GIRL BOSS BLUES: QUEEN BEE'S COUNTERATTACK (1971)

 The first of the GIRL BOSS BLUES series despite the title sounding like it's a sequel(AKA QUEEN BEE STRIKES AGAIN). This would be followed by 6 more movies of which I think I've seen maybe half. I caught this one as part of a marathon of Japanese girl gang movies yesterday and quite a few of those also starred Reiko Ike and Miki Sugimoto. They also all had pretty similar themes of young girls getting mixed up with The Yakuza, great soundtracks and they seem to all start out as women-in-prison films before our main characters get released back into the underworld of Japanese crime. This one does stand out for one particular scene of a group of bikers incorporating fucking on motorcycles into a race. Beyond this it all does become a bit of a blur.

 

GIRL BOSS BLUES: QUEEN BEE'S CHALLENGE (1972)

                                          "I'm a bad girl. A hussy, a whore, a tramp!"

 This is the 2nd film in the GIRL BOSS series. I've watched these in a pretty backwards fashion so it's hard not to get some sense of deja-vu as I see more of them this way. They seem to borrow elements and then add to them as the series goes on. This one focuses on two warring Japanese gal gangs who run afoul of the Yakuza. Things do not turn out very well for anyone as the movie goes on. Bottles are shoved in vaginas, hot candle wax is dripped on nipples and women are generally treated pretty shabbily which will make any feminists watching cry. This one is pretty basic and I think these get better as the series goes on but I do still need to watch the original entry just to make sure. AKA QUEEN BEE'S CHALLENGE  Followed by GIRL BOSS GUERILLA

Groovy 70s sounds!:

STRAY CAT ROCK: MACHINE ANIMAL (1970)

 The 4th film in the Japanese STRAY CAT ROCK series of girl gang flicks. This one starts out by throwing me a curveball and making me hate the girls after they rob some poor LSD-peddlers of their stash and, to add insult to injury, steal their car and slash up the seats. Things do settle down in a more predictable way and you do get back on their side before the plot is really set into motion. Having been filmed all in the same year this does have a lot of similarities to the earlier 3 films with the male gang, The Dragons, being the main villains. There are also some differences with the leader of The Dragons being a handicapped lady(Bunjaku Han) and some political ideas thrown in as one of our "heroes" is a military deserter who wants to escape Japan and The Vietnam War. Things do end pretty nihilistically which I'm usually a fan of but it did seem a bit disjointed here with the tone of the rest of the movie. I'm not exactly sure where I would rank this one but it was interesting and artfully shot. I still have one more film in this series to catch and then maybe I can make some kinda list.

                                                     LONG LIVE LSD!

 

STRAY CAT ROCK: DELINQUENT GIRL BOSS (1970)

 Being a big fan of the movie STRAY CAT ROCK: SEX HUNTER I finally got a hold of the DVD box set with all the other films in this series. DELINQUENT GIRL BOSS(not to be confused with the other DELINQUENT GIRL BOSS series made by a different rival studio) is the very first film in the Stray Cat Rock series and while it's not as amazing as the 3rd movie it still offers similar thrills involving an all-female gang of violent Asian ladies. It moves a bit slower and a lot of scenes are filmed in the dark but the ultra-stylish very 60s-feeling club music scenes are cool and you get the expected catfights, gun violence and crazy camera angles. I've heard these films start really cranking with the next movie so I need to get to that one pronto.  AKA FEMALE JUVENILE DELINQUENT LEADER: STRAY CAT ROCK

The Stray Cat Rock/Alley Cat Rock series(amazingly 4 of these were churned out in the same year!):

1. STRAY CAT ROCK: DELINQUENT GIRL BOSS (1970)
2. STRAY CAT ROCK: WILD JUMBO (1970)
3. STRAY CAT ROCK: SEX HUNTER (1970)
4. STRAY CAT ROCK: MACHINE ANIMAL (1970)
5. STRAY CAT ROCK: BEAT '71 (1971)

SWITCHBLADE SISTERS (1975)

 This one is right up there with some of the Japanese STRAY CAT ROCK movies and HG Lewis' SHE-DEVILS ON WHEELS as one of my favorite girl gang flicks ever! What makes this one so sweet is the amazing drama that draws you into the story, the over-the-top acting styles of everyone, the slick 70's outfits, Farrah Fawcett-hairstyles, overall retro feel of everything, awesome fights and an ending that looks like it might fit in a war movie better. Originally released under the not-as-exciting title of THE JEZEBELS and then switched to SWITCHBLADE SISTERS this somehow wasn't a big hit at the time and was way later on in the 90's re-released in theaters by Quentin Tarantino which is where I first encountered it's brilliance. A movie that moves along briskly, mixes in some women-in-prison, blaxploitation, sexploitation and seems like a comic-book for adults that can handle nudity and rape in their entertainment without passing out from how offended they are. A 100% all-time trash classic. AKA MAGGIE'S STILETTO SISTERS and PLAYGIRL GANG

Bad-ass Italian poster!!: 

STRAY CAT ROCK: SEX HUNTER (1970)

 This is the third movie in the "stray cat/alley cat" series and it's the only one I've seen so far. I'm really looking forward to checking out the other four films in this though since this one is pretty awesome. It's the story of a Japanese girl gang, a gang of racist nationalists who ride around in jeeps and beat up "halfbreeds", a "halfbreed" guy who's looking for his long lost sister and other assorted gangster-types including one fella who dresses just like Pee Wee Herman. It's a really high-energy kind of flick that uses great camera movement in conjunction with some great musical cues to accentuate it's story. There's go-go dancing, female singing groups, lady knife fights, gang rape, an impotent gang leader rockin' some Elvis glasses, wanton gun play and sleazy Americans. The whole thing kinda plays like some Asian version of a 50's juvenile delinquent movie. One of the odder things I find when re-watching this movie is the complete absence of any actual authority figures. I mean people get beaten to a pulp by a mob and instead of perhaps reporting this to the police they head on over to the local rock club to get patched up. Another odd thing is the ending which I'm not sure makes a whole lot of sense but it is action-packed which is actually a good way to describe this film overall.