RSSYarujan! – Miri Hanai
10 Sep 2006 7 Comments
in Reviews
What was the name of that tune made famous by the music group Dire Straits about 20 years ago? Oh yeah. It was called Money for Nothing. The lead singer and front man of Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler was actually lampooning his own industry with those memorable lyrics:
that ain’t working’ … that’s the way you do it
Get your money for nothin’ and your chicks for free
But that’s what I thought of after watching this Miri Hani DVD entitled Yarujan! The subtitle is Miri Hani in Thailand. Trust me, you’d never know you were in Thailand unless you actually lived in the underbelly of Pattaya, or is it Bangkok – as displayed in the video. What we see are industrial wastelands, back alleys, scruffy tenements, and grungy locations of every stripe.
The DVD is a production of Takeshobo, a major production house, and a serious player in the world of Idol DVDs. But this DVD strikes me as if everyone involved – from the director, the producer, as well as the model – left a lot of effort unused. We got the DVD, they got the money.
Miri is a wondrous model. If she got short-changed on her height – she’s only 4’10″ – she got more than her share of size in the bust area. She’s literally outrageously busty. And her bust is shown off as well as could be.
But they’ve shot all the scenes, except for a brief seashore location where Miri is asked to pose atop some large boulders in a bikini and high heels, in such places as inside a copper pipe, in the belly of a scrapped for parts airplane, on paint-peeled-away staircases, rooftops, and other locales that we would never have a reason to be in.
There were moments when I said to myself, she’s actually sitting on that floor? She’s on her back on the floor of that shower? Uh oh. Unique? Of course, but attractive? Not in your wildest dreams. They could have saved the money and shot the DVD in the basement of a Shinjuku pachinko parlor, and we wouldn’t have known the difference.
Technically what we see was done well. The lighting, pacing, editing, and sound all worked well. Miri herself looks smashing as always. They threw in two scenes where Miri is topless except for the pasties covering her nipples. But the pasties themselves were fake nipples. Creative? Yes – but even before we saw on Miri’s chest, we saw them in their display packaging. Miri was grinning ear to ear and thought it was very funny.
I guess what I’m saying is that this isn’t a standard bikini babe on the beach DVD. Oh there’s a ton of cleavage, and there are brief costumes, and Miri is ever fascinating to look at. She’s big eyed and big breasted, but aside from turning her head, she’s motionless most of the time. All the action is derived by camera movements rather than true movement by the model. She poses this way – the camera crawls over her up and down, in and out, and then fades out. The next pose within the same scene is done the same way. So it’s not an untruth to say that the DVD is somewhat boring.
Then again – you’re looking at the fabulous Miri Hanai and looking at her is always endlessly pleasurable. But that’s not enough of a reason to make this a recommended video. Let’s just say this is for Miri’s legions of fans, and call it a day at three point zero.
Yarujan! – Miri Hanai in Thailand
Takeshobo
Sep 11, 2006 @ 16:52:09
Heard from Zatoichi – he radically disagrees. He says How could I NOT really like this video. Maybe he will re-do his email comments and put them up here.
JMM
Sep 22, 2006 @ 18:53:37
I’ve been mulling this one over for a while and it still boggles my mind: how could a DVD as wonderful as Yarujan! get a 3.0?!? I’m still not sure… your main two complaints seem to be lack of movement and the locations. In the case of the latter, that’s a matter of preference – although I do agree that the industrial look is not exactly ideal, at least things were a lot more recognizable that the typical generic beach videos you get.
The former… I’m gonna call on this one Mike: you reviewed Yôko’s Shutaisei Densetsu I and Ôrei’s Orei Mugendai recently, both of which had minimal movement, yet they garnered 4.0+ scores. What the difference? Yarujan! (in general) had a far camera better crew working that either of those DVDs – if you look at the way the lense moves and pans around each scene comparitively speaking, Yarujan! is more interesting and had sexier shot of the idol in question. You even gave that horrid Kawase Yuna DVD a 3.5, and she didn’t move much or exhibit the level of charisma that Miri has.
I think this is the factor it comes down to though, isn’t it? A person’s enjoyment of an idol DVD is two fold – first is the technical side of things (camera work, sound, lighting, location). The second is how much you like the idol and how much you buy into their onscreen persona. For my money, Miri is one of the best working today in regard to onscreen presence – at the moment, only Takeuchi Nozomi is better – she can be convincing play sexy, sweet, classy or whatever in her videos. She does it here even with with the minimal movement, mostly eye contact and facial expressions. That being said, when she’s off, she’s really off though.
Okay, to wrap this up: I think 4.0 or 4.25 would be more accurate. Yup. All that rambling for a basic: “Sorry Mike, I disagree”
Sep 22, 2006 @ 19:40:23
Konnichi-wa Zatoichi-san. Ogenki des ka? How are you buddy?
Ok – I too have to collect thoughts and offer something to your comment. Reviews are of course subjective. I like what I like – sometimes there’s valid reasons why I like something or valid reasons why I dislike something. I like Kirin Beer, and you prefer Sapporo or Asahi beer as an example. It’s just a matter of taste.
I may not always express myself properly (after all, writing a review and writing a coherent as well as sensible review may be two different things altogether). Or I might not put all of my thoughts about a video into the review.
Any way – your commentary states that a person’s enjoyment of an idol DVD is two fold – the purely technical and the second is your opinion of the model and do you buy into the onscreen persona. Well I believe there is a third or rather a subset of the second. What if Miri Hanai is not conveying any of her personal enjoyment in a scene or throughout an entire video. It’s not just lack of motion, its also lack of feeling. Lack of heart. You’ve got to have wa. Wa being a Japanese term that doesn;t translate well. I guess I am saying I didn’t feel Miri was enjoying herself so it was hard for me to enjoy her in this DVD.
“I’m bored. This turkey director has no imagination. He just wants me to sit here and do nothing.” Is Miri thinking this – what is on her mind? I can;t figure her out in this one.
The other aspect is that we shouldn’t compare ratings between models. Rather you should compare ratings between various DVD’s of a model. I gave Yuna Kawase a 3.5 and I gave this video a 3.0. That doesn’t mean I like Yuna Kawase better than I like Miri Hanai. The reality is I have seen ONLY one Yuna Kawase DVD so far, and have seen 10 DVDs with Miri Hanai.
I gave Yarujan a 3.0 because Miri was lifeless, uninvolved, and bored. But in Shake! Shake! I gave Miri a 4.0 as she was exuberant.
We’ve both seen a crateful of Idol DVDs – and some are better than others, and some of Miri’s are better than other’s. Yarujan would not make my highlight reel.
But Miri Hanai does make it to the pantheon of Bikini goddesses; just not for this particular DVD.
JMM
Sep 23, 2006 @ 10:49:21
Disagree again: with the exception of the track where Miri was dressed in some really odd costume (track 7, I think?), she does put a lot of feeling and emotion into this one: granted, it’s generally not the bouncy, happy Rio-esque projection, but more of a tease or sultriness. The lack of motion, especially on the nipple tracks, were a nescessity IMO on occasion, as Miri definately would have exposed something had she been moving too much.
I’m intrigued by the “we shouldn’t compare” idols comment: why? If you don’t compare a work to others in the same genre, how can one develop a sense of what’s good and what isn’t? If you turn a blind eye to other works, then reviews become more insular than they already are. For example: I have yet to see Kagurazaki Megumi exhibit anything more that a prefunctory level of charisma for an idol. Now, let’s say I see a Megumi DVD which I think is pretty good, not great, but a solidly entertaining DVD. How should I rate it? Only against her other DVDs? That would artifically inflate the score – it’s a 4.5 on the Megumi scale, but 3.75 when compared to similar material on the market. To the die hard Megumi fans it’s not going to make a difference, but it might to others.
Sep 23, 2006 @ 12:12:29
You make a few good points.
“we shouldn’t compare ratings between models” – yeah I wrote that. What I didn’t write is that with a large body of work for one model (I’ve seen 10 Miri DVDs) and a single sample for another model (Yuna Kawase); a model to model comparison wouldn’t really be balanced.
I understand and agree with your points about Megumi meaning the 4.5 is or might be a false positive if taken on a broader scale.
But the reader can or must take my opinions, or yours, for what they are – opinions. It is impossible for me or you to be considered the ultimate authority. Just visit imdb.com or rottentomatoes.com and read a number of reviews written by professional critics, and commentaries supplied by regular folks about mainstream movies. There’s always a variance. Even the picture that wins an Oscar as Best Film of the Year usually has detractors.
So I really don’t mind the disagreement. In fact, I hope we hear from other people who are free to disagree with me – or you.
JMM