I'm really torn between this movie and Criminal Woman: Killing Melody, both of which are in the Pinky Violence box set. They're both really good, with the stories being similar (gangster girls go for revenge against the Yakuza who did them wrong) and they both have Miki Sugimoto and Reiko Ike. But I think this movie gets an edge, 'cause in this one the girls are part of a BIKER GANG. And the all have TATTOOS OVER THEIR LEFT BOOBS. Which is so effing cool.
Here we get Miki as the leader of a biker gang from Shinjuku who go to Kyoto and end up taking over the girl gangs there (the scene where the girls face off and do their gangster "who I am" speeches is really cool). Reiko Ike is running around as the sister of one of the local Yakuza and won't align herself with Miki and her crew but serves as kind of a "big sister"/authority figure to the girl gangs of Kyoto.
Eventually Miki and the girls get on the bad side of the local Yakuza boss and the girls hit the road to meet up with Miki's boyfriend, a boxer in training down the coast. He gets himself murdered by the Yakuza as a result and it becomes time for Miki and her crew to make up with Reiko and get down with some revenge.
What I really dig about these movies (as opposed to the "Battles Without Honor and Humanity" movies my boyfriend is always bringing home) is that the female leads have some dimension to them that you wouldn't normally expect in an "exploitation" film. I didn't really like Miki's character at first (she was bratty) but I actually felt it when her boyfriend got killed. Up till then she seemed kind of a like a one dimensional power junkie bitch with cool sunglasses, but watching her meet and fall for Michitaro Mizushimi and her grieving at his death filled her out and made her feel like an actual woman. You know, complicated and conflicted.
In fact, as an exception to "action" movies the one-dimensional characters in this film are all men. They're simply greedy or sadistic or horny. Which I'm not saying is a good thing. It's just a nice change of pace.
And did I mention the tough-ass tattoos?
