Miri Hanai – Cara (January 29th, 2009)
Digiworks
Catalog # – SUCA-28 – Region 2 Disc – 16:9 Aspect
Running Time: 61 Minutes
The Skinny: Certainly this is an upgrade over In Secret which was Miri Hanai’ s previous video which I didn’t much care for. Let’s try out a few imaginary headlines:
Beautiful Buxom Model Makes Boring DVD
Miri Hardly Moves in New DVD
Miri’s Cara DVD: An Exercise in Creative Tedium
Yup, all of the above are true, but this is STILL a visual POWERHOUSE. The Cara crew met for a day’s work in a Japanese country house filled with what you might expect – an onsen, shoji screens, tatami mats, and beautifully polished hard wood floors.
Miri brought her usual assortment of gifts for we viewers. You know what I’m talking about: her lush figure, her beguiling smile, those deep, dark eyes that promise ecstasy and mystery, and her accustomed savvy in posing beautifully.
The director brought out his trick bag. Unusual lighting, wonderful and new music that you haven’t heard before, a multiplicity of angles, and some gorgeous outfits and costumes for Miri to wear. Beyond all that let’s point out his magnificent rapport with Miri to bring out her best.
Mix all of that together and you should get a winning video. And you do. However keep in mind that you will have to allow for the fact that in all the scenes but two Miri is either sitting or lying on the floor. In one place. All her activity is based upon making great eye contact with the camera as it moves around her, and progressively revealing more and more of her body while still keeping this video within the parameters of the gravure format.
The two scenes that have more of Miri in motion are: the outdoors woodsy setting at the edge of a forest, and the grand scene of Miri in the bath tank.
Miri in the woods wears a plaid shirt, shorts, and boots, and looks very cute. In the tank, she wears two sets of bras and panties – the outer being flimsy and semi-transparent. The under are a red bra and panties that are more substantial. On the plus side, we must tell you that Miri must make sure that she has not fallen out of that double bra on a number of occasions. Her grand bust requires a lot of effort to contain it.
I’ll also make note of the fact that Miri looks terrific in this video. Her scene in the red flowing robe and the scene in the white yukata are electric.
Summary: OK – those headlines above? Yes some of you may see this style of video as boring or tedious. Miri is a sight to behold for sure – but there’s no shopping, cooking, swimming, touring, traveling, or even laughing.
Miri does laugh a lot and joke around but all of that is in the Off-shot segment which is the last ten minutes of the video of just barely over an hour in length. Miri also talks about her experiences in making this video.
My view is that this was indeed a sumptuous hour of looking at a beautiful model. They don’t ask much of her except that she engage the camera, which provides most of the movement.
They’ve given her some beautiful lingerie, and done some great work with the lighting and music tracks. As stated above, if you’re looking for Miri to be doing something, you won’t find very much of that.
But if you do think that Miri Hanai is one of Japan’s best Gravure Idols, then I am sure you will be pleased. Four point zero.
I remember you had the same complaints about lack of movement in Yarujan! a couple of years ago which (of course) we disagreed about – if I remember correctly my review at the time was in complete conflict with yours. Times change, I guess.
I still would have rated In Secret above Cara, but we’ve already been down that road.
Miri has a new DVD out next month as well… it seems that after her extended break, she’s trying to make up for lost time.
Hi Z
thanks for dropping in -
I’m puzzled – I can see your reaction to my review. I didn’t like Yarujan for the lack of movement, but this one I liked. Since you’re mentioning my take from a few years ago I’ve got two questions:
1) Why did you like In Secret which I panned?
2) What is your reaction to Cara? If you think it was less successful than In Secret kindly tell us why.
While we wait for your response I will ask you if you would do a guest review of Miri Hanai’s next one? I know you will buy it – so I am offering you a guest shot over here at JMMNAOV.
I am sure all your readers from Gijo would love to hear what you think.
mike
I’m with Zatoichi on this. Miri looks great in Cara but its just soooooooo boring!
After In Secret (which I loved) this seems like a huge step backwards. In Secret (whateever faults you might have found in it) feels like a Miri Hanai DVD. It has everything I expect – light fetishism, giri-giri moments and Miri laughing.
Cara could be a DVD starring absolutely anyone. I think this is Miri’s most tedious DVD since H93 Knockout. Yarujan had not much movement but at least it had the ‘fried egg’ rubber nipples for novelty.
Thanks for the review though. I look forward to reading your reviews almost as much as I like watching the DVD’s themselves.
Hi Tobias – Thanks for comments and for your appreciation. Your last sentence makes it ever-so worthwhile.
I quote from the indented headlines which end the 1st sentence of the Miri review:
Beautiful Buxom Model Makes Boring DVD
Miri Hardly Moves in New DVD
Miri’s Cara DVD: An Exercise in Creative Tedium
So there is NO DOUBT that I too thought it was boring and tedious.
I also said it was a visual powerhouse which I meant as – Miri looks great.
I just thought that if one likes Miri , it was great to see her looking as beautiful as ever. That doesn’t negate that the fact that the video was boring.
I guess what you and Z are saying is – That if it was boring – I have no business giving the video a four point zero rating.
And that does make sense.
jmm
Actually, I quite liked both Cara and In Secret, but I preferred In Secret overall.
Basically, as mentioned by Tobias above, I found Cara to be somewhat generic, even for a gravure idol video. I also happen to agree with you that there could have been more movement from Miri as opposed to letting the camera do all the work. However, that being said, I still liked what the director did with the camera work, he had some absolutely specatular views of Miri and the twins, and Miri was, as always, a pleasure to watch – even though her movement was minimal, she could still use those movements, her facial expressions and eye contact to engage the viewer.
I found In Secret to be a stronger release overall though because there was more activity and variation in the scenes and themes, although I did think there were a couple of stumbling blocks. I think you mentioned, and correct me if I’m wrong, that you found a lot of the technical elements distracting (i.e. lighting, editing techniques). While I admit the pacing occasionally took a misstep, especially track six, overall I thought the overall package was well put together and let Miri work her usual magic while showing off her phyical charms very well.
You are entitled to score the DVD anything you want, naturally, but I was just a little puzzled as you found so many elements to be lacking in Cara. Let me ask you this: what was the defining difference between this and Yarujan! as both were very stylisiticly similar? At times though, there are just cases where you like something even though you can’t put your finger on it, and this could be one of those cases.
I’d be more than happy to do a guest review for Miri’s new one, Maison De Miri, and very much appreciate the offer. I’m hoping for something good, but Miri has a bad habit of releasing a good and bad DVD alternately – with two good releases under her belt so far, I’m worried she’s going to be returning the to more arty stuff which really isn’t up my alley. We’ll see I guess!
OK Z – Deal! You’re on as Guest Reviewer for Miri’s Next. Just send me the text if I have the DVD I’ll make the shots. If I don’t have it, you can pick your own screen caps.
I went back and re-read the Yarujan review -
http://www.justmemikesnewalsoonvideo.com/2006/09/10/yarujan-miri-hanai/
and I went back and re-read our comments dialogue as it were. And yes, the directorial choices resulted in both videos having pretty much the same concept in terms of pacing , and motion of model and camera motion.
In both cases I called the videos boring. But Cara got a 4.0 and Yarujan only a 3.0 – so what is the reason for the differential. Two reasons.
a) location
b) model’s demeanor or attitude.
In Yarujan the so called industrial chic or grunge factor made Miri’s presence less appealing despite her physical gifts. While Cara was set in a traditional Japanese country house, at least the lighting and where and how he placed her was meant to allow the viewers to drink in her beauty.
After you re-read the Yarujan review you will see that im my opinion Miri herself was bored, or acted like she was bored, and that too detracted from my enjoyment of the video.
Hence though similar in style – I didn’t see them as having the same value.
Since you are stating that you believe In Secret and Cara are both good releases, your thought is that uh oh, her next one will probably be less appealing. Even if not up your alley, you can call it as you see it – and either way – Miri will still stay up there on the pantheon of the best J-Idols.
jmm
Any thoughts on Miri’s new dvd coming out at the end of April that is behind the adult curtain on Amazon?
Just wondering.
H.
Hiram – so it is behind the adult curtain? I didn’t know that.
In fact until Zatoichi mentioned that she would have a new one coming out next month, meaning April. I wasn’t aware of it.
I really don’t know what parameters Amazon.co.jp uses to define ‘adult content’ requiring a user to state he/she is 18 years of age or older. So I can’t say what this DVD might contain. But nudity might be one parameter.
However, this is still more than 50 days into the future. So we will have to wait and see.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
jmm
The adult tag means nothing when it comes to idols. Some other idol videos which have been under the Adult Veil Of Secrecy:
… and the list goes on. Although I suppose one could make an argument that maybe some of Yōko’s raunchier offerings might be well-placed there, it’s generally some kind of esoteric system which is only known to Amazon.co.jp.
Okay then – there it is. From a knowledgeable source, we have it that previous Idol titles known to contain ZERO nudity have been tagged as adult content by Amazon.co.jp.
Thanks, Z.
jmm