Labyrinth of Flames
Galan is a klutzy college student who dreams of becoming a samurai: he watches the movies, reads the comics, and memorizes the jargon. When Natsu, a princess whose family fled to Russia when the Tokugawa Shogunate was overthrown, gives him a real samurai sword and takes him to her ancestral home, his real problems begin. What follows suggests an episode ofRurouni Kenshinstaged by the cast ofAmazing Nurse Nanako. It's one long series of farcical crises with a plethora of "fan service": jiggle shots, cleavage shots, panty shots, nude scenes, and jokes about breasts, lust, sadomasochism, and incest. Galan repeatedly gets clobbered in the slapstick violence, and director Katsuhiko Nishijima manages to keep the camera looking up the girls' miniskirts, even when the action in the scene centers on the male characters. Suggested 16 Up: Violence, nudity, profanity, gross-out humor, drug use.--Charles Solomon