ID: STAR-147
Actress: Hara Saori
Release Date: 2009-02-19
Label: Soft On Demand
Genres: Beach
Reviewer: Mr. Tan
Introduction
Sun and surf have a hypnotic effect on humans, drawing them from near and far to worship at the steps to Poseidon’s kingdom. The sun on your skin, the bass beat of the waves in your ears, even the taste of the wind seems to make people happier. Obviously, it’s no surprise that sex on the beach is a popular fantasy.
The problem with sex on the beach is just how messy a fantasy it is. Sweat is a price of doing business, but sand and salt are... less pleasant. Throw in how other beachgoers would probably disapprove of such public amorous adventures and it becomes clear that it is not the most practical of desires to achieve. That's why JAV is such a useful utility – it accomplishes the fiction for the viewer.
The Actress
Saori Hara is a fascinating case study of a career cut short. Originally, this section resembled the Yua Mikami scoop, but I chose to save that for an editorial of the future. Our heroine here could easily pass for full-blooded Japanese, but the reality is that her father is a hafu, rendering her one-quarter German. There are hints to this status in her oval face, with the way it veers toward a heart-shape that is so atypical of full-blooded Japanese; the fullness of her rosebud mouth and the shape of her nose, even the rich brown of her eyes, are not elements usually found in the typical Japanese face, but can the observer knows what to look for, it is fairly easy not to notice the differences.
On another score, Saori Hara is beautiful. My previously reviewed actresses were typically very cute or pretty, but Saori Hara’s face is on a tier of physical perfection above theirs. Complex Magazine would agree with me, although personally, I would have ranked her far higher on that list. In addition to her beauty, she benefits from a good combination of full breasts, nice buttocks, a small waist, and pink nipples.
In terms of sexual performance, she received the Adult Broadcasting Award for Best Actress in 2010, so that’s surely a good enough endorsement.
Rating 4.0
The Performance
Saori Hara started her career as a junior idol in Japan, a D-lister who acted in a few dramas and movies. Tangentially, it also explains why she received the “Real Celebrity” moniker in each of her movies. Anyway, Saori Hara is a good actress, fully able to convey enthusiasm as a young girl going on vacation, as a woman being interviewed during and at the end of her vacation, and as a gravure model, all roles she had previously played. She immerses the view into the fantasy. There is also an unscripted event where her cat nearly causes her camera to all which manages to convey all of her youthful charm in a completely natural way.
One short, yet memorable clip is about 42 minutes into the film, where Saori Hara, in full bathing suit regalia, washes herself with a handheld shower head. She never strips, but her movements, her facial expressions, everything is so naturally paced and erotic. Another clip, right before the final sex scene, involve her dancing on the beach in a graceful, sexual way that would have been perfect in a gravure movie. The very last scene is another gravure scene, with Saori Hara teasing that she is naked before revealing a new swimsuit, one sexier than her previous outfits, as she plays to the camera with some gravure poses before she gives the viewer a smoldering gaze good-bye.
Not that she’s perfect, mind you. It’s true that this is only her second movie, so there are some awkward moments, such as when she first encounters or deals with her male colleagues at the start of a sex scene. There is no awkwardness during sex, but it certainly seems like they do not make an effort to at least try to make it seem natural. There are other moments, like when she is on some sort of balcony with one hell of a view of the surrounding Okinawa countryside. She strips a bit awkwardly, rather like… she was instructed she was being photographed as opposed to filmed. I think that might be a case where the awkward came from the director. There’s also another scene where, judging from the steady rising and falling of her torso, she was genuinely asleep, and the director simply went into her room and filmed her sleeping.
Rating 3.5
Story/Theme/Setting
Technically, the theme is Saori Hara’s vacation in Okinawa, the Japanese Hawaii, with exhibitionism and sex on the beach, but as I hinted at earlier, the director might have started phoning it in. The movie starts, naturally enough, with Saori Hara happily showing off her new swimsuiit for this vacation, and the scene is made more spontaneous when her cat attempting to knock over her camera. There’s no video crew or direction, so the scene is quite natural. However, the director-inserted awkwardness hurts the film.
There is one scene in particular that comes to mind that hurts the film. It should be in the section below, but let’s get the bad out of the way, especially since this does impact the theme execution. After the excitement of the first sexual scene on the beach and the comedown of the white balcony scene, the viewer finds themselves in Saori Hara’s room. Instead of a nighttime sex session, it becomes… weird. Saori Hara is asked to watch a JAV film. She watches and films herself watching as the camera crew film her watching. It moves to masturbation, but the whole thing is contrived. Why would a beautiful JAV actress watch JAV during a JAV movie shoot?
Rating 3.0
Sexual Content
Despite the failure of the stupid JAV-ception scene, the rest of the sexual activity is quite well done. After initial awkwardness, the first sex scene of the film is a blowjob scene on the beach. Saori Hara does an excellent job at fellatio, concentrating on the head while throwing in additional action to keep the viewer and her colleague interested and on edge. She eventually transitions toward a dual fellatio-hand combo that works quite well, as it becomes clear her male colleague is about to burst and… the idiot removes her from her work to ejaculate on her breasts. It only takes him a single stroke to burst, so it makes me once again wonder what the hell the director was thinking. Who is this ponce, anyway? Minami★nami Ou? Wait a minute, he's the director of a number of movies I want to see...!
The second scene is the sex on the beach scene so prominent in the art work. The hassle of sand is avoided since they use a convenient rock outcropping to shelter themselves from the sun and avoid coarse grains going into sensitive areas. There is fingering and cunnilingus in doggy-style position before the action heats up, the scene is great, with Saori Hara applying her fellatio skills before they both transition to standing doggy-style. However, it ends awkwardly, as when the actor pulls out, Saori Hara begins to go down to her knees, when he pulls her up to ejaculate on her buttocks. It’s pretty clear that the director screwed up his directions. Saori Hara’s displeased and dissatisfied expression ends the scene.
The last scene is free of flaws, thank the Maker. Inside of her hotel room, Saori Hara and her colleague indulge in foreplay, beginning a display that surpasses the rest of the movie in intimacy. The pair indulge in a sexual rump through the Kama Sutra Lite, engaging in at least a half-dozen positions that titillate and arouse.
Rating 3.0
Overall
This film started out with potential. Saori Hara had the acting and gravure modeling experience, along with sexual talent, to turn this into a great film, and it shows through in selected scenes. The last scene makes clear that there was always a possibility for a knockout film, but the director’s clumsiness left us with something that was only above average. This is by no means a bad film. It is merely a movie where the viewer knows it could have been more, but that more was never accomplished.
Rating: 3.4 B
Worth Watching
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