I bought Platinum Tango as well recently. I wasn't expecting the higher price, but it is a big movie, and lots of extras. To clarify, yes the first 4 parts are the actual movie, but part 5 is actually deleted/alternate scenes; then 6 and 7 are the behind the scenes.
It's a lot to take in, so I don't want to make too many comments until I've had this movie for a little longer. I will say, my first impression was disappointment because:
1. The "whee" noises return.
2. Most of the fight scenes have the camera following each zako when she is defeated, which ruins the flow of the action.
3. There's too much of the girls writhing on the ground after defeated before they are KO'd or killed.
:(
Now, there are a bunch of exceptions to 2 and 3, where the camera follows the action, with defeated girls in the background/foreground, and the girls going down and staying down. But they are the exceptions, and not as frequent as the last bunch of Giga/Zen Female Combatants movies. I understand that these movies try to appeal to all tastes, as I'm sure there is a limited audience for these movies, but the previous movies would have the camera follow each zako at appropriate times, and not each and every time a henchwomen gets knocked out.
A lot of that happens in the first part of the movie, the other 3 parts have overall better choreographed fight scenes IMO, though the best scenes do not top the best scenes from the last 3 or 4 Combatants movies. The camera work is sometimes too fast, and I have to slow it down on WMP just to follow the action. It also seems the director was afraid to show more than 2-3 girls go down in one scene at a time. Meanwhile, there are up to 14 girls playing the henhwomen during some of the fight scenes. Throughout the movie, there is too much of the zako being thrown or karate chopped, for example, and falling out of camera view.
I realized that the director for Platinum Tango is the same one who did Bolero, and that movie had a lot of the same issues I have with Platinum Tango. However, Platinum is much better than Bolero, as I said before there are some great fight scenes.
Also, I was disappointed in the fact that the zako in the body suits got few action scenes. The beach scenes don't do much for me, and neither did the acid foam stuff. The few fight scenes with the old red and black outfit were good, but were very short. I expected, from preview pics, that the heroine was going to take down a dozen zako.
The zako in the new all black outfit got even fewer action scenes. Just two short fight scenes, one of which suffered from the camera following each girl going down. The other was good, but too short, and left me wanting much, much more.
I really hope they make another movie which features more of the new all black costume. Especially if they have lot of them being defeated and falling face down.
I know most of my comments were negative, and the movie is a little frustrating for me, but there are a lot of good things, and I'll share my thoughts on that later, but I have to go now.