Sayaka Ando – Poison (March 12, 2008)
Sony Music Entertainment & dboMb
Catalog # – SSBX-2239 – All Regions Disc – 4:3 Aspect
Running Time: 75 Minutes
The Skinny: This is an unusual video. There’s just five sections entitled Danse, Studio, Aquarium, Voyage and Hotel.
I can’t say that these section headings give you an exact description of what you’re going to see but what I can tell is that it is all Sayaka Ando, all the time. Just 75 minutes of a beautiful woman performing, being interviewed, or just being herself in front of a few cameras. While not all of this video is scintillating or cutting edge, if you like or love Sayaka, you will like or love this DVD,
Danse is what it implies – an in-motion Sayaka dances or twirls or whirls about in lieu of actually dancing. In doing so, she’s creating some glamorous poses for us. There’s some costume changes and a lot of this is performed in a real club. There’s also a lot of Sayaka posing in front of a mirror.
You can see the various colored spotlights anchored to the ceiling plus it just look like a club’s dance floor. By the way – those pink and yellow bars on the above photo are part of the video; they’re not added in by me. The ‘danse’ part is actually very motion oriented; as such it was difficult to capture some good images of a whirling or spinning person. But once they got her in front of a mirror, it became easier.
The Studio segment is just what it implies – indoor glamor posing. Rather than me describing this section for you in detail, you can just refer to the images.
Aquarium is a bit of an overstatement. Sayaka Ando does not swim with the fishes. Please note the difference between that statement and the one from The Godfather movie when there was a reference about Luca Brasi who slept with the fishes which was Sicilian shorthand for “We’ve killed your guy and dumped him in the harbor.”
For sure, it’s not a real aquarium, it’s not the sea, and it might be a mostly drained out indoor swimming pool but it’s definitely not a bath tub. It’s just some sort of enclosed tank with a few inches of water, at least what we see of it. Sayaka can’t swim or even go below the surface.
But she does look great when she’s all wet, sleek, and shiny. Sort of like a seal but without the whiskers and way, way prettier. And, do I need to say it – sexier.
Voyage is a series of outdoor settings. We may even be getting a peak of a completely nude Mt. Fuji. There’s not even a hint of snow anywhere. Sayaka looks good as she hides then appears in the midst of some palm trees.
Then, strangely enough, they do pose Sayaka in an empty swimming pool but this one is outdoors.
Hotel begins with an interview with Sayaka. So what else is new? They’ve done interviews with Idols before – yeah, but none that I can recall ever took place in a wooden bathtub like this one. I can’t tell you what the questions were because they were written questions. For that matter I can’t tell you what the answers were either. I can pick out a few words here and there, but my conversational Japanese is only marginally better than if a Japanese man spoke to a wooden post.
After the bath, we find Sayaka back in her hotel room not sleeping but pretending to sleep. We have a fake pillow fight, and Sayaka is just so relaxed and comfortable in this scene. A very big plus is that she’s not wearing make up or fake eyelashes in this one. This is the naturally beautiful Sayaka.
They present Sayaka with a big bouquet of cut flowers at the end and her joy is vibrant. I guess that’s why I like her so much because so much of her on video is that despite her high fashion model looks she’s really just a down-to-earth, girl-next-door type of woman. She’s not acting – she’s just happy to share some time with.
Summary – I’m not sure why this one is entitled Poison. There’s nothing toxic about this DVD at all. In fact, you’ll likely have to be pulled away from the TV so you won’t watch it twice in a row. That’s if you are a die-hard Sayaka fan.
After the credits there’s a bit of Sayaka cooking up some eggs, and then a trip to a noodle house. This video has lots of high spots. I get the feeling that Sayaka and the video cameraman get along famously. The video has that kind of intimacy that you don’t see in idols videos. I mean she is clearly in her natural off-screen state much of the time that she is actually on screen. Do you get what I mean? Or she is one very cool lady. I’ll leave you to decide that for yourself. The rating is four point zero.
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