After seeing Ms Harada in >Mugendai and Glamorous Journey earlier this year, my expectations were quite high for her newest DVD from For-side.com – Beauty Heroine. Unfortunately, this DVD, is in my view, a major -disappointment.
Oh, its not that it is poorly made, or that she looks bad. Neither is the case. If you like Ourei, and if you’ve seen her DVD’s that show her romping on the beaches in Saipan, or Bali, Thailand, or the Maldives – then you are probably used to that style of DVD.
This DVD is shot entirely indoors, and is best described as a DVD shot during a photo shoot.
Ourei makes fairly frequent costume changes, they present her with different hair styles, and she is generally convivial, and very pleasing to look at. No doubt you do know she’s one of the biggest busted models in all of Japan. and this is why she’s working so often. Producers know her DVDs will fly off the shelves.
High sales history is why she gets new gigs all the time – but this DVD is definitely below par. As I said above – it is an indoor photo shoot recorded for us. Occasionally, you see the crew in the frame, or you hear the directions, but mostly we watch a model being put through her paces.
You see each and every minute movement that the models do so the photographer can keep on shooting. Sabra Magazine puts out DVD’s of their photo shoots all the time. But these are included with your purchase of the magazine. And they are usually only 5-7 iminutes in length per model.
An entire DVD with just a single model being photographed presents the viewer with a dilemma. Can this DVD sustain my interest for an hour? And despite the fact that she is quite alluring, and has super-sized boobs you will find that your attention wanders.
The music is superb and this helps considerably; but if you’re going to make a DVD of a solo model being photographed, you’ve got to take the show on the road, at least for some of the scenes.
The DVD itself presents the ‘action’ in 16-9 format, and the transfer is pretty good. No complaints about artifacts or similar flaws. But there’s no getting away from the fact that an indoor photo shoot leaves you disappointed.
If this is your first look at Ourei, then I would suggest you will enjoy most of her other DVDs more than this one. If you are a fan of Ourei, then you might appreciate her different hair styles. And the box cover is great.
But the contents do not live up to what we’ve seen from her before, or what you hope for or expect with a big-busted Gravure Idol DVD. Two point seven-five is all I’ll give this one.
Beauty Heroine – Ourei Harada
For-side.com
While not exactly the best idol DVD around, I think this was roughly on the same level as her previous release, Ôrei Mugendai. I think the complaint about the “extended photoshoot” style is unjustified IMO – Ôrei is definately playing to the video camera and not a photographer. If you want to see photoshoots, look at the Special DVD which came with Yôko’s Ultra 5 Box or the singular waste of money that was Yamaguchi Erina’s second DVD, Great J. Here, not only is Ôrei obviously posing for the camera as well as keeping eye contact, but does so quite pleasingly.
Ôrei is at her strongest when she is posing or moving slowly… when she moves quickly, it really spoils the mood by emphasing the unnaturalness of her breasts (like the ‘Dance Dance’ track on her last DVD). While the initial tracks were mostly posing, she does become more active as the disc goes on, which is why the extended photoshoot comment is somewhat puzzling. I’d say 3.5 on the AoV scale (and 3.75 for Ôrei Mugendai for comparison’s sake).
Z – They never left the apartment. I want to see the model in something besides 4 walls and a window. Yes she does play to the camera, and yes she makes plenty of eye-contact with us viewers…but I feel it is safe to say that the producers got two things done at the same time – a photo book and a DVD. Show me some colorful furniture or a view of a forest out the window, or maybe even go down to the streets or to a city park. Don’t you think that they should at least make an attempt to place the model in an attractive setting?
JMM
The setting for the first three tracks are quite similar granted, but the others varied and pleastent enough. Recently, I’ve noticed a distinct bias in your reviews – you really seem to hate the indoors! As such, I can see why this would be a negative to you but let me ask you this: doesn’t it get boring to always see the same beach setting over and over again? Or the same bikinis? Yes, they’re iconic, but to have each and every scene at the beach or nearby? To honest, the few scens with a lot of obvious natural lighting in thsi one really hurt the quality of the scene – everything appeared quite washed out. Personally, I’m quite happy when the directors try and shoot in different locales. Now, I’m not saying that an outdoors scene or two wouldn’t have been welcome, but I didn’t find it to be that detrimental to the disc. I never see you complain when the entire DVD takes place outdoors
Also, regarding the photoshoot thing – every time they shoot a gravure idol DVD they do both. At least with Beauty Heroine, they had the good graces to relegate them to separate activities – first the video, then the photography (or vice versa), unlike some other DVDs when they attempt to do both at the same time.
What can I say – I like the outdoors – and far away from home is even better.
I have traveled to Asia a dozen times.
Of course having Megumi, Yoko, Rio, Ourei, Miri, Harumi or any other model playing on a beach, in a bikini can be and is repetitive. I’m just not bored by it.
The genre is restrictive so the limitations are built in and come with the territory. However, I have seen some of the so called Full Nude idol videos. And there’s not a lot of differences beyond the nudity. This particular Ourei DVD isn’t on a par with her others. My dislike isn’t because it is different, but because it isn’t as good.