RSSHanai Miri, Maison De Miri
16 May 2009 1 Comment
in Reviews
Miri Hanai – Maison de Miri (April 25th, 2009)
Air Control/Melon Productions
Catalog # – OME-52 – Region 2 Disc – 4:3 Aspect
Running Time: 70 Minutes
[Edit - We are proud to present this Miri Hanai review authored & created by Zatoichi, who currently watches idol DVD's in Japan, unlike me, who has to pay very high freight and shipping charges to have these items flown across the Pacific Ocean. The difference is that Z pays his yen, and he can begin watching the DVD's within the hour; whereas I have to wait a few days. Thank you for this review Z, who, by the way, is one of Miri's biggest fans. And if you don't already know this - Zatoichi designed this website for me. Enjoy.] jmm
When Hanai Miri debuted back in 2003, she was notable not only for her face, figure and natural charisma, but she was, for the time, one of the more risque main stream idols. Three years later, as other idols had gotten closer and closer to actual nudity and more obviously sexual themes, Miri had gone in the opposite direction: she was becoming more conservative in her costumes, but was also doing some very experimental things in her releases. Then, at the end of 2006, Miri took a hiatus. She returned in mid-2008 with the release of In Secret, and it was almost as if she was at the beginning of her career again: the bikinis and costumes were as small or smaller than they had ever been and most of the fringe elements had been removed. Miri was in a pure glamour mode. This can also be said for her follow up DVD, Cara.
You’ll be seeing a lot of handbras. Get used to it.
And so, the lovely Miri has graced us with a third DVD in the space of a year, Maison De Miri.
Miri is probably my favorite active idol, but I must admit a certain amount of trepidation when picking up this DVD: despite all she has going for her, her releases have widely varied in quality throughout the years, from near perfect (Shake! Shake!) to almost unwatchable (parts of Climax), often alternating with each release. With two high quality DVDs back-to-back, could she continue to deliver? Sort of. No doubt, Maison De Miri is something which will appeal to her fans, but there is a definite step down in quality.
I’m not sure whether to lay the blame on the editor or the director (certainly not Miri who is as charming and sexy as she’s ever been), but someone needs to rethink their approach to shoot glamour scenes. In general, there is an over-reliance on soft-light filters and distortion (usually fish-eye). Even so, neither are really a deal breaker – some restraint is shown and the effects are only slightly annoying. What does need to change is the tendency towards repeating camera pans: Miri will be posing and the camera will pan by her. Then it will do it again, same direction, same pace, perhaps slightly closer. This will repeat three or four times before moving on to the next shot. It’s the visual equivalent of listening to a skipping record.
Clocking in at around seventy minutes, the DVD is divided into eight tracks as well as an extremely short interview with Miri. The first track opens with a surprisingly short title sequence which showcases each of the different tracks then jumps straight into the first scene, which has Miri dressed in two (quite small) bikinis layered on one another and her hair done in pig tails. She’s lounging around on a bed, at first eating ice cream and, of course, allowing some it to drip down on her incredible boobs. She eventually removes her first bikini top, lounges around some more, then removes the second top (off camera this time) and we’re left with Miri posing on the bed using her hands to cover her breasts. Nothing wrong with that – but this is where the director’s “triple pan” fetish comes into play. Still, when you’re looking at a model as great looking as Miri, it makes even the most annoying technique bearable. Out of the bedroom and into the bathtub for the next scene, where Miri is lying down in a tub filled with water in a dark room, wearing a school girl’s swim uniform which is just slightly too small. Almost immediately, lubricant begins to drip down from above and Miri rubs it all over herself. Aside from that, there’s not much for her to do in this one and it continues on for a little too long.
Nudity! Wait… what?
Going from almost no movement to Miri jumping up and down for most of the next scene is not exactly unwelcome. The bright colours are a little blinding though. Sporting a Lolita look, Miri wears a halter top which barely contains her boobs (lots of cleavage from above and below), a skirt which would need to be twice as long to be called a mini and some white fishnets. Overall, a very cute and sexy scene with one big surprise which would have caused me to do a spit take if I had been drinking anything: at one point during her bouncing routine, her top does indeed prove to be too small to contain the twins and they escape from their prison! Obviously planned though – she was wearing some kind of weird pasties underneath, but the shock of seeing them pop free and that split second thought of “NAKED MIRI BOOBS!” was, uh, moving.
The next track is an odd little affair, with Miri wearing a metallic gold bikini, a short (fake?) fur jacket and go-go boots. She’s in a room with a small bed and a giant stuffed bear. She goofs around for a short period with the bear and generally playing the adorable card, then removes her top and covers up using her hands and arms. There’s a little bit of Matsugane Yōko-esque pseudo-porn at one point as she mounts and half-heartedly grinds on the bear, but fortunately it doesn’t last long. Like the second track, it was generally watchable and had some very nice shots of Miri but went on too long. I also found the soundtrack oddly distracting – the classical music doesn’t really go with the images at all. Track five has Miri in some-kind of wrecked disco with the mirror ball still intact. She is wearing a black bikini. Perhaps bikini is too strong of a word – this thing barely covers her tits at all. Despite a really annoying lens flair effect and the fact that there is almost no movement on Miri’s part, this is was one of the better tracks on the DVD: taking a fetish approach, there are lots of very close shots on all parts of Miri’s glistening, wet body, focusing on her boobs. The camera work provides all of the movement here but keeps things interesting and lively.
I warned you about the hand bras!
Going from one dark room to another, the set in the next scene looks like a prison cell. Miri is dressed in a glittery sort of bunny costume. There’s also a light bondage element to the scene as she’s wearing shackles (with very long chains) for the majority of the scene. Very slow moving with passable camera work, this one is nothing to write home about. Miri takes off her top again and covers her boobs with her hands at the end of the scene, which makes it the fourth time this has happened. I’m all for a topless Miri, but at this point it’s getting a little old. A little.
The penultimate scene has Miri in the world’s sluttiest maid uniform. The entire thing is made up of see-though lace and fishnet, she she has to wear some pasties over her nipples. Most of the scene consists of Miri reclining on a red couch lazily waving a feather duster about. An interesting bit about this one: at the beginning, there’s a bird’s eye view of the room which shows Miri going around the room dusting things at high speed. At the end of the scene, this shown again, but with the camera following Miri around as she cleans. This might sound boring, but the slow motion effect used combined with her costume (or lack thereof) makes for a lot of jiggling boobs. Track eight has our girl wearing an “office lady”-style costume, complete with glasses. Miri slinks around the room, slowly removing bits of her costume until she’s down to her leather bra, panties and fishnets (and glasses). Make no mistake – Miri looks unbelievably gorgeous here and there some breathtaking shots of her body, and she plays to the camera as well as she has ever done, but the slow pacing combined with the sleep inducing soundtrack really took what could have been a stellar track and dragged it down to a fairly mediocre level.
Despite the flaws and rough spots, I enjoyed Maison De Miri: even with the camera issues and pacing, Miri looks as lovely as ever and she never fails to play to the camera convincingly in her scene. She’s cute when she needs to be cute, sexy when she needs to be sexy and vulnerable when she needs to be vulnerable. One interesting observation about Miri compared to a lot of her contemporaries – while she seems to be okay with near nudity (in a magazine interview from a couple of years ago, she’d do nudes if the right project came along), the more explicit stuff which has become very prevalent among newer idols or idols looking to revitalize their career is absent from her releases. So if you’re looking for pseudo-porn and your main question is “When is [ insert idol here ] going to go to AV?” – move along. Nothing to see here. For other idol fans, Miri’s latest is a good (but not great) addition to her catalog.
Feb 07, 2010 @ 21:44:05
Hey, I liked the techno version of Bach’s “Air”!! Why you Zatoichi…
I think Miri has lost a bit of weight during her Sabbatical, but still looks fantastic here. A girl who can triumph over the interference of MOMOW is a winner in my book.
Thanks Z and JMM!!!