Beaming – Manami Hashimoto

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Recently a young model named Hashimoto Manami came to my attention. Last spring, the head honchos over at E-Frontier Net flew her and one of their crack crews down to Bali for the purpose of coming home with enough footage to produce the video which came to be called Beaming. And today, I’ll share my review with you.

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The title is really apt for this video. The model, Ms. Hashimoto, is seen throughout the video, often with a grand smile ‘beaming’ from her countenance. I’d be beaming too if I had the opportunity to run into a model like this on the beach at Seminyak, Bali.

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But it never happened for me. Despite staying at three different resort areas in Bali – Legian, Nusa Dua, and Tanjung Benoa, I didn’t spot even one Japanese camera crew much less a gravure model. My loss.

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However you are in luck. Without having to travel halfway around the world, you may still enjoy the splendors of Bali as well as the bounty of Manami Hashimoto in this DVD. But first a few disclaimers – she’s not going to make your jaw drop due to having an outandishly huge bust – in fact, we won’t even have to use terms like busty or bosomy at all. Second – she’s got a sweet face, and she’s perky, and she’s going to make a few more DVDs; but she isn’t off-the-charts gorgeous. We can log her in at the level of basically beautiful. And the last disclaimer is that the director of the DVD felt it necessary to use soft and fuzzy focus far too often among other gaffes.

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We first meet Manami as she strolls along the beach. There’s more than one beach scene in this DVD. In fact we see Manami discovering sea life in the shallow pools. We watch her as she discovers the wonders of coral. In fact, most of the DVD has water in the scenery – pools, ocean, and even a lagoon. The one water based scene that we don’t see is the old standby – the shower or bath scene.

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Eventually we are face-to-face-to face as Manami does the interview scene. We see the split screen live dual image while she talks to her producer. The questions appear on the bottom of the screen in Japanese script and are therefore lost to me.

Soon we are done with the interview and there’s a series of water-based scenes. Each has its own gifts; the main one being Ms Hashimoto. But there’s nothing truly extraordinary on screen here. Workmanlike at best with the downside being the occasional soft focus or shimmering light reflecting off the water via the late afternoon sunlight’s lowered angle.

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Still it’s not all bad. She gives us a closeup look at a variety of coral. And the Bali beaches always look great.
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And before you know it, we’re back at the pool. This DVD will never be confused with on of those indoors reels recently released by Miri Hanai (Yarujan!) or Ourei Harada (Beauty Heroine). Of course this requires Ms Hashimoto to remain attired in a bikini.
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Check out the below the surface in the pool shot as she swims towards us. Great clarity. Too bad some of the other scenes went for some sort of techical editing trick like the B&W with Blue Square effect below. A waste of precious minutes if you ask me.
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Fortunately the director and editor come back to their senses and we are treated to lovely views of the model in the bikini. This never gets overdone. Can’t be overdone.
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Then we head back to the lanai where Manami looks grand in white. We sometimes get to see her through the gauzy white curtain, so the results are mixed.
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In the next scene above, we’re not at the pool, and not on the beach. That’s a lagoon behind the model. I’m not thrilled with her bikini but I do like how she looks.
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This collage above demonstrates the beauty of what is known as an infinity pool. The only way you can tell where the pool ends and the sea begins is the color of the water. Pretty cool huh?
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This last shot (above) shows Ms Hashimoto right after stepping through the classic Balinese portal. She is actually walking down to the infinity pool which is actually fairly high above the sea. It was a delightful image on the DVD.
All in all, this movie was a disappointment on some levels. Only some 40 odd minutes, and too many directorial decisions that worked against presenting the delightful model in the best possible manner. I thought the interview was too long for a stationary camera position. There were too many soft focus minutes, and I wasn’t thrilled with the letterbox segments. I am a full-screen guy. So I’m going to give this one a mediocre score of two point seven five, but there’s a silver lining. I do like the looks of Manami Hashimoto. As such we are going to do another review – next time it will be the DVD entitled Sarasvati, which is the name of the Hindu Goddess of Wisdom.
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Beaming – Manami Hashimoto
E-Net Frontier

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