The Dictator

Let's start off by answering the question most likely to attract readers to this blog entry: Who is the woman who breaks bricks with her boobs in the trailer to The Dictator? We see this performance on the right. Well, since first making this post, I have done a little research on the identity of the mysterious boob-crusher. If my research is correct, she is none other than Susan Sykes aka Busty Heart, with her double 20-pounds of deadly-weaponry. Wasn't Chesty Morgan a member of the Israeli Army? Maybe this is some kind of Special Ops force? Deadly Weapons indeed... But let's set aside our review of The Dictator to take care of some Boobpedia-related items first...

I was able to work on Boobpedia off & on most of the day. I started the morning off by adding a little to the stub on Sara Aikawa which I started last night. Then I got back to work on the Munekyunkissa / ALB- project. The final day's tally came to stubs for ALB-105 through ALB-125. The day's highlight, I suppose, was Rin Aoki in Pussy Fart from the 110-cm Magnum Big Boobs: Haru (June 2011). It's kind of amusing that Munekyunkissa is taking this "Amateur" charade so far as to attempt pass off as well-known a star as Rin Aoki as an amateur named "Haru"... She's always been a very pretty girl, but rather too thin for my tastes. She seems to be filling out rather nicely in more recent appearances though. I may start following her career with more interest...

Rather than the "Pussy Fart" titles (I don't mind the occasional pussy fart during sex, mind you, but I can't say I make a fetish out of it...), I was interested in the titles of a new couple videos using the "Kakure kyonyuu" (hiding big boobs) theme. The covers to these particular DVDs (Scoring with the I-cup Girl who Hides Her Big Boobs: Eri for example) seem, actually, to have the girls showing them off. But I think it would make a nice series: Big-boob Japanese gals who try to dress so that their bust is not noticeable, but the things are just too damned big to hide... As a demonstration of what I have in mind, above right we have the super-abundant Yuuki Manaka in DVD DDK-040 shyly realizing that--OOPS!-- some cleavage is peaking through. One thing leads to another and soon we have the modestly proud unveiling (below left; from DVD MAGURO-021). I leave it up to my esteemed readers' imagination to surmise where the DVD's narrative leads from there...

In 2006, before he was fired from Mainichi for writing about such shameful things in English, so that foreigners could read them, Ryann Connell reported on an article in Spa! (December 2006) covering the "Kakure kyonyuu" phenomenon. Connell's article was titled "Japan's latest titillating trend: Hiding those huge hooters!" It indicated an inconsistent attitude towards big boobs. It claimed that the majority of Japanese women were A- or B- cups before the mid-1980s, and that bigger-busted women were ashamed of their breasts, and kept them hidden. Hence, "Kakure kyonyuu" was going on at that time. In the '90s, however, in the wake of the "Kyonyuu boom", bigger boobs became more widely-admired in Japan. These days (in 2006 that is), A-cups account for less than 20%, and smaller-busted women are exaggerating their busts through padded bras, etc. Yet, according to the article, "Kakure kyonyuu" is still widely practiced among buxom women who do not want to attract undue attention.

And now for The Dictator, which I saw today. I found it not nearly as offensive as Sacha Baron Cohen's previous two-- Borat and Brüno-- and therefore not as hilarious. Still, it wasn't bad. Probably what made this one a little less biting than the others was that, though U.S. culture gets a few jabs, the main target of satire seems to be the Dictator himself. In Borat, Baron Cohen used an anti-Semitic character to ridicule the anti-Semiticism of the Americans he tricked into lowering their guards. In Brüno, he uses a flamboyantly gay character to ridicule the Americans' (and others') homophobia. But here, rather than poke fun at American prejudice against Moslems, or Middle Eastern stereotypes, he seems to be using the Dictator more to make fun of... Middle-Eastern dictators. Not exactly the sharpest subject for satire. Along with that comes the feeling that we're laughing at another group of people, rather than laughing at (and therefor learning about) ourselves, as in the previous two films. Cheaper laughs.

As far as I know (I don't follow Baron Cohen's career that closely), this is his first "straight" movie with a screenplay, and all actors. He abandons the guerilla-style filmmaking he used previously, where he gets unaware, real people in uncomfortable situations to record their reactions. It's one thing to ridicule the people of a culture or nation for being one way or another with fictional characters, it's something else to actually show real people being that way, and to get humor out of that. For example, there is a scene where he and another Middle Eastern character are talking in pseudo-Arabic, using occasional English words ("Statue of Liberty", "Empire State Building!") and making explosion noises and laughing while sitting behind two American tourists. The subtitles tell us it's a perfectly innocent conversation, and we are supposed to laugh at the reactions of the American tourists. Well, we do laugh, of course-- it's funny. But wouldn't it have been much funnier-- more unpredictable and true-to-life-- if, like in the previous films, they had really been American tourists, rather than actors? There is more bite to the satire in the guerilla style, when it works right. But then, no doubt, his growing fame prevents that style from being as easy to pull off anymore... So, unlike the great Martin Scorsese (above left, in custody of the Dictator himself), I can't claim I think it is better than Raging Bull (1980). But then unlike Scorsese, I am not being held hostage with electrodes attached to my privates while writing this review... But seriously... Baron Cohen is no doubt the best satirist working in film today. If he's not quite at his best in this one, it's still much better than the majority of comedies coming out these days. If (as I think) this is his first completely fictional film, then it's a very worthy first effort. Either way, Seven stars out of Ten.