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Female Yakuza Tale: Inquisition and Torture (1973)
Dir: Teruo Ishii
Ochô Inoshika (Reiko Ike) is back and swinging!
Following her blood-soaked finale confrontation in the previous film “Sex
and Fury”, we now see that Ochô is healed and well and returning
to her teenage haunts where, as a gambler, she led a dangerous life on the outskirts
of the Underworld before being taken under the Yakuza wing of the Boss (veteran
Kanjuro Arashi) of the ‘Ogi Clan’.
The ‘Old Boss’ is now dead and the slimy Mr Goda (Tatsuo Endo, “Sex
and Fury“) has become the new head of the Clan.
No sooner has Ochô arrived though before she is set upon by a gang of
men, drugged and kidnapped. She awakes to find herself strung up from a roof
beam, stripped, with the strange men sticking their fingers up between her legs
(in a scene of gloriously bad taste) seemingly looking for something!
Finding nothing, they again knock Ochô out.
She once more awakens, naked, to find an equally naked dead woman (with a gouged
crotch!) next to her and a bloody knife in her hand. Also there is Yjoji (Ryohei
Uchida) who was following the men who attacked Ochô.
It turns out Yjoji is a just out of prison member of the 'Ogi Clan', and has
come back to take revenge on the traitorous Mr Goda. And with the helpful advice
of “Your pussy is going to catch cold” he leaves the confused
Ochô to make a hasty retreat before the Police arrive.
Yjoji though is waylaid by some gun toting henchman of Goda and as he flees (accompanied by some cool free form jazz/funk with ‘wah’ ‘wah’ guitars) he is helped by a women in a black fedora hat, crimson scarf and a slit so high in her Nun’s frock you can almost see Heaven, talking of which she announces her name as ‘Yoshimi of Christ’, as she prays before she kills!
Ochô meanwhile, with vengeance on her mind, discovers that a ruthless Yakuza gang is trafficking drugs in the vagina’s of heroin addicted women (!) and soon she is part of this unlikely mix of characters who come together and find themselves in a sleazy, back stabbing plot of Yakuza villainy….
The excellent rain soaked credits sequence showcases the style of the film
to come as it is shot on a minimalist outdoor set (a single street light on
a cobbled street with nothing around but blackness) where Reiko Ike has a clothes
shedding, ballet like sword fight with a group of male assassins as a wonderfully
funky main theme plays over the action.
It foretells the low budget, surrealistic, only marginally set in reality path
Teruo Ishii will take the rest of the film down.
Although the obvious slashing of the budget, since “Sex and Fury”,
has ensured “Female Yakuza Tale” will be a much more claustrophobic
and scaled down movie, Ishii cleverly uses this fact to add a fascinatingly
weird and surrealist veneer to the unfolding plot.
Outdoor scenes are few and kept to a very tight framing (with only a few strategically
placed extras) and even the bigger outdoor sequences (in normally very ugly
places) are in settings where as much of the surrounding area is obscured as
possible. A moment of startling contrast to this though comes in a scene set
in a field of swaying, bright yellow flowers that adds a welcome sense of space
and movement without actually costing anything.
Given these mostly drab and cheap looking outdoor sequences we can be thankful
that the very stage-bound interior sets are so delightfully off the wall and
fascinating to look at.
Ishii’s love of stained glass is given free reign and many multicoloured
windows add splashes of gaudy colour to shadowed hovels, while red, blue and
yellow lights cut through the gloom of sinister alleyways and back-streets.
And when an obviously painted sunset appears the whole enterprise really takes
on the look and feel of a comic book.
Once again, as in the first film, the funky soundtrack (including a delightful bubblegum pop ditty over the wonderfully camp end titles) adds that essential ‘hip’ 70’s feel to the movie and even a twanging mouth harp makes an appearance to accent the ‘Samurai Western’ feel to parts of the movie even more.
After a delirious start though the movie slows down 30 minutes in as we have a lot of (mostly superfluous) back-story plot explained and many ‘sneaking around’ sequences take place, but it’s not long before more sleazy goings on are unleashed in the form of heroine fixes via needles in the breast and many drug holders being inserted into many vaginas.
And it’s this contrast of sleaze and weird psychedelic moments that manages
to keep the audience guessing at what the hell is going to happen next.
And some of these moments of psychedelic surrealism keep the film afloat while
the actual plot has stalled. Like for instance a truly bizarre sequence where
Sister Yoshimi ‘calls’ her gang together by whistling, resulting in
the sight of various women (who pop up from nowhere) in crisp bright dresses
with big hats and handbags (!) whistling to each other in the midst of a huge
industrial slag heap!
More surrealistic weirdness pops up during a sequence in a lunatic asylum where
various women perform bizarre mimes in very bad make-up while others dance around
to a cacophony of musical noise.
And two of the many ‘humorous’ scenes that appear for no real reason
are a peeping tom getting snot blown at him by a non-too pleased woman victim
and Yjoji waylaying a Western priest by pretending to be gay and shouting “I
Love you, I love you” in broken English before dragging him into an
alley and nicking his clothes!
Surrealism and fantasy slapstick combine in various moments of action as well where bullets are thrown (yes…thrown!) at bad guys, hitting one in the eye and going up the nose of another, and a guy has half his moustache shot off. In fact guns play a pretty large role in the film, adding a more modern slant to the proceedings than was seen in "Sex and Fury".
The bad guys themselves are basically a bunch of high camp sadists with some
even sporting make-up and smudged eyeliner.
And herein really lies the difference between Ichii’s sequel and Norifumi
Suzuki’a original, “Sex and Fury”, movie.
Whereas the first film kept basically serious and straight as it played out
it’s well worn tragedy/revenge plot, “Female Yakuza Tale” goes
all out to be a crude, light hearted (despite the nasty things that actually
happen) , farcical, tongue in cheek spoof of 60’s psychedelic spy films
with a groovy ‘teen beat’ pop-art styling.
Even Ochô herself (although still as determined) is a far more light-hearted character here than in the first movie and even has a few quips and one-liners rolling around in her thoughts (heard via voiceover). That’s not to say she is not a bad ass though as a scene where she even goes so far as to threaten genital mutilation against another woman, to get the information she wants, proves!
But basically the entire film is a funky, gaudy, psychedelic, slapstick farce
as the existence of such dialogue as (some of which was ad-libbed) “You
better be cool…I know what you have in your private parts” and
“I’m avenging the crotch-gougings”, as well as scenes
like a hand clapping vow of solidarity in nakedness, go to show.
There is one exception to this rule though, a deadly serious, very disturbing,
electrocution of a young girl which is accompanied by a haunting lullaby. It’s
so humourless and unpleasant in fact (compared to the rest of the movie) that
it jumps out of the screen and into the memory, something Ichii must have cleverly
planned.
Sadly though this comedic romp attitude does mean there is a lack of swordplay
action compared to the first film. In place of blood spurts and sword slices
we have a bit of clumsy Karate, many spread legs, nipple sucking and huge psychedelic
dollops of hip coolness.
There is more (and more frequent) general nudity this time around, but not so
many actual sex scenes and it has to be said that (despite the aforementioned
opening credit sequence) Reiko Ike keeps her lithe frame under wraps except
for a couple of topless scenes. Certainly there is nothing here to compare to
her eye-popping, sword battle in the nude that was so memorable in “Sex
and Fury”. She is also given less to do in this film, but thankfully
whenever she is in the picture her steely gaze presence and is as strong as
ever.
But fear not dear reader, for I sense a feeling of despair creep up as you contemplate the lack of sword wielding, blood spurting action, because the finale (set in a really cheap minimalist set which actually, with the aid of astute multicoloured lighting and strategic black depths, works in the sequence’s favour) contains much groovy bloodshed and super stylistic ultra violence as a veritable army of avenging women (totally naked except for red scarves) takes on the male might of the Yakuza.
And as the women toss away their clothes in a determined flourish and Ochô announces “Pig! Let’s rumble” you just know, you truly know, that something wonderful is going to unfurl before your hungry eyes. And sure enough, in a semi-comic free-for-all, guns, swords, playing cards, grenades, whips, claws and…piss (!) are put to delightfully twisted, violent and often extremely bloody use.
Due to the weird setting, the highly chaotic staging and episodic nature of the attacks (as Ichii switches from one mini confrontation to another) it has to be said that this sequence does not have the sheer emotional power and draining, blitzkrieg effect that the finale to “Sex and Fury” had, but it still remains a truly warped and nasty exercise in slapstick carnage that really makes you wonder if all those involved were on the right side of that thin line between sanity and madness when it all went down.
So what do we have? Well if you go in prepared for a very different film (despite
the many basic similarities) from it’s predecessor then “Female Yakuza
Tale” offers much in the way of far out craziness and pop art flourishes
with much sleaze and the odd bout of nasty, bloody (though mainly slapstick)
violence.
And if it never reaches the heights of “Sex and Fury” due to the over-reliance
on dubious humour, it at least remains a thoroughly entertaining slice of politically
incorrect, endlessly cool, madness with a knock-out leading lady.
‘Panik House Entertainment’
have given “Female Yakuza Tale” the same stylish, see-through,
packaging (with another clear background sticker of Ochô) as they did
with “Sex and Fury”.
And also once again we have a lovely looking, 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer that
showcases the bright, gaudy colour schemes perfectly and a crisp mono Japanese
soundtrack with clear English subtitles.
The extras are basically the same as “Sex and Fury” (with a repeat
of Chris D’s excellent text history of ‘Toei’s Bad Girl Cinema’)
and include a stills gallery, bios, production notes and the original theatrical
trailer. Guru of Japanese cinema Chris D also gives us another informative commentary
track that is very much welcome.
All in all a job well done.
