RED LADY (2007) ** ½

Red Lady is a superheroine in an Ultraman-inspired red skintight latex outfit (although it looked more pink than red on my screen, but that’s just nitpicking) who defends her city from giant monsters.  After making short work of a kaiju (who looks like a mass of melted tires) with her “Red Beam”, another monster (this one a not-bad Godzilla clone) battles Red Lady.  It eventually wears her down enough so that its master can tie her up and give her electroshock torture.  She is finally able to escape, but it soon becomes clear it has all been an elaborate trap to catch Red Lady and violate her. 

Ah yes, it’s been a while since I watched a GIGA movie.  Like W.A.V.E. Productions, these films are more or less bondage movies, but most of the appeal comes less from the act of women in the cast being tied and bound but from seeing them struggling against their (mostly male) aggressors (or in this case, men in monster suits).  What makes GIGA special is their knack for combining BDSM with Saturday morning Tokusatsu style action and monsters. 

Red Lady isn’t nearly as wild and crazy as some of the other GIGA movies I have seen.  It’s not up to the wacky levels of WTF lunacy of the Gigantic Hermaphrodite series, but it still offers a modicum of fun for B-movie fans who think they’ve seen it all.  In fact, it might be a nice starter film for the uninitiated to see if this sort of thing is your cup of tea. 

The model city and the costumes during the giant monster battles are better than you might expect, even if some of the fights tend to get repetitive and/or go on far too long (like the scene with the monster’s tentacle dick).  Also, some of the BDSM stuff kind of fails to titillate, but that may be a matter of personal preference, honestly.  That said, there still is enough here to raise an eyebrow or two.  I’m thinking specifically of the scene where the giant monster uses a telephone pole to shock Red Lady in the ass.  I mean, when’s the last time you saw THAT?  Plus, it’s only about an hour long, so that’s a plus.  I also respect any movie as silly as this one is that has the balls to end on such a downbeat note. 

Oh, and the version I saw actually had subtitles.  Not that we really needed them as the dialogue is quite minimal.  I just thought it was worth mentioning.