Cherry Girl (film)
| Cherry Girl | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Directed by | Shuta Takahata |
| Produced by |
Max Matsuura Chiba Ryuhei Araki Takashi Hayashi Shinji Nagata Yoshihisa |
| Written by | Osamu Suzuki |
| Starring |
Kumi Koda MEGUMI Yuna Ito |
| Music by | Kumi Koda |
| Distributed by |
Rhythm Zone Avex Entertainment |
Release dates | December 20, 2006 (Japan) |
| Language | Japanese |
Cherry Girl is a Japanese action/drama film featuring Japanese singer-songwriter Kumi Koda. The film was featured on the second DVD of her studio album Black Cherry.[1]
The film featured actresses MEGUMI and Yuko Ito alongside Kumi Koda, who is the main character. The film was inspired by Charlie's Angels, which could be seen with its action scenes and with the three women given orders by an unknown man via telephone.[2]
Koda Kumi, the main focus of the film, released a music video centered around the film's theme on her Cherry Girl/Unmei single.[3]
Plot
Cherry Girl centers around three female bartenders, who use the bar to run a private detective agency. Kumi (Kumi Koda), Meg (MEGUMI) and Yu (Yuko Ito) play agents who work as private investigators for an unseen man named Goro (Goro Inagaki). He contacts the three women via Vodafone cell phone to give them job orders.
The film opens with a bar scene of the women serving the customers, alongside a conversation Kumi, Yu and Meg are having, talking about past love interests. Kumi tells them that during one of her relationships, she had found a hair in the man's bed, which did not belong to her and broke up with the man a week later. The scene is played back-to-back with the bar scene and an action scene of the trio. Meg alerts the other two of a suspicious character entering the bar with a pocket knife. Yu offers him a drink upon entering and stealthily take his pocket knife, which she gives to Kumi. Kumi, being annoyed at the weapon, throws it and sticks it in a beam, which the man sees and begins looking for his knife. It shows the trio's intelligence and response to threats.
It then cuts to the women getting massages. Meg tells the other two that she had read a magazine, which claimed 99% of all men lied to their partner. The others say it's too much, saying the reality was more "60%-70%." Meg believes the figure should be 30%. When Yu asks how Meg could claim such a low number when she, herself, has had fifteen partners, Meg fails to come up with a response right as their phones begins ringing. Kumi asks the massage therapists to leave while the trio takes the call. Goro explains that a young woman, Mari (Mari Hoshino), knows that her boyfriend, M. Hotta, has other girlfriends and wants to ensure that he ends his relationships with them before her and M. Hotta are married. It cuts to the women speaking with Mari, who says that both her and her future spouse are virgins, with her having been at Doseji Temple and him being from the Kiseji Temple. Despite this, Mari believes that her fiance is having an affair with his secretary, Ishida Fumiko, and wants the trio to investigate.
Kumi watches Hotta and Fumiko exit an office building, relaying the information to Meg and Yu. She sends a picture via cellphone as Hotta sits in the back seat and Fumiko takes a seat in the front. During the scene, Get Up & Move!! plays, as Kumi makes an attempt to keep up with them as they drive away. She takes on several disguises as she follows the duo, failing to come up with evidence of him cheating. Failing to gain any information over the course of a week, the trio discusses the case, now believing Hotta to be "perfect." Still wanting to please their customer, Mari, the trio decide to crash a party Hotta will be attending, which will host many celebrities.
Kumi and Yu stake out the event and see Hotta enter with Fumiko. After the duo separate, Kumi attempts to talk to Hotta, trying to get him to flirt with her, so they have evidence of him cheating on his fiance. During the scene, Ningyo-hime plays to signify the manipulation of the situation. Yu acts to stumble into Hotta, dropping her hand bag, which Hotta picks up and hands to her. Kumi takes advantage of the situation and uses the actions to start a conversation; during which, Yu bumps into him again, dropping her hand bag. As she and Hotta exchange apologies, she takes the opportunity to swipe his cell phone and his wallet.
As Kumi distracts Hotta, Meg and Yu scan his card and his phone for evidence of an affair. As he leaves, he bumps into Yu, who takes the moment to return his wallet and phone without him noticing. Yu says that they should leave, but Kumi says that they can't leave with "such a nice buffet waiting." While attempting to take a glass of champagne, she meets Takeda (Shinji Takeda). She tells Meg and Yu that it was "love at first sight" as Milk Tea plays during Takeda and Kumi's meeting. He gives her a token to remember their meeting by. While Kumi goes on about why they are perfect for each other, Yu claims that she can't know true love with such a "backward way of thinking." One of the massage therapists say that, to make "backward thinking" true love, there must be sincerity. During this, Goro calls the women, asking if there has been any success with Mari's investigation. They tell him they have not found anything and he tells them they must fine some sort of evidence for their client. Before he hangs up, Kumi asks him what he thinks about true love, where he tells her that a meeting is controlled by destiny. During this, Unmei plays. During this, a flashback occurs of when Kumi met Goro, when she met a different private investigator to investigate her then-love interest. When the P.I rejected her, asking her why she would think such a thing, Goro overheard and offered her information and a job opportunity.
The trio brings Maki in to ask her more questions. Mari admits to placing cameras all throughout Hotta's residence to catch him and Fumiko in the act. Meg and Yu are convinced Mari is overreacting and that Hotta is not cheating on her, but Kumi insists that there is more to it and that they investigate.
As Kumi breaks into Hutto's office, Yu and Meg direct her. During this scene, JUICY plays.
Afterwards, Kumi attempts to meet up with Takeda again, but becomes distraught when he sees her with another woman. As she tells Meg and Yu what had happened, the "Red Cherry Version" of WON'T BE LONG plays. She then reveals that the woman she saw with Takeda was Mari. While she explains, Meg is curious as to why Takeda would take Mari to Hotta's office. They then become suspicious as to why Mari would be with Takeda (Hotta's vice president), unless there is something the duo is trying to obtain.
Hotta ends up discovering the camera set in his office by Mari and speaks to the camera how he is upset, believing him and Mari to be destined to be together. He then says how his new business partners are standing behind both Mari and Takeda and it is revealed to be Kumi, Meg and Yu. After the trio discovered Mari to be lying, they went to Hotta, who then asked them to find the truth on Takeda and Mari, so that his company would be saved. Kumi tells Takeda that she found out Mari orchestrated the meeting between Takeda and herself, then gives him back the token. As Takeda reaches for the phone to call his bodyguards, Kumi laughs, saying how they disposed of them and that the call would be useless. Mari tries to escape, but Yu stops her and mocks the fact that Mari thought her manipulation would work. During the scene, Cherry Girl plays. Takeda stops her and, when Yu tries to fight him, he overpowers her. Meg and Kumi both try to fight him, but he defeats both of them.
Kumi manages to get him off of her and Yu takes the advantage and trips him. As Kumi attempts to strike the final blow, Mari intercepts her and places herself over Takeda to protect him. She explains that, as Hotta's company grew, Takeda was pushed off to the side and transferred to other sections, despite being vice president. Mari says how she was in love with Takeda and wanted to see him happy and to succeed, so she tried to frame Hotta as having multiple lovers so he would have to give up the company due to bad publicity. She claims that Kumi did not trust her lover, either, referring to when Kumi wanted a private investigator to spy on her then-lover. Kumi retaliates and says that, by Mari manipulating both Hotta and Takeda, she is hurting Takeda more than helping him. She says they either needs to tell each other what is going on or they need to end their relationship to truly be happy. She tells Mari that she has seen the way they look at each other and that Takeda's happiest place would be to be beside her, Mari, as long as Mari would come clean and tell Takeda how she manipulated Hotta to try to get him to keep Takeda. Kumi leaves, telling Mari to "turn over a new leaf," as she did with her past lover.
The trio returns to running their bar, with the man from earlier (who carried the pocket knife) returning, this time carrying a ring, which Yu snatches. It is revealed to say: "You are the woman of my destiny" in Spanish (Tu sei la donna del mio destino). Goro congratulates them on a job well done and tells them that Mari has vowed to be with Hotta only. After they say goodbye, it cuts to Kumi, Meg and Yu cleaning up the bar and Kumi wondering where Goro lives. They admit they don't know and Kumi comments how she's convinced he does not even live in the same city. As they talk, a scene is shown where Fumiko runs into Goro, with him only recognizing her after she has walked away. It is learned that Hotta knew the girls were following him and of the tracking devices they were using to target him due to his secretary (Fumiko) relaying the information to him each time. It is also revealed the Takeda and Mari were both in on the scheme,
As it had turned out, everyone, with the exception of Yu, Kumi, Meg and Goro, were in the scheme, including the massage therapists. They had set the girls up and, during the distraction, planted a IED (bomb) in their vehicle, causing it to explode as they approached. WON'T BE LONG [Black Cherry Version] plays during the ending scene.[4][5]
References
- ↑ "Black Cherry (ALBUM+2DVD)(Japan Version)". YesAsia. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
- ↑ "Cherry Girl (2006) (V)". IMDB. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
- ↑ "Cherry Girl/Unmei (SINGLE+DVD)(Japan Version)". YesAsia. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
- ↑ "KODA KUMI - Cherry Girl [Eng Sub]". YouTube. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
- ↑ http://www.rhythmzone.net/koda/cherry/