girl seriously and also seem to think that their attack against their rivals has to be successful. Faced with leading a gang who doesn't want her and who will also enact a suicide pact if forced to disband, Hoshi must give up on her childhood and take the titular gun in hand if she wants to make her new life a success.

Despite its origins as a teen novel and the fact that its idol actress had such a major song out of the film, this is more arthouse than you'd expect. While its influence may be small in the U. S., the other films - and media - it inspired all flow from this original river.

Starts like a comedy and ends in a tragedy

[zomberi · 6/10 · 2 October 2023]

Several yakuzas stand in attention at the gate of a school. They wait for a student to emerge and they bundle her into a car and leave. Later, one of the yakuzas says there is only four members in their gang and the rest of them were hired to make a show. The little girl is asked to take over the gang after the death of a father. She reluctantly agrees. There was an expensive shipment of heroin that the girl's father had hidden and this causes them to be attacked. The girl and what remains of the gang go on offensive with a machine gun in a final fight. All gang members except the girl are dead and she goes back to school. If this was how the book was written then the movie is an accurate adaptation. If not, it was an unfortunate comedy that turned into a tragedy. There were no fight sequences for most of the film. In the end, most of the deaths are caused by hand guns rather than a machine gun as the titled seemed to imply. It was disappointing. However, the movie seems to focused on what seems plausible with a teenager. This is no Hong Kong Chinese action movie. For someone in Japan in the 80s when the movie was released, this movie may have been okay. For others, it may not be so.

An unusual yakuza movie

[Jeremy_Urquhart · 7/10 · 7 April 2023]

A great title and a great poster, and a movie that's overall pretty good. Sailor Suit and Machine Gun is definitely a strange and flawed film, but there's a lot to like, and watching the 132-minute cut, I feel like there were only a small number of places where it dragged a little.

This movie's about a teenage girl who gets made the head of a yakuza gang. Tonally, it's a little quirky in parts, but I don't knowing I could call it a comedy (you'd expect a movie with this premise to be one), and there are certainly some disturbing sequences in here, too, which make things feel very serious at times.

The abundance of long takes is also interesting. One near the end breaks the reality/logic of the film in a way that confused me, but most of them work well and are overall impressive to see play out.

A Dramedy With A Good Concept

[crossbow0106 · 8/10 · 1 February 2009]

This was probably the young Hiroko Yakushimaru's most successful role in what was then the beginning of her career. She plays Koizumi, a high school student (hence the sailor suit part of the title) whose father passes away and by virtue of bloodline becomes the leader of a small Yakuza gang. The movie has some comic moments just from the concept, that a girl could run this somewhat motley group of guys. However, it is Miss Yakushimaru's performance that really makes this film. One moment sh'e weak, the next strong, one minute playful, the next serious, one minute a girl, next on the cusp of womanhood. One of the things I like about this film was they didn't complicate it by giving her a love interest. She gets to make mistakes, be tough and be a female in a male dominated world without there being too much reference to her attractiveness. Miss Yakushimaru has since gone on to make other films, including playing the wife in the two excellent Always Sunset On Third Street films, but this is her more or less at the beginning. I think you'll like it.

Disappointing misuse of great ideas

[I_Ailurophile · 4/10 · 14 November 2021]

The concept has plenty of cheeky promise. From the moment I first came across 'Sailor suit and machine gun' I was excited to watch it and see just what sort of ridiculousness the movie might represent. Unfortunately, I only find myself disappointed: there are a lot of things this picture wants to be and do, but the writing and direction simply isn't strong enough to meaningfully accomplish any of it.

Hiroko Yakushimaru puts in a strong lead performance as juvenile crime boss Izumi Hoshi, portraying with admirable range and poise the schoolgirl who is in way over her head. Some scenes are done especially well, and there is some fine camerawork in some instances - framed shots, tracking shots, and so on. There's some definite cleverness scattered throughout the screenplay, and the narrative as presented to us is complete and cohesive. Yet too much of the runtime passes by with too little noteworthy character moments or plot to truly be worth two hours of our time.

At varying points 'Sailor suit and machine gun' wants to satirize yakuza flicks, or instead be an earnest crime thriller. It tries to embrace the coming of age story, and the bloody vengeance tale, while also striking poignant emotional beats. But at no time is it funny, or thrilling, or impactful. At no time is it satisfying, fulfilling, or rewarding. For all the story ideas that the feature folds in, none of them are realized organically, or convincingly; none seem to have been given the full energy and consideration they deserved. Even the scene suggested by the title - what should by all means be a defining moment for Izumi in the story - is executed halfheartedly: bereft of real vigor, showing restraint that's honestly unwelcome. This could have been a genuinely great, outstanding movie, an exploration of the journey of an innocent introduced to power in the criminal underworld. What it was, instead, is mostly just tedious, middling, uninteresting light and sound.

I'm very disappointed, and a little frustrated. I can't say I'm familiar with the novel this is based on, but I can recognize some strong ideas in the screenplay. There are some elements here that I can appreciate. I would appreciate them a lot more if they were put to good use in a movie that was written and directed with far greater attentive care. Even as it maintains a coherent plot, the film we get is much too tepid and listless to be engaging, and those aspects that are done well can't save it. I entered with moderately high expectations, perhaps, but I kept waiting for an epiphany, and it never came - and given the story this feature wants to tell, that should definitely not be the case. Clearly there's an adoring audience out there for 'Sailor suit and machine gun,' and I'm just not it. All I can say is that for my part, I can't imagine I'll ever recommend this to anyone.

Two discontented thumbs down.

Yakuza satire with a bit of humor too

[Kit-18 · 9/10 · 27 January 1999]

Humorous satire of Japanese yakuza flicks in which Hiroko Yakushimaru plays the daughter of a yakuza oyabun (boss) who dies and leaves the clan to her. Unfortunately, the clan is not exactly top flight, as they drive around in old, backfiring cars, one member is, well, a little effeminate, and veteran actor Ken Takakura (Black Rain, Mr. Baseball are his two most recent American flicks) tries his best to keep Hiroko out of trouble. The scene with Hiroko when she sprays a room with machine gun fire and then exclaims "Kaikan"!! (roughly translated as "exciting" but perhaps in a physical sense) became somewhat famous in Japan at the time with people using the phrase in the same tone of voice as Hiroko. A funny and entertaining movie that I would definitely recommend to anyone who can understand Japanese (alas, there is no subtitled version).

Not all that good

[RuriGokou · 2/10 · 17 April 2021]

With a title like Sailor uniform and machine gun I thought this would be a cheesy but funny action flick from 80s Japan. Instead this movie is really boring and the pacing isn't very good. The only good thing I enjoyed was seeing the 80s Japan scenery.

I finished feeling disappointed.

A cultural Japanese classic.

[ingaman · 10/10 · 23 November 2008]

"seeraa fukuto kikanjuu" or "Sailor Suit and Machine Gun" is a Japanese coming-of-age story about a tomboyish high school girl who becomes the head of a small Yakuza gang when her father dies. Hoshi Izumi (Hiroko Yakushimaru) mothers the gang of outcast-teens-turned-gangster. Despite the unconventional story-telling, the movie pulls both Izumi and the gangsters into many emotional situations questioning morality and the intentions of every character and their symbolic function. Though patience is needed to fully enjoy it, I would suggest this to anyone interested in a murder-mystery with a twist of comedy and drama; of course you'd probably want to be interested in Japanese culture and speak the language. Obtaining a subtitled version is practically impossible without the right connections.

Nice idea, but ..

[sharptongue · 2/10 · 9 November 2008]

What a shame. The only good thing about this deservedly obscure cheapie is the idea. To work properly, a comic caper like this one needs plenty of action, well-measured pace, strategic shots of comedy, and at least some sympathy for the characters. Above all, timing is critical. Perhaps the biggest flaw is the timing is simply not good enough. There are long introspective segments which do not add to the story, separating the too-few action sequences. When the fighting starts, it usually does not make a lot of sense, and jarrs rather than thrills. There is some character-based comedy, but the film is so poorly pieced together that the pathetic gangsters rarely raise a chuckle.

The direction is sloppy at best. The script needs work. The pacing is completely off. And the actors are, frankly, not very good.

A sad misfire.

Glory to the Medeka Family

[ReadingFilm · 10/10 · 4 November 2022]

Note to viewers, director's cut only. You need to see the full creative vision of this thing.

She is a different kind of Girlboss. The fact she is a teen but holds rank, forms a perfect satire of bureacracy. We the audience respect her power too, showing a hat trick of cinema. But this one joke is expanded into so many operatic expressions, contrasts, dangers. Film here is approaching like a painting, but on cinema's terms. He always knows what you want, and sort of gives it to you, but sometimes gives you things you never expected, and sometimes gives you things you dreaded, or believed the movie would not wander from its innocence. It does. Constantly.

Every single scene has little surprises. Every scene is like a puzzle. The long takes and staging should inspire any film-minded viewer, it rewrites the rules of cinema, with fragments, vignettes, but that it all blossoms stepping back seeing the complete picture. So it's like a painting and a song at once.

Because. When she grabbed that uzi. Holy... the film is toying with us the whole time wanting us to see her go full gangster, withholding to the point we doubt it will happen. Even this shot tells the whole story but is like, a samurai stabbing someone with one slice, after a long film getting picked on. We don't see the violence. It is not clear who dies, it is almost an after thought, the director's wink saying, you don't really want to see such grotesque immorality do you? We go, YES. He goes, me too.

It both gives us the badassery, like an authors scribbled signature, while also withholding the full satisfaction of it to drive home both the film and meta-film at once.

Because you are watching this with twenty years of Tarantino Battle Royale Kitano hindsight, irony, glorification of immorality. It is shocking seeing a cinema of morality with such a concept. It sees it as tragedy. Point is this film has brought out, in an eye opening way, how sadistic audiences have gotten.

Instead of asking why the movie is not wall to wall girl mowing down yakuzas, ask why those modern films are so inhuman.

This to me is a bravura cinema. The story is the frame to hang its creativity. All filmmakers should take note, when the story is good, the filmmaker can seldom steer wrong with unusual decisions on screen. There is an enormous heart to the film. Somehow it puts you in her shoes and gives you a person you just root for. I like comics and anime too, but I see this as an elevated cinema, a parallel evolution from the west, you would not even see this today here, it would be played for laughs or irony. Now I am obsessed with this movie, I want to see what happens next in her journey to college with what she learned.

For WHO EVEN IS THIS MOVIE!?!?

[danielatala8 · 1/10 · 23 November 2021]

Never have I ever seen such a movie with such a jarring tonal dissonance as this one... it's supposed to be a drama, comedy, yakuza movie, action etc- but it succeeds at neither of those genres making it a confused mishmash. I didn't laugh cause the "comedy" was nonexistent, I didn't feel anything cause the characters were severely lacking, how are we supposed to root for this high school schoolgirl if the only thing she does is act aloof and naive towards everything? Very hard to support and feel for anyone in this movie cause the character development happens haphazardly and without logic.

If I had to give this movie something is that it's shot extremely well and very arty, I mean, it's why I got drawn to it and buying it in the first place cause the iconography looks like something out of an anime or manga. At the same time I feel disappointed cause this movie was advertised as something it's not, a rambunctious coming of age comedy about a silly situation, I feel almost fooled to be honest cause the movie is not at all what they advertised it to be. Instead we get a boringly paced mishmash of incoherent scenes and plots that seems to have been made only for the director to understand. It has some uncomfortable scenes as well that aren't executed well either (harassment of minors, rape etc...), which once again falls into the tonal dissonance problem. I dunno, instead of feeling bad as the scene suggests it feels kinda exploitative (the uncomfortable scenes) and I don't like it. Apparently the director used to be a "romance porn" director before, which is why everything is confusing to me- what does he want to say with this movie?

Man, I just wanted a fun silly movie with iconic shots... really disappointed by this one, I thought it was gonna be as fun as the movie Kamikaze Girls (which is amazing btw, watch that one instead!), but instead I'm kinda angry at how the Arrow Movies people advertised this movie as something it's not... oh well, at least I've seen it!

Queer juvenile Shakespeare

[ithearod · 9/10 · 18 December 2021]

Quite a good little film, when considering it as the sum of its parts. Has genuinely tragic themes running throughout. Coming-of-age, dynasty-inheriting, underdog team fighting, character betrayal, cruel overlord - this is Shakespeare as interpreted through the lens of latter-half 20th century Japanese pop culture.

Do not watch this expecting B-movie camp or over-the-top anime-like action. This film is played straight and not for laughs or shock value. Then again, it was made in 1981, so it predates all of that. Its roots are closer to 1960's yakuza drama. But, it contains the seeds of the freethinking extreme art house genre that Japan embodied in the 90's and 00's.

Set locations and cinematography are first rate and also set the bar for much of modern Japanese film making. Acting is clearly low level but can be forgiven. Contains just a touch of surreal situations and characters, again setting the tone for future Japanese film. Melodramatic in its ending, also a hallmark of Japanese film.

Some tremendous long shot cinematography and incredibly authentic childlike acting are the icing on the cake of this transitional film into the future of post-modern pop Asian cinema. This film should not be missed by fans of that genre, as well as historians and students. Highly reccomended.

youngsters would might like it

[christopher-underwood · 4/10 · 1 February 2022]

It's really not very good and after after a while I decided to stop watching the film once I had enough to see the sailor suit get out the machine gun and that would be it. No although she made the yakuza at the top she never really wanted to get out the gun. I entered watching the old film but it was still not very good and I can to the idea that it was a film for teens and was never going to get anything other than being sweet and singing. And although rather sweet, but not shouting she wasn't very wonderful although youngsters would might like it.