Lifer Movies

Title: Female Yakuza Tale Should be Known as: Sex and Fury 2 Also Known As: Story of a Wild Elder Sister: Widespread Lynch Law Originally known as: Yasagure anego den: sôkatsu rinchi Rating: 3.5/5 Genre: “Pinky Violence,” Action, Crime, Thriller Starring: Reiko Ike, Agemi Negishi Director: Teruo Ishii Language: Japanese If there is one thing I despise about this era of Japanese cinema it's the confusing titles. It's bad enough that you call the sequel something that nobody would ever figure out to be a sequel, but then you decide that it needs another name as well for the international audiences? Because everyone else in the world would scoff at a name that ridiculously long and pointless? But they aren't the only one from the era to make some such actions, so I can't count this against them specifically. If you missed my review of Sex and Fury then let me re-iterate the same rule: If you're female, you're done. Unless you're a lesbian who loves ...

Title: Jeans Blues: No Future Rating: 3.5/5 Genre: Crime, Thriller, "Pinky Violence" Starring: Meiko Kaji, Tsunehiko Watase Director: Sadao Nakajima Language: Japanese Ah, who doesn't love a good ol' “Bonnie and Clyde” story? Two strangers who decide to leave for whatever reason, steal a buttload of cash and collide with one another, quickly deciding to make their getaway together and riding high, shooting things and having generally chaotic blood-filled hi-jinks until the people they screwed over finally bring it all crashing down, letting them burn brightly in a blaze of glory. It's nothing particularly original these days but its flexibility in the finer details and the excuse for gratuitous mayhem are both aspects that can never really become tireless, and after the somewhat disappointing French efforts with 'Baise-Moi,' I had high hopes that my idolisation of Kaji could bring me the story I was searching for. In truth, this was not what I wa...

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 ex...

Title: Lady Snowblood: Blizzard from the Netherworld Rating: 4/5 Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller Starring: Meiko Kaji, Toshio Kurosawa Director: Toshiya Fujita Language: Japanese Concluding my stint on 70s cinema comes a pair of films that are perhaps most aptly described as the ‘original’ version to Tarantino’s ‘Kill Bill;’ his borrowing from this era of film making is a fact he’s more than open about and indeed opened the gateway for my own exploration. Filled with more sword-wielding carnage through its tale of retribution, Meiko Kaji (the star of the ‘Female Prisoner’ series) makes another return as a wholly different, yet equally mesmerising character. Set in 1874 Japan, the tale follows Yuki – aka Lady Snowblood – (Kaji), a woman bore in prison to a woman incapable of exacting her revenge on the three responsible for brutally murdering her husband and raping her. Dying during labour, her child is raised according to her wishes, her sole purpose to exact bloody vengeance ...

Title: Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance Rating: 3/5 Genre: Drama, Thriller Starring: Meiko Kaji, Juzo Itami, Kazuko Koshiyuki Director: Toshiya Fujita Language: Japanese The second part in this series shows a remarkable change in style; expecting more of the same powerful action-filled swordplay and another tale of vengeance, instead the result delivered on neither of these. Whilst assuredly succeeding in not falling into the ‘sequel trap,’ trying to deliver on one notch more than what came before it, the result feels different enough to alienate the viewer who may feel they have been misled. There is very little action to be found here, and not enough violence to satisfy my gore-hound cravings for even its own duration. Instead it strives to be more creative, more intelligent and thought provoking than ever before, but in doing so have lost sight of what made the first so enjoyable. Following from the first, several years have passed and Lady Snowblood (Kaji) is still ...

Title: Female Prisoner: Scorpion Rating: 4/5 Genre: Drama, Thriller, Crime Starring: Meiko Kaji, Rie Yokoyama, Isao Natsuyagi Director: Shunya Ito Language: Japanese It was the 70s that saw the rise in Japanese grindhouse cinema (also known as ‘Pinky Violence); tired of the very ‘traditional’ style of many local films, and with the rise in success of Hollywood titles such as ‘Dirty Harry’ and ‘The Great Escape,’ a new wave of daring and experimental directors came to light. Armed with a low budget and all the influences of the early Western grindhouse cheap gore flicks, they combined it with traditional Japanese film-making sensibilities to create a style that somehow succeeded in being both artistic in style whilst retaining those cheap traditions such as gratuitous nudity and violence to result in something rather unique. And it was with this, the first instalment in the ‘Female Prisoner’ series, that would influence a wave known as ‘Women in Prison’ films; with a strong the...

Title: Female Prisoner: Jailhouse 41 Rating: 3.5/5 Genre: Drama, Thriller, Crime Starring: Meiko Kaji, Isao Natsuyagi, Kayoko Shiraishi Director: Shunya Ito Language: Japanese Picking up where the last film left off, we return to the infamous Scorpion in the next instalment of the saga, chronicling her final escape from prison, this is one film that I can’t help but be a little disappointed by. Featuring a highly experimental style – most noticeable in the camera work – and what appeared to be a notably larger budget making itself known through the more lavish choices of set, effects and soundtrack, it was the summation of small issues that – despite the sensational open and closing for the film – became something of a nuisance, detracting from the end result. Opening once more with the delectable Matsushima (Kaji), her frequent break out attempts earning her the punishment of being imprisoned deep underground for over a year until the day of the prison inspection, allowed to ...

Title: Female Prisoner: Beast Stable Rating: 4.5/5 Genre: Drama, Thriller, Crime Starring: Meiko Kaji, Mikio Narita, Reisen Lee, Yayoi Watanabe Director: Shunya Ito Language: Japanese Kicking off the finalé to the saga (whilst there is a fourth, it featured a different director who didn’t carry the vision quite so well, and actually had Meiko Kaji refuse to continue afterwards, hence its non-inclusion in the special), I must confess some apprehension to this last film after the worrying direction seem to have been taken by the last, but the result turned out to be the most successful of the three. Taking the experimental attitude from before, only using the aspects that worked, they combine this with the violent sensibilities of the first and a more character driven multi-layered plot resulting in not only a feast for the eyes, but an iconic finish to a forgotten saga gem. Once more picking up where the last left off, we find our protagonist Matsushima (Kaji) being hunted by t...