RSSSayaka Ando – Fascino
13 Mar 2009 4 Comments
in Reviews
Sayaka Ando – Fascino (April 21, 2006)
E-Net Frontier
Catalog # – ENFD-5032 – Region 2 Disc – 4:3 Aspect
Running Time: 55 Minutes
The Skinny: It has been said, as well as been written, that beauty is timeless. I watch this video with Sayaka Ando now in March of 2009. The DVD was released in April of 2006, nearly 3 years ago. I’m sure that if I watch again in March of 2012, I would still enjoy it.
If you will allow me a small play on words, the title of this DVD is Fascino. What ever that means, I’ve still been fascinated with this woman since the first time I viewed her on my television. Though I can’t quite remember when that was exactly, as the song which plays under the 1st scene, says, I am definitely Caught In the Nets – Sayaka’s not throwing her nets at me, I know, but if she were…
Next we find Sayaka out at the back edge of the property. She’s just posing by a cement wall. This scene doesn’t really flatter her but it’s worth mentioning that they’ve done some interesting work with the available light. Plus you will even notice a spider web.
In the first of many interview segments with Sayaka, we find her sitting on the shore late in the afternoon. Instead of a direct face to face head-on shot, we see her from the side, and she will occasionally turn her head and look directly into the camera. None of this is remarkable technically – but the scene was very picturesque and beautifully shot.
But more important is the absolutely amazing naturalness of Sayaka Ando. Even though the cameras are working, and men all over the world will see her, she might as well have been talking to her best friend. Even though I know this is an interview for her fans, with ease, one can mentally take the place of the person asking her some questions and believe that she’s talking right to you. She is just so relaxed, happy, and comfortable. This is a major part of her appeal.
A beach scene follows and after that a bathtub scene. The bathtub scene was more abstract considering some of the closeups, the low lighting, and the limited presence of color.
Next is another interview segment. I’ll just say ditto. I wish my Japanese were better so I might tell you what she said. But I give the producer kudos for deciding to split up the interview. These segments are like a return to the safety of one’s home harbor.
Safe, comfortable, familiar, and ever so pleasant are the words that come to mind when we are sharing time with Sayaka the person, rather than watching her perform as a gravure model.
The next two scenes are kind of vanity scenes. They look like they were designed to show off the director’s virtuosity rather than Sayaka’s. First we have Sayaka mostly curled up on a low white wall, wide enough to sit on or lay on, that fuses into a large white column. Eventually she will lean against this column. We get a series of pans, and lots of facial closeups showing the beautiful Sayaka against this white structure.
The following scene is in a derelict building, that has been overgrown by nature. Sayaka is mostly back-lit by the sunlight. The natural sunlight, at that time of day and angle creates a halo effect around Sayaka’s profile.. We can see the dust motes in the air, and we see the vines that have crept into this lost building’s interior. This was very artistic, very unique, and very interesting; and besides all that, we had the lovely Sayaka.
Then another interview segment with Ms down-to-earth Sayaka follows. There’s the music, the sounds of her laughter, her words, and all the while we hear, the gentle sounds of the sea caressing the beach. And even in this, the third interview go-round, you still can’t take your eyes off her.
Another of those up close-to-her scenes follows. This was very much like the scene with the white columns, only this time Sayaka is on a bed. This scene was a lot less interesting because it seemed as though the director was repeating himself. Maybe the ‘been there‘ didn’t apply, but the ‘done that‘ was certainly appropriate.
The next scene begins with a Sunset on the beach. Only they waited too long and quite soon we have a shortage of available light. No matter – they employed a hand-held small pin spot-light. This created some circular light effects on Sayaka who would be otherwise surrounded by darkness with the last dregs of the sunset off behind her on the horizon. Nice try but I think it was too little too late – that is, for the lighting, of course.
Well remember I said that the interview was like one’s home harbor – safe, and comfortable, and familiar and ever so pleasant? The 4th brief interview segment followed and it was all of the above plus it had one of Sayaka’s best smiles in the entire DVD. See below.
And then there’s one more scene outdoors – Sayaka is in a black bathing suit, and I think this scene was again designed to take advantage of the natural light.
In this video it seems as though, they intentionally avoided the midday sunlight so as to highlight the model rather than making her a function, or accessory to the setting or location.. The result is a kaleidoscopic mixture of light and shadow, of angles, of beauty all designed to take you away from where you are. Sayaka is the perfect model for this type of video because of her natural on-screen grace and charisma.
The credits are next and we watch them scroll by in a split screen with some highlight moments from earlier in the video. And after the credits there’s one more scene. Sayaka is posing in a stand of trees. The palm fronds that are gently swaying far above and out of sight create some magical shimmering shadows that play on Sayaka’s hair. Just a marvelous touch of creativity and another signal about how terrific is the vision and artistry of those behind the camera.
Summary: A superb video starring one of my favorites. This DVD is very strong on the artistic side. They pretty much don’t do what many gravure idol DVD’s always show us – shopping, cooking, sightseeing, and showers. With Sayaka, you simply don’t miss those kind of basic bikini idol standards.
As most of this video is very good, and we also have the highlight of a 4-part interview which I enjoyed even with NOT understanding most of what she was saying; I’m willing to overlook some of the items mentioned above that didn’t work exactly as planned or designed. Really there’s no reason not to reward them with a great score. The rating is four point five.
Mar 25, 2009 @ 05:32:35
hey mike, long time no see… i just found babe name serena kozakura, do you know anything about it? how many dvd that her made? where could i purchase it?
Mar 25, 2009 @ 08:56:30
Hi -
This Serena Kozakura made the news about a year ago after having a judge toss out a frivoulous claim. It seemed that her ex-boyfriend accused her of breaking into his apartment thriugh a hole cut into his door. A demonstartion proved that this would have been impossible becuase Serena’s boobs were too big and she could not have slithered through the small opening in the door.
A simple search on google will lead you to plenty of articles and a video of her not fitting the doorway opening.
Although she is described as a bikini-model, I’ve not seen any videos of her.
jmm
Mar 31, 2009 @ 05:41:55
hello mike,
mind if i asking, who in gravure world that have an implant, beside i know anri sugihara, minami matsuzaka,hana haruna(rumor) is there anyone else?
could you name GV model 30 something, at least the front number is 3( the age i meant)
Mar 31, 2009 @ 05:51:16
Hello gerry -
Interesting questions: 30+ models and enhanced models. I’ll have to think about this. Thanks for reading my columns and for comments.
jmm