My son dragged me to see
The Hunger Games. I went in having no idea what it was about and not knowing what to expect. I began to realize it was supposed to be a (serious) political satire, but couldn't grasp its targets until it dawned on me what the cultural touchstones were here: Reality shows + Iraq = the United States of the past 20-30 years or so = the culture from which I have become so alienated I feel like a foreigner in my own country... Add to that the most nauseating of new camera techniques: constantly moving shaky-cam, random close-ups obscuring the action (during one fight, I didn't realize until it was over that the opponent was a girl), etc. And top it off with ludicrously obvious plot holes, glaring inconsistencies in character and motivation, heavy-handed audience manipulation, a stifling lack of humor, and I had one miserable time at the theater today. I could mention the obvious (and much better) sources stolen/borrowed from to concoct this social commentary (
Lord of the Flies,
Battle Royale, Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery", etc., etc., etc.), but that's an awfully cheap trick, one too low even for me... My son liked it, and I guess it would speak to a brooding teeny-bopper, which I can remember being once, about a century ago, so I watered down my complaints for him during our post-film discussion. Two stars out of Ten for me. Much higher, probably, if you are a young teen.
Given my taste in ladies, however, and the title of the film, it could have been much, much worse: Imagine if it had been a story about pouty, snotty anorexic models. I would have probably run out of the theater. As an antidote to that appalling vision, please join me in a visit with some lovely ladies of the past who, thankfully, appear not to have recently suffered from long bouts of hunger. And without further ado, Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you now The Anti-Hunger Games, Dekkappai's Plumper Games!
We begin our survey with a tribute to that classic, pioneer of the Japanese BBW genre,
Yoko Koizumi, above left.
IZM's
Erika (right) made only a couple of original DVDs for the studio (there is a more recent one which appears to be made of old material), but those few made an impact.
The diminutive
Usagi Minagi (left), with her long background in the field is an essential pleasure in any discussion of the Japanese BBW.
Oppai label claims their
Hitomi Matsumoto (aka Mozuku and Yumi Miyaoka) sets records in the bust department, but she is most obviously recognizable as an incredibly gorgeous BBW.
This year's games wind down with a four-part offering on a Wagnerian scale from another earlier Japanese BBW figure,
Anna Watarai at left. And we conclude at the right with one of the grandest finales of all time, from the same model.
