Yeah~

They sure don’t make them like they used to. It’s sad really.

Anyway, there are more versions of this movie so be careful when getting it. The one I am referring to in this post is the first one (probably) that was released in 1997. It stars;

Yamatsu Ayumi as Mio/Michiru	Shimada Hiroko as Hiroko

Kokkuri-san (This Kokkuri-san) is one of those Japanese movies I love so much where characters talk less but their actions and settings on the other hand speak volumes. The relationship between Mio and Hiroko was so huge for such a little movie that I found my self being over-whelmed. Now, I will say it again just in case someone has watched it and goes, ‘what BG be talkin’ about? That movie sucked soccer-balls’. To thee I say again, I never watch anything for plot but the yuri. And my yuri levels are those that require goggles, to others any way. Very rarely do I enjoy blatant yuri, probably why I can’t into Aoi Hana. On the other hand, some times one can’t help but go full swing a la Kannazuki no Miko and Strawberry Panic. And while this has kissing, it wasn’t that extreme and Mio had to go out o her way to finally win Hiroko over which is why I love this movie so damn much.

 
 
 

 

The movie played these two’s (Mio and Hiroko) relationship really well that even though this movie is in line with those B-Rates of Japan, I love it lots. By the beginning of the movie, you don’t know if there are any romantics going on where the two are concerned. Any way Hiroko was in lust with the third friend in this circle Masami’s boyfriend. In fact she almost gave him her, you know, but we shall be getting to that. By the middle of the movie, it is clear that one likes the other but too scared to admit it. Near then end the loved finds out and brings the subject to light but the lover still gets cold feet. By the end the lover finally confesses and the two “…” happily ever after.

Mio leads a double life as a high scholar by day and radio teen voice by night. Her radio personality Michiru is so loved and adored by many high school girls that she is almost like an Idol. That is a fake personality though and no one knows her real identity, well, maybe Hiroko knew from the very beginning, what with her being in tune with the spirits and all, also the second thing she said to Mio after ‘good morning’ in the movie was…

Then soon after, she proposed for the two of them to run away together some place where there is nobody else but the two of them. She was of course just kidding but Mio’s silence spoke volumes. Well, on the following watches it did, after I knew that she must have had feelings for Hiroko even before the events of the movie began. I wonder though if Hiroko knew of Mio’s feelings for her even then but I doubt that much at least.

Though I didn’t quite get the supernatural part of this movie (and I have watched it a couple of times) in that I can’t tell if Kokkuri-san was meant to be real or just someone’s imagination but…Oh by the way, Kokkuri-san is one of the many Japanese legends, who can be called up with a game board to grant one’s wish…not. The game is the equivalent of the Ouija Board in the West – For more go here.

 
 

I didn’t understand that part but the mystery was just the icing on the cake. Mio’s struggle with her feelings for Hiroko and Hiroko with hers for the Dude that was already seeing their friend Masami were just so heart-pulling. Hiroko who wasn’t the type of girl to be all dressy and flashy went out of her way when she scored a date with the Dude, who might have or might not have broken up with Masami. She splashed on make-up and dressed up some just for that first and special night with the Dude. Well, not first since she have given her virginity to some other random Dude just before who had laughed at her as he cleaned his car-seat of her virgin blood. Well, she isn’t a virgin anymore. And all this because she listened to fake Michiru on the radio.

Grrrrrrr

And while my insides screamed during all this manliness in my yuri movie, I felt that much happier by the end of that madness! Not after Mio saw Hiroko kissing boyfriend Dude on the streets though. That had to be painful but she was partly responsible, no?

Thank God though that not even Hiroko looked to be that into it. Hiroko went missing for a few nights after.

Mio bumped into her much later on the bridge they had met during the start of the movie. That bridge seemed to be Hiroko’s calm place as she looked over the river flowing beneath her or maybe she was just there to watch the Dude pass by every morning and evening driving Masami to and fro their school on his bike. If that’s so, Hiroko is one glutton for punishment. But I guess her feelings for the Dude were that strong. Too bad he wasn’t good enough!

 
 

Getting back on track, Mio bumps into Hiroko after her being missing for a while and she looks so bad and sickly. She immediately collapses into Mio’s arms when they meet as if she had walked around Japan once without resting. Mio takes her to her home to take care of her. There is where things begin to heat up. Mio, with all her bottled up feelings for Hiroko who is lying there defenceless and naked but for a pair of sheets on the couch and you betcha hormones started to rage.

 

 

I truly felt that anxiety that I am sure Mio must have felt as she fell victim to the temptation of kissing a sleeping Hiroko. Then again I always feel for moments like this and I did show it before in my post on ‘Shoujo-tachi no Rashinban’.

Sadly, unlike the confident Bata in that movie that went ahead and planted one of sleeping beauty, Mio lacked the guts as she pulled away while inches from sleeping Hiroko’s lips just like the other 99% of people who find themselves in that situation really. She fell asleep there right by Hiroko’s side in defeat.

When she woke up moments later, Hiroko was up on her feet watching the fishes in in nothing but a simple sheet wrapped around her milky white skin leaving her bare shoulders and collar bones showing. Hiroko metions her sex adventures to Mio and she lets her know of how nothing had changed at all. Mio tells her that she should have known that but Hiroko had only followed Michiru’s advice thinking that having sex changed people. Depressed, Hiroko excuses herself to go to the ladies room.

 

After what seemed like forever to Mio, Hiroko still didn’t come out of the bathroom. Worried, she goes to check up on her. It’s a good thing that she did because up there she found Hiroko, with the upper half of her body submerged in a bathtub filled with water, her whole body still! Mio didn’t waste time screaming in hysterics as she quickly went over and rescued Hiroko a second time. Hiroko though wasn’t that pleased with Mio’s actions as she seemed bent on wanting to die. Mio refuses to let go though until Hiroko calmed down.

 

Interestingly, soon after Hiroko proposes that they kiss but what does Mio, who had only hours before tried to steal a kiss from the same Hiroko do? She backs away as of Hiroko was some venomous viper. I was like “serious Mio, what?!”

This calls for some ‘out’ time between the two and during this break, Mio comes to terms with her feelings for Hiroko while Hiroko on the other hand is falling lower and lower until Kokkuri-san’s spirit takes over her soul. Thankfully before things hit rock bottom for Hiroko, Mio balls up and confesses her true feelings towards Hiroko.

You read that right dear Readers, a proper confession in a movie!

But that is just laying out the ingredients. What rocked more was the way that Mio confessed. As I mentioned earlier, Mio had a double life with one as a radio persona known as Michiru on her Sister’s night radio. School kids would send her letters and she would solve them and mostly they were about love. Everyone thought Michiru was an expert in the world of fashion/love/girl’s world or whatever you think of it. Even though Mio pulled this off perfectly, it was all a fake persona. Truthfully, she didn’t sleep with different guys every other week. In fact she was still a virgin. Mio of course finally comes clean of this right before the big event – the confession.

Yep, she poured out her feelings to Hiroko live on the radio. Even though they were in falling out, Mio knew of Hiroko’s love for Michiru and she knew Hiroko would be listening wherever she was. It was because of Michiru’s encouragement that Hiroko finally got up the nerve to ask the Dude out, even though it was a disaster but better to go forth and chance it than live forever in regret, right? And true to that Hiroko really was listening. It’s too bad though that the time was up for her as Kokkuri-san was soon taking over her completely. Soon she was out for blood to those who had hurt her starting with the Dude, then his girlfriend for dessert but for better or for worse, Mio comes in time to save them and Hiroko too from Kokkuri-san’s spirit.

You know, after that confession and then Hiroko going Darth on us, I was pretty sure that was the end of the good stuff. I sure was never gladder to be proven wrong. Hiroko does indeed get saved from Kokkuri-san but how exactly did Mio accomplish this difficult task?

 

 

With a Kiss, is how!

See, this is how you save people’s souls from the dark clouds surrounding them. You don’t go around be-heading them, dear BRS, nor do you decide to end their lives lest they go about hurting others and yes I mean you Mami-san! You destroy enemies of emotions with emotion.

Mio saved her love by simply kissing the Devil out of her.

That’s how it’s done!

But of course things wouldn’t so simple as that. This is not some television soap opera. We can’t have nice endings like this in our horror movies – says every other horror movie, which brings us to the last scenes of the movie.

Mio and Hiroko are at their special place upon the bridge and they look much happier than they were before at first glance. We find out that Hiroko doesn’t remember the happenings after Kokkuri-san fully took over, which thankfully don’t include the confession. They could just kiss again to make up for the forgotten kiss, right?

Right

 
 
 
 

But not all is as it seems as suddenly Mio fires back that suggestion Hiroko made at the beginning of the movie. “Let’s go someplace where it will be just the two of us” Hiroko suggests…

In Kokkuri-san’s voice!

The camera pans away from the two as Hiroko looks to Mio with, surprisingly, no shock or wonder to be found on her face. What could it all mean?

When the camera gets back to the place the two are supposed to be at, only there bags remain, the two nowhere to be seen.

What in the…?! They didn’t just jump into the flowing river below, did they? Damn you Hiroko, why did you go and wonder whether you would die if you jumped from the bridge (some time in the movie)? Now Kokkuri-san just went and made you two to find out!

 

As for the answer to that, it shall forever remain a mystery, to me at least, for when we next see (and for the last time) Mio and Hiroko, they were lying on a beach somewhere, side by side on their backs and holding onto each other’s hands. We are not given enough time to see and make sure if they are really alive or dead. But of course this is a formula for specular and my own is that they are alive.

First, during the time when Hiroko pondered about jumping from the bridge, she sounded like she already knew she wouldn’t die even if she had jumped. Next, at the beach as they lay together, do dead people hold hands? Okay, they do but only if they double-sucided (I will make it a word dammit) laying in a bed somewhere. These two though jumped into a river so for them ending up like that in dead is very un-likely. In conclusion, the two are still alive and dandy and eloped to some far away land to get married, shack up and adopt lots of girls for their children to be raised into lady killers!

Amen…

~

Yeah, I loved this little gem of a movie (actually it runs at normal movie length of 1h30m but it felt that short) and Mio/Hiroko is one of my listed couples. Believe me they don’t come cheap when it comes to live action, the couples to be added to the list I mean. I loved Hiroko’s deep voice most but really, I liked her characters from the very beginning. Mio grew on me too because she was there for Hiroko every time she was needed.

Recommend?

Umm…yeah!