AKA Zero Woman adventure films.
Just watched the first of the series;
Criminal Woman: Killing Melody
This flick goes from women in prison to harsh revenge picture mixed with all out yakuza mob war. Lots of lady flesh, blood, gun shots and tanto stabbings. This film doesn't pull any punches. From how the main girl, Maki, has to build a revenge bank roll after her release from prison. One word: prostitution. To her straight up painful torture sequence. It involves a chainsaw, a lit cigarette and her bare chest. This film was surprisingly entertaining. The pacing is really smooth and the flashbacks for all the female gang members were all handled great.
Things that cut this film down are some inferior Japanese camera lenses. A lot of wide shots are marred by soft focus and splotchiness. Like they rubbed soap over parts of the lens before filming. Its a really shame but at least they still got a couple of really great juice shots in there.
The story also suffers from a slight splotchiness. Now, I understand how honor and family is important in Japan but Maki's reason for revenge is very very thin. It just doesn't hit me as a real valid reason to go ape shit and destroy two yakuza gangs.
Even with that solid 8 out of 10 for you GrindHouse fans. Grab this and Switchblade Sisters for a night of tough as nails chicks revenge flicks.
Next up is "School of the Holy Beast" and, I kid you not this is the whole title, "Terrifying Girls' High School: Lynch Law Classroom". Not sure if Holy Beast is part of the same series but its got the same Director, Norifumi Suzuki. I'll pop the quicky reviews in here as after those two beauties I have the rest of the series in line on netflix.
School of the Holy Beast is
School of the Holy Beast
is not part of the Pinky Violence collection and was released in the states by a different company.
Having never seen a nun-sploitation film I'm told this is the cream of the crop. It's loaded to the brim with toplessness, bottomless, nude tortures of all sorts, urination, rape, lesbian sex scenes, masturbation, red paint blood and self mutilation scenes. A total family fun film.
The story is maybe 20 minutes in total of Maya joining the nunnery (that word is a zillion times funnier than convent) to find out why her mother Michiko, christian name Mary, abandoned her as a baby. Turns out mother Mary became mysteriously pregnant, wait it gets better, with Maya while living at the nunnery (haha) and naturally was beaten and tortured. It takes Maya 45 minutes of the film to find out her mother was hung in the church on Christmas but Maya was still born. Oh the intrigue. About 30 more minutes of debauchery until Maya finds out her mom was killed by the current abbess, or Mother Superior, of the convent and the resident Priest. Giving away to much? Guess it wouldn't help to mention the Priest gives a new nun, who's family is very poor, money but since she already stole some from the abbess she has to pay penitence. Turns out Father Slick Rick, as I like to call him, has been using the nunnery (still funny) as his personal sex stables for 18 years. What can he do though? Dude obviously just loves them virgins.
Anyway, the whole story wraps up in normal fashion. The evil doers are punished and/or killed. Oh yeah, and to add to the big list of craziness up top there is incest mixed in as well. Swirl that inside your brain for a minute and you can probably figure out how this, oddly, boring film ends.
I give it about, let's say, 5 out of 10. Unless you've got some perverse fetish for nuns this film really doesn't have much going for it. With that said I'm sure Lance would give it a higher score since he did watch it as well.
Nunnery