Kekko Kamen (2004)

Masked Vigilante bares all, Keeps Students' dreams Alive

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The Review

Okay, I'll just say it like it is:

This movie is about a Naked Female Ninja (Kekko Kamen) who protects students at an all-girls school from their lecherous teachers. She wears a red mask, boots, gloves and a long scarf (that dutifully hides her pink bits).

As near as I can tell, "Kekko Kamen" translates to "Wonderful Mask". (Kamen is a word that refers to any Japanese masked hero, and Kekko, meaning Wonderful, refers not to her mask but to her... body. Indeed. Her deal is that she stuns her opponents with the beauty of her body, and then, POW! (Right in the kisser!)

Oh, and she has magical powers. And rides a red scooter through the school's hallways. And she can really bust a move with her nunchaku.

Um, I'd go on to expand upon the film's finer points... but that's really about it.

I was offered this movie by my good buddy Automated-Netflix-Man, "based on [my] interest in Films from Japan". And - let's face it - after reading the synopsis I wasn't gonna NOT give it a try.

This particular film fits somewhere in the midst of a long string of movies (and cartoons), all with more or less the same plot and all based on a Japanese comic book series (also all with more or less the same plot) by a guy named Go Nagai.

(What?? A character like this, written by a man??)

I know.

So anyway, it turns out the movie was... HIL-AR-I-OUS.

...In an over the top we-know-we're-being-sexist-but-we're-just-having-fun sort of way, it was just funnier than a wailing banshee. I mean, we've got dialogue-gems like

(Miss Keiko, who needs to "change" into her Kekko Kamen persona, to a student)
"You'd better leave now, for your own safety and to further the plot."

and

(Kekko Kamen to a villain, whose costume and mask consist of stolen women's underwear stitched together)
"Panties are sacred to a woman. Putting them on your head is unspeakable!"

How could you not stifle a grin?

So. Yeah. There really isn't anything else to say about this one. Oh, except Kekko Kamen usually K.O.s her enemies by putting their necks in a leg scissor lock until they pass out. It's called the "muffocation" attack. You know, like "suffocation" but with an "m". As in being suffocated by her m....

True story.

FOUR PINK BRAINS

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The Trailer

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The Details

Cast
Shino Saito (Keiko Natsuwata / Kekko Kamen)
Juri Inahara (Mayumi Takahashi)
Moa Arimoto (Wakana Nakai)
Ren Suzuki (Kyoichi Furusawa)
Nao Yuasa (Jun Takenochi)
Hiromi Nagayama (Akira Oshima)
Hiromitsu Suzuki
Kenjiro Ishimaru
Hideo Sako (Kajiro Suto)
Satoshi Wada (Shatai Osuo)
Nao Eguchi
Fang Suzuki
Keiko Kubo (Mizuho Sakuragi)
Go Nagai (as himself)

Director
Takafumi Nagamine

MPAA Rating
Unrated (but would be a mild R, I think.)

Runtime
70 minutes

Tagline
Nobody knows her face... but everybody knows her body!

Language
Japanese with English Subtitles

Link(s)
Kekko Kamen at IMDB
Kekko Kamen at Wikipedia