Alrighty then... 

Picture this if you will, a group of young males sitting around late one Friday night.  Too late, a mess of Pizza boxes and empty stubbies litter a coffee table somewhere in suburbia.  At some stage a male broke ranks and in a fit of sobriety made a vain attempt to find the elusive remote control with the intention of finding something interesting to watch on the tube.   

These were the days before DVD and way past my patience with Pan & Scan VHS!  Tuning in to old faithful Rage we were quickly dismayed to find them in the throws of Rap marathon of sorts.  Naturally we changed the channel! It was at this point when out of the haze somebody boldly suggested we try SBS for the obvious reasons, you could hear a pin drop...we changed the channel and the rest as the say is history... 

Looking back on that night I don't think anything could have prepared us for what we were about to witness that fateful Friday night.  But obviously we were the victims of some sort of celestial alignment.  Its higher purpose not yet revealed, as we tuned in at just the right time to witness the film that I'm reviewing for you here, A Weatherwoman.  

I don't think any of us have ever truly recovered from those 80 odd minutes of cerebral mayhem witnessed that night.  Hopefully those that have already seen this film will know what I'm talking about and take pity on our poor wretched souls.  

For the uninitiated I'll do my best to summarise this film that was unbeknownst to us at the time, a Japanese Cult sensation.  Straight off the bat I would like to make it known that I bring an unhealthy amount of bias to this review.  As I love this film and as you can probably tell, it has become very dear to me over the years. 

A Weatherwoman details the meteoric rise of a fill in weather girl; the over sexed Keiko.  Who in an effort to retain the coveted position of weatherwoman for the local TV network decides to flash her pretty little panties when signing off from reading the weather.  As the film progresses Keiko turns the weather report segment of the nightly news into an all singing, all dancing extravaganza.  With the viewers at home lapping it up as networks ratings soar, the incumbent weathergirl Michiko is shown the door.  Keiko then takes over full time as the networks weatherwoman. 

Incredulous at the degeneration of her fathers network.  The network chairman's daughter plots with Michiko to oust this little panty-flashing upstart and put Michiko back where she belongs.  And that my humble reader is the basic premise of the film, what follows next can only be described as pure madness.  The film crams in an abundance of slapstick humour, martial arts and some fairly soft porn girl-girl action. 

A Weatherwoman has sequences that you must see to believe.  Divulging them here will only diminish their impact upon viewing.  Rest assured that the content of the film justifies its R rating.  And I take no responsibility for any injuries sustained whether they are physical or emotional as a result of viewing this masterpiece.  All I will say though is that it definitely isn't for the prudish or those that are offended by the use of enemas...Look I've said enough already...The rest you will have to experience for yourself.   

At least you've had more preparation than what I did upon my first viewing! 

Sadly this cult favourite hasn't been delivered to DVD very well for its debut in region four.  A shame really as this film deserves to survive the ages and be passed down in the best way possible.  Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 letterboxed, i.e. without 16:9 enhancement, the transfer in a word is disappointing.   

Numerous mpeg artefacts mar the transfer to DVD and the print used for the transfer obviously wasn’t in the best of shape.  One can only hope for a complete restoration when it inevitably arrives on any one of the impending HD disc formats.  

Audio is provided in two forms, a Dolby Digital 2.0 Japanese track and an English Dolby Digital 2.0 track as well.  The English track is laughable and makes the film even more absurd.  However for this review I stuck with the original Japanese language track, backed up by an English subtitle stream, which did the job nicely.  The quality of the audio is average at best with the dated fidelity of highlighting the films age.  

Given the quality of the transfer and the lack of any real extras.  I would find it hard to justify shelling out the clams for this gem at full price.  It is definitely worth a rental.  However if you happen to see it on sale somewhere make sure you grab yourself a copy of it to tie you over until a full restoration of this classic is done.