Miyuu Sawai, for those of you who aren't familiar with the live-action version Sailor Moon, was the young model and actress (or "idol" if you prefer the Japanese parlance) who landed the lead role in that series, probably largely by virtue of her incredibly bubbly and energetic personality. Not long ago I managed to get ahold of one of her idol DVD's (her seventh one; she's a pro at this stuff) and figured I'd write one of my patented mini-reviews of it here, just for the heck of it. (For the record, my heart still belongs to Ayaka, but as might be expected from someone who's probably written close to forty thousand words on the series, I've developed a certain fondness for all the former Sailor Moon actresses).





This particular DVD, entitled "Snow White", is -- unlike Ayaka's latest offering -- completely storyless. All we get are a bunch of unrelated scenes featuring Ms. Sawai wandering around Hawaii in skimpy outfits. Well, mostly skimpy. In a few scenes she's wearing modest dresses and in one she's wearing a school uniform, but for the most part, yeah, they're all pretty skimpy. (The girl is undeniably cute, and has a 500-watt smile, but I have to admit, all the skimpy outfits weirded me out a little. Best I can figure, she was barely eighteen when this thing was shot, and from the way the camera leers at her, the audience was obviously expected to get a great deal of delectation out of the sight of her (mostly) unclad body. Yeah, I know that's essentially the point of idol DVD's, but good grief: watching some of this stuff made me feel like a dirty old man, and I'm only in my mid-twenties).





Anyway, like I said, the whole thing here was apparently shot in Hawaii. Ms. Sawai inevitably winds up on the beach several times, but at one point (in what is arguably the most entertaining interlude) she makes her way to a tennis court and has a match with some unseen character. This is also the only scene where she's really allowed say anything, which is a shame: this chick is at her most appealing, oddly enough, when she's excitedly and exuberantly babbling nonstop about whatever she happens to be doing. In other scenes, she writhes around on a bed in her PJ's and acts all playful (be aware, her shameless I'm-so-gosh-darn-cute mugging of the camera can get a little annoying after a while), walks around some rocky outcropping in the school uniform, acts all serious in a scene shot at night next to a pool, goofs around on a little rowboat, eats a pile of candy by a highway...stuff like that. Most of the segments are pretty typical for a mid-budget idol DVD, but some come across as...well, a bit strange. For example, in the last segment, we see her looking slightly disheveled and making her way through some underbrush. I guess this was included for the guys who get a kick out of seeing girls in Battle Royale-style survivalist mode or something.





The rest of the package is pretty dull: there's some behind-the-scenes footage included, but only about five minutes of it. All in all...I don't know. I mean, it's hard to go wrong with cute girls prancing around on beaches, but a little of that sort of thing goes a long way, you know? I can't imagine watching this whole fifty-minute DVD more than once or twice (and twice only if I happened to be really, really bored). Huge fans of Miyuu Sawai will doubtless want to check it out; more casual fans of the Sailor Moon star, however, may want to think twice before spending a gazillion dollars importing it.

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