The Museum Of Modern Art in New York City is showing the BBC documentary GAEA Girls Fri. May 22 4PM. Here's the link. http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/film_screenings/6577 If you're a joshi fan and you have never seen GAEA Girls, you should check it out if you live in the area. And it is not available on DVD in North America. It appears the reason MOMA is screening it is co-director Kim Longinotto will be in attendance and they are screening some of her other films. Here is a review of GAEA Girls that I wrote several years ago. I have updated it.
GAEA Girls (2000)-Documentary
Starring Chigusa Nagayo, Meiko Satomura & Saika Takeuchi
Directed, produced & written by Kim Longinotto & Jano Williams
GAEA Girls is a BBC produced documentary that goes inside the joshi puroresu world at the GAEA Japan training camp. I first saw the filmat the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2000 and purchased a VHS copy on eBay several years ago. GAEA Girls focuses on the training progress of Saika Takeuchi and her primary trainer Meiko Satomura. It's the summer of 1999 and Saika Takeuchi has been training for a year at GAEA to be a wrestler. She seems to think that becoming a wrestler will give her self esteem. GAEA owner and joshi puroresu legend Chigusa Nagayo is at a point where she has to decide whether Takeuchi will have her debut match. Takeuchi has some physical ability and she works hard but she doesn't do well in sparring. This is very frustrating to her trainer Meiko Satomura. At 19 years old, Meiko is already a top star in GAEA and has her own company today. During a sparring session, Meiko is so upset with Takeuchi's lame drop kicks, she tells her "This is how you do it" and almost takes Takeuchi's head off and busts her open with a drop kick. Of course Meiko yells at her. They're hoping Takeuchi will get mad and fight back but all she does is cry. This is very annoying to Meiko. Takeuchi desperately wants to debut but she fails to understand that to be successful in the ring, you have to not only know the moves but you have to be mentally tough. The Japanese fans expect a high level of performance and crying isn't going to cut it.
Meanwhile, a couple of new girls join as trainees. Neither of them last very long. One girl is being given a second chance, but she can't even do calesthenics so she runs away that night. The second girl is brought to GAEA by her mother. She wants to be a wrestler after watching them on TV. She leaves after watching a sparring session scared the hell out of her. So now GAEA has to decide what to do with Takeuchi. Her final test is a gauntlet. She has to wrestle Toshie Uematsu, Sonoko Kato & Meiko Satomura and then Chigusa will decide. Things don't go well for Takeuchi. She gets hammered by all three and has her nose bloodied.
Afterwards, Chigusa tells Takeuchi that if she won't fight back she should go home. Takeuchi starts crying and begs for a second chance. This time she has to wrestle Meiko, Sonoko & Chigusa. Chigusa keeps
slapping her in the head and tells her to get mad and fight back. I guess she's trying to knock some sense into her. Takeuchi is still crying. Chigusa is still unhappy with her but decides to give her a chance and let her debut. Obviously this is against her better judgement but in recent years the joshi feds have had serious problems developing new talent. Surviving training is probably enough to allow Takeuchi to debut and they hope she'll improve and get some confidence. Debuts are a big deal in Japan. Takeuchi's family is there and she's interviewed too. The film ends with Meiko Satomura defeating Saika Takeuchi in her debut in October 1999.
Takeuchi quit GAEA in July 2001. GAEA closed in April 2005 and owner Chigusa Nagayo retired. She promotes the occasional show but mostly operates her retail businesses in Tokyo. After GAEA closed, Meiko Satomura started Sendai Girls with Michinoku Pro owner Jinsei Shinzaki. She is trying to create her own stars but has found it difficult to find young girls interested in joshi due to the industry's financial depression. Also, the company isn't in Tokyo and it can be difficult to get girls to move to Sendai. Meiko continues to put her trainees through the wringer. In October 2007, Meiko suffered a career threatening injury when an Azumi Hyuga knee basically broke her face. After several operations and a steel plate was placed in her face, Meiko returned to the ring in October 2008 and is still one of Japan's top stars.
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