Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Am I Missing Something?

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The Weatherwoman is a strange Japanese cult film that will definitely not be to all tastes, as it comprises a blend of gross-out humour, surrealism, soft porn and wild kung fu-style mysticism.Not everything is pulled off as well as it could be, but nonetheless this has enough crazy gags thrown at the wall with enough velocity and rapidity that the movie comes off entertainingly. My favourite gag was the way the chairman's daughter at all times had someone carrying at stick of French Bread for her, to signify her Parisian education.

One is tempted to suspect the feminist credentials of any male director, especially in a film boasting graphic female onanism, and a not-exactly-hostile-to-adolescent-male-fantasy bath scene featuring naked women, licking, foam and cute maid's outfits. Nevertheless, one must applaud Hosoyama's intentions - he far outstrips the similarly themed and styled 'To Die For' in terms of both visual imagination and ideological sympathy. What begins as a media satire turns into a gleefully bizarre S&M martial arts fantasy. The terms of the conflict are gendered - the sterile post-modern male world of the media and virtual reality; and the older female world of magic and nature. This tends to reinforce stereotypes, especially when the villainess is punished for wanting to be man, but who cares when you're having this much fun?

This is a great little film with lots of interesting (and hilarious and erotic) twists and turns. I'm always a little put off when I hear "satire", but this is satire that never descends into cynicism. The film makers obviously enjoyed making this. I also highly recommend the sequel, "Weather Woman Returns", which is just as good.

I've always been a fan of crazy, erotic asian romps, and this comedy is one of the best. Hell, there's even a lesbian sex scene thrown in with no relevance at all(not that I was worried). It was followed by a mild sequel that isn't worth seeing, but this one(based on a popular manga comic strip) certainly is. You'll never look at your local TV weatherperson the same way after this.