MOVIE REVIEW : Ugly View of Cosmetic Surgery in ‘Goddesses’

“Carefree Goddesses” (opening Friday at Little Tokyo Cinema 1) means to be a jaunty, sentimental little comedy celebrating the enduring friendship of a pair of sweet, none-too-bright cabaret singers who have reached the “critical age” of their early 30s and still haven’t landed a man. It’s the kind of slight, commercial entertainment of virtually no artistic merit that doesn’t export well yet is unintentionally revealing in what its makers assume about the mainstream Japanese audience.

If you were to take this film as evidence, you’d be forced to conclude that director Teruhiko Kuze and writer Shigeto Kaneko have a bad case of male chauvinism. They may treat Keiko Matsuzaka’s Tokuko and Kaori Momoi’s Sakie with the utmost affection, but their story turns upon a stupefyingly reactionary view of cosmetic surgery and those women who choose it.

When Tokuko catches up with Sakie in a small spa town after a three-year hiatus, Sakie doesn’t recognize her old friend because Tokuko has undergone such a spectacular job of plastic surgery. However, Tokuko’s operation has been the exception to her surgeon’s rule, and now he’s on the run with about two-dozen mutilated women angrily pursuing him. He ends up in the spa town under an assumed name and Sakie falls in love with him.

What is confounding is both Sakie and Tokuko’s views toward plastic surgery. Because they go unchallenged, we’re left to assume they represent the attitudes of the film makers. First of all, Sakie accuses Tokuko of becoming selfish since she has become beautiful; never mind that everything Tokuko does suggests exactly the contrary. Sakie also tells her old friend that undergoing cosmetic surgery to be more attractive to men is to have it done for “the wrong reasons.”

Second, when his victims finally catch up with the inept surgeon (played by Mitsuru Hirata), Sakie defends him, saying the women must take the responsibility for the risk they took and therefore the surgeon is not to blame. Incredibly, Tokuko jumps in, pointing out that even “a good marksman sometimes misses the target.” Sometimes! Tokuko saves the surgeon when she suggests the women give him a chance to correct his mistakes (!); they immediately agree (!!). Regardless of the fact this film is supposed to be a comedy, there’s no denying it regards women as fools and cosmetic surgery as without merit.

Obviously, “Carefree Goddesses” (Times-rated Mature for adult themes) is on much firmer ground when the gaudy Keiko and Kaori are doing their silly nightclub act. Had the film stuck with their dreams, disappointments and ultimate free-spirited indomitability it might have had a tad of the poignancy of “Bus Stop” or come across as a sort of cockamamie “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” Instead, it simply self-destructs.

Opening Friday at the Little Tokyo Cinema 2 are revivals of “The Last Swordsman” and “Professional Killers No. 2.”