The Skinny: Yuko Oshima aka Masako Ooshima is more of a pop idol than a gravure idol. She’s a member of the Tokyo based AKB48 singing group. This DVD is about a trip to Guam.

I wasn’t kidding when I said this DVD was the record of a trip to Guam as we first meet her on a Tokyo street as she tugs along her suitcase to board a bus to Narita Airport. Then she’s at the airport checking the departures, then aboard the plane, then arriving at Guam airport, boarding a van, and finally entering her hotel room. They say getting there is half the fun. Maybe this is so in life, but not in a DVD. In the DVD the fun hasn’t begun yet.

Next is the Night Festival according to the menu, but it is really just a carnival complete with rides, games with cheap prizes, and junk food. Between leaving Japan and this chapter, we’ve already used up a little more than 14 minutes, so basically nearly the 1st quarter of the DVD is wasted. Sure Yuko is quite cute, and has a beautiful smile and amazing dimples, but this was far too lengthy a segment.

Especially since the next chapter is on the beach and runs only a little more than 2 minutes. The weather was so-so (at best) so much of this beach chapter is closeups shot with a long zoom lens which makes the background out of focus.

A bath scene is next. Yuko is up to her neck in soap bubbles. She looks ever so cute. The scene is painstakingly shot. It’s like they’ve gone out of their way to insure that this scene didn’t have any sexual overtones at all. In fact after, Yuko is out of the tub and rinsing off the soap bubbles, the scene was edited to exclude any shots at all of her bikini. We know she wasn’t nude – so this is kind of puzzling.

A chapter follows called Sleep and this was mostly Yuko having a nap then waking up. Then we’re off to the Jungle. Like the earlier beach chapter, here we are less concerned about where we are, and the main focus is closeups of Yuko. Again this is pleasing but if you’re going to go all the way to Guam for a video shoot, then including the surroundings should be a requisite.

Next up a swimming pool sequence, Yuko is in a pink and blue bikini. The music is a take on classic 60′s/70′s California surfing music. Once again cloudy skies mar the proceedings, as does some extreme closeups. I imagine the directorial directions must have gone something like, “Act as silly as you like…”. ‘

The scene closed with Yuko squeezing all the air of her inflated float. A brief Part II called Freedom had Yuko sitting on the far edge of the infinity pool with her back to us. She then removed her bikini top. Ho hum.

Another beach scene comes up next. But its not really about the beach. It is dusk and there’s many intriguing shots of Yuko. It is only a brief scene and we find her in a bar next having a white wine. The scene is badly lighted as one side of Yuko’s face is in the shadows.

Following this glass of wine, a chapter called Darkness. Here Yuko poses  under a direct hand held spotlight. Then a new chapter called Cry begins. It is night on the beach. She sits by the water’s edge and moments later they wrap her in a towel. I’m not sure if the  ‘tears’ actually were caught on screen, but Yuko sure looked like she could have cried.

Next day it rains, so they drive to the beach. Then to a small neighborhood called Little Manila. All Yuko does here is sit by a curbside then she shops and buys some tee-shirts. Abruptly the shopping ends and Yuko is on the beach in a blue and white sundress while some girls chat on the soundtrack. After  a few minutes this chatting becomes seriously annoying.

Next is another rainy day. Nonetheless Yuko poses in a bikini. The there’s some fake surfing – the board is not in the water.  But then she does take the board into the sea and paddles off. Three problems – there’s no surf, Yuko paddles around in water no higher than waist high, and the weather still sucks. She is able to stand up on the board but she would fall off almost immediately. And it is still raining.

And so ends the trip to Guam. We accompany Yuko to the plane, sit next to her on the plane, and she chats with us after arriving back in Japan. 5 minutes of outtakes, behind the scenes, making of, chatting, eating, make that lots and lots of eating, and still more commentary are included. The last five minutes has Yuko showing off and talking about all the stuff she bought in Guam.

Summary: Very cute model who has a better chance of suceeding as a pop idol than a gravure model. This particular DVD isn’t bad per se, it just isn’t a true gravure video. Far too much of this was episodic and seemingly ‘made up’ as they went along’. No doubt this was caused by the horrid weather which probably meant that their game plans had to be scrapped.

Yuko is high-spirited  with a lot of bouncy energy rather than sophisticated. She’s a small woman and not particularly curvy. But she has this great smile which she shows off to great advantage. In fact her smile on the cover was the reason I decided to review this DVD.  I’m going to score this one at just three point zero.

Web Vendors