The nation’s idols are in danger so who you gonna call? Mei, Kai and Yumi are high school students but are also secret police detectives. A threat has been made against the idol group Morning Musume through a letter sent to the police so Mei and her detective sisters are given the task of guarding them. After their concert, the group are driven to their hotel in a minibus with 2 cars (one in front, one at the rear) shadowing the vehicle. Mei has gone along with the idol group to guard them on the minibus but when they arrive at their destination the driver of the minibus stumbles out! Morning Musume and Mei have mysteriously vanished and have been replaced by balloons. Yumi retraces the bus’ route in order to find some clues. What she finds in the woods along the way is the dead body of the minibus driver. During daylight more clues are found including a badge close to where the body was found. Yumi is convinced that there’s a link between the wooden bird nests that have been placed on the trees, a climbing hook and some wire that’s been found dangling nearby. A call is made to the police saying that Morning Musume and Mei have been taken hostage and the kidnapper wants some ransom money. An image of an unconscious Mei is shown tied to a chair in the kidnappers lair. Instructions are given to the police on where to take the money and Kai along with her adult colleague go to Odaiba to the rendevous point as stated in the telephone message. A toolbox from the minibus is found with a cryptic note telling the two where to go next with the money. This leads them to the Kuko River next to a pumping station where another cryptic message awaits. Will the two remaining sisters manage to find Morning Musume and Mei before anything happens to them?
The Keitai Deka (Mobile Detective) franchise has been ongoing since 2002 with 8 TV series so far and 3 spin-off movies. The original first 2 series even had such stars as Aoi Miyazaki and Maki Horikita in the leading roles. The first movie appeared in 2006 with the follow-up released in 2007. This, the 3rd movie came out 4 years later. I had low expectations before watching this movie and I was in fact expecting a silly teenage girl comedy movie but it turned out to be quite a serious detective thriller. It does have it’s silliness at times but mostly it’s played dead straight. What I liked most about the movie was it shows the girls using their reasoning and intelligence to solve clues and piece things together, even showing up their superiors at times. Even with this happening, it is never shown or implied that the adult police officers look down on the girls even if they are only teenage school girls. They are treated with respect and valued for their intelligence.
The 3 leading girls (Aya Omasa/Azuka and Anri Okamoto) are very cute and easy on the eye. They excel in their roles and are backed up by a great cast of supporting characters. This isn’t an idol movie at all and Morning Musume only have around 15 minutes screen time and 7 minutes of that is shown of them performing onstage. They only have a smattering of dialogue given to them. What’s funny is that some of the Morning Musume members (specifically the Chinese duo LinLin and JunJun) had graduated from the group in December 2010 so when the movie was released in February 2011 the lineup had changed!
The plot is lightweight fare but even so it’s still an enjoyable movie. I was surprised how much I liked it. I thought it was great fun. I’d like to see the other two movies someday. Recommended.
Sadako’s Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5