Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Dirty Pair: Project Eden (1987)

***********PLEASE READ***************

For this week only the Asian Film Series will be presented at an alternate time and location. The date is still the same, but the film will be shown at 7:35PM in Bolton B52. For location information please see this link http://www4.uwm.edu/map/vt-cent.cfm Bolton is the building behind Lubar Hall on N. Maryland ave. The room is located in the basement and includes a theater style set up with a DVD projector.

Dirty Pair: Project Eden (1987)

April 14th, 7:35PM in Bolton B52


The Dirty Pair is the nickname of a duo of secret agent/investigators that appeared in a series of light SciFi novels written by Haruka Takachiho in the 1980's. Set over a century in the future, the two women look into problems usually having to do with the widespread human colonization of the Galaxy. Through their travels they become the equivalent of an albatross. Bad luck, destruction and death are always in their wake. This takes the form of an irreverent style of humor whereby they might be indirectly responsible for the deaths of millions, but the important thing is they have fun doing it and that is the appeal of the Dirty Pair, it is a love affair with the absurd.
The novels along with their illustrations of the two scantily clad protagonists spawned a TV series and a string of Original Video Animations (OVA’s). The Dirty Pair came from an era of Japanese animation very different from that of the 1990's or today. An era where it was less self conscious and painfully hip, and that having fun went hand in hand with an originality of spirit if not subject matter.

For their cinematic debut the Duo faces strange animal attacks on a far flung colony. The story is basically a mixture of Alien (1979) and the novel Dune, but this becomes irrelevant as the antics of the two protagonists are the only thing that really maters to the film. The joy of the material is in a celebration of cheesy excess. If you think tuxedo space suits are the height of fashion and that battle armor should be transparent and skin tight, then the Dirty Pair might be for you.
Japan, Director Koichi Mashimo, Cast Kyoko Tongu, Saeko Shimazu, Katsuji Mori and Chikao Otsuka, 81 minutes, in Japanese with English subtitles

3 comments:

Nonsuch Ned said...

huh, just noticed you never get any comments here. Well, here's one.

Although the now defunct ADV films licensed (I believe) all of the OVA's and films of Dirty Pair, they were never able to get the rights for the original series (apparently too expensive).

However it was recently announced that another company Nozomi/Rightstuf has finally done so.
http://dirty-pair.rightstuf.com/

Josias said...

I don’t get many comments, so thanks for providing one. Noone really expected a US company to licence such a little known 80's anime, but I am very glad they did. The novels didn’t have as much luck, with Dark Horse releasing the first two and then discontinuing future translations because of low demand. Now if someone will just release the early 80's series adapted from the work of Leiji Matsumoto such as Galaxy Express 999 or Captain Herlock.

Nonsuch Ned said...

This was just published on Anime News Network's "buried treasure" today. Thought you might like it:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/buried-treasure/2010-04-29/dirty-pair/project-eden