Sex and Fury


Title: Sex and Fury
Rating: 4/5
Genre: “Pinky Violence” (Action, Crime, Thriller)
Starring: Reiko Ike, Agemi Negishi, Christina Lindberg
Director: Norifumi Suzuki
Language: Japanese

If you’re female, this should be the last line of this review you should take the time to read as pinky violence knows exactly who its target audience are, and its not you. It’s unashamedly Japanese, and the more I learn about the culture the more truthful this seems to be. It may be most closely associated as part of the movement of ‘pink films’ in the 70s, revolving around humiliation and ‘sexploitation’ of the young female lead, but this genre doesn’t finish there. It’s a pink film with gratuitous violence and bloodshed, sword wielding yakuza nutters doing battle with our scantily clad sex crazed heroine, and this combination of random sex and violence isn’t mutually exclusive; one scene in particular sees our gorgeous lead dispatch a dozen assailants who ambush her in the bath, and they don’t exactly wait for her to put on her kimono.

The last time I dived into the genre was with my fascination with Meiko Kaji – a situation that was resolved by me buying half of her starring films – but it was time to move onto a new starlet to explore, and nobody caught my attention quite like Reiko did. She is by all definitions of the word, a badass. A tattooed beauty constantly doing battle with law enforcement with regards to numerous drug charges and frequent involvement with illegal underground gambling rings, it would seem as though little acting is needed to bring such a character to the screen, and coincidentally that is precisely the character she plays.

Following our young protagonist Ocho (Reiko), already a master pickpocket who habitually steals without realising, as well as a keen gambler; it is in this tale of revenge that she quests for those responsible for killing her father all those years ago and exact her revenge. Her journey soon leads her to a man involved in a prostitution racket and a deadly tale of English ‘diplomats’ (in reality, spies, but not very good ones) sporting English accents despite the main of the two, Christina Lindberg, actually being Swedish, resulting in some hilarious Swenglish/Japanese conversations. Mix into this a sub-plot of forbidden love and underground anarchists fighting those in control of the city and you get a glimpse at the bizarre story that allows for all the random sex and violence required.

There is a lot here that’s done right. The swordplay and excessive carnage whilst not as frequent as I’d have liked lacks nothing in style; the frequent gratuitous nudity pushing this into borderline softcore porn, yet done with an odd sense of tastefulness to it; a tongue in cheek knowledge that it was no coincidence that every fight scene involved a woman having her top fall off. The plot is gloriously more complex and involving than I anticipated, the story of revenge spun out to a game of assassins, hunting down the intended target whilst a tragic love story unfolds in the background. This film is essentially “Lone Wolf and Cub” performed by nymphomaniacs; swordplay, lesbian love, and blood-dripping bare breasted badassery. What heterosexual male could say no?

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