Zero Woman
“Zero equals nothing. Nothing means you don’t
exist”
Based to some degree on a film from 1974 called
“Zero Woman – Red Handcuffs”, there have been seven films (as far as I
can discern at the time of this writing) produced in the 1990’s that comprise
this series. No one really has anything very good to say about them, but
at the same time a lot of people have managed to stumble on some of the
series and often find themselves seeing more of them for reasons they can’t
logically explain. They are kind of like snack food – quick (usually coming
in at less than 85 minutes), mildly tasty and forgotten within a fairly
short period of time. What they do have though are three very basic components
that some of us find hard to resist – beautiful women, guns and cleavage.
And in some cases actually guns in the cleavage of beautiful women – it’s
like hitting the trifecta of low-grade pulp.
Rei is Zero Woman - she works for a covert branch
of the police department – Zero Section – who are brought in when conventional
law enforcement isn’t able to bring certain criminals to justice. Zero
Section doesn’t have to abide by many rules and their justice can be very
swift – often a shot to the head. Rei gets various assignments that always
invariably end up in death. Her character (played by a different actress
in every film) changes slightly from film to film, but she is generally
portrayed as living on the fringe of society – almost a lonely fleeting
shadow that doesn’t exist – and she isn't particularly happy with her career
choice. But it appears that once in Zero Section the only way out is feet
first. Often she almost wishes this would happen as her continuous killing
fills her with self-loathing, emptiness and remorse. She is simply a tool
of destruction that her male handlers make use of and would easily discard
if necessary. There are no office parties, no comraderie – just carrying
out her assignments and waiting for the next one.
It is not completely clear in fact that Rei is
suppose to be the same character in all these films – in some her name
isn’t used – it could be that Rei is simply the name used for all the women
in Zero Section. They are interchangeable, fungible and dispensable. One
common characteristic though that these actresses all share is sizable
upper body assets and nearly every film in the series seems to have a mandated
rule that there is one shower/bath scene to display her best attributes
– important because cleanliness is next to Godliness – especially in the
murky world of Zero Section. All of the 1990 films were straight to video
productions with a low budget discipline maintained.
There are other characteristics that tend to be
common in most of the films – they usually start off with Rei killing someone,
taking a shower to wash off her sin as much as the blood and then having
to take on a new assignment. There are generally one to two sex scenes
– not always with Zero Woman but sometimes with another female character
in the film, she easily falls in love and more often than not this turns
out to be a bad thing for the guy and by the end of the film nearly everyone
is dead other than Zero Woman. Most important to all these films though
is how good Zero Woman looks with a gun and a smudge of blood on her face
and that seems to be the main criteria in selecting the actresses – because
acting ability certainly doesn’t appear to be it. Nor is action ability
– for those brought up on Hong Kong female action films, these are weak
reflections of those – made very specifically for a male audience more
interested likely in the exploitation elements within than the action scenes.
Here are the Zero Woman films:
1974 - Zero Woman – Red Handcuffs.
Directed by: Yukio Noda
Starring: Miki Sugimoto
Production Company: Toei
Time: 88 minutes
1995 - Zero Woman – Final Mission
Directed by: Koji Ekokido
Starring: Naoko Iijima
Time: 78 minutes
1995 - Zero Woman
Directed by: Daisuke Goto
Starring: Natsuki Ozawa
Time: 82 minutes
1996 - Zero Woman – Assassin Lovers
Directed by: Masahide Kuwabara
Starring: Kumiko Takeda
Time: 90 minutes
1996 - Zero Woman – The Accused
Directed by: Daisuke Goto
Starring: Mai Taichira
Time: 73 minutes
1997 - Zero Woman – The Hunted
Directed by: Norihisa Yoshimura
Starring: Mikiyo Ohno
Time: 80 minutes
1998 - Zero Woman – Dangerous Game
Directed by: Hidekazu Takahara
Starring: Cheiko Shiratori
Time: 81 minutes
1998 - Zero Woman – Returns
Directed by: Yasushi Saisyu
Starring: Saori Ono
Time: 82 minutes
Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs (1974)
This 1974 film from director Yukio Noda is
to a large degree the inspiration of the Zero Woman films of the 1990’s.
Instead of being the solitary secret assassin that she becomes in those
films, the character in Red Handcuffs is closer to a Dirty Harry type –
meting out justice as she sees fit – but the ending of this film leads
to the strong possibility that she goes on to become the lone government
killer in the later films. Based on a manga from Toru Fujiwara (also responsible
for the manga that the Female Convict Scorpion series is based on), this
is a rough film to swallow as it gorges itself on violence, rape, nudity
and geysers of spurting blood. In an interview with Patrick Macias, Takeshi
Miike had this to say of Noda’s films, “When I saw that, I thought, all
the cool stuff I wanted to do, this guy has already done it!" I would not
go that far, but this film is a visceral razor cut across your face. What
saves it from being a mere exercise in exploitation though is it’s gritty
street energy, a nihilistic attitude, the stunning implacable impassivity
of actress Miki Sugimoto and some kinetic editing and cinematography. For
this genre, it is an over the top 70’s classic and heads above any of the
1990 Zero Woman films.
Rei is a cop and has set herself up as bait for
a German tourist who takes women back to his room and sadistically brutalizes
them till they are dead. Two of Rei’s accessories are a small red gun that
she keeps hidden in the heel of her boot and a pair of red handcuffs that
she can use like a lasso or even a near flying guillotine. In this instance,
she uses both – the handcuffs to disable him and the gun to kill him with
a shot to his groin that explodes in a swizzle of blood. Her supervisors
are not pleased with her overstepping police protocol and throw her in
jail – where a gang of female inmates attacks her as the theme song plays
over the opening credits. From the get go, you know you are in for an uncomfortable
but stylized experience. The cops are only too happy to allow Rei to rot
in jail, but suddenly her services and skills are needed.
Five cretinous men rape a woman and kill her boyfriend,
but not satisfied with this they kidnap her in order to turn her over to
a brothel mamasan (Yoko Mihara). The mamasan recognizes the woman as the
daughter of a very influential and wealthy politician and so they decide
to ask for a ransom. The politician (Tetsuro Tamba) uses his influence
to hush up the whole matter as he wants no scandal hurting his career and
basically orders the police to cover it up by killing all the bad guys
involved – no arrests, no trials. They have no choice but to turn to Rei
who has few qualms about an assignment such as this. She helps one of the
gang escape from the ransom drop-off and uses this to infiltrate the gang
– but not before they first gang rape her – and she is only able to prove
her toughness later by killing the mamasan when she comes to take her turn
with Rei – a classic shot is of the woman falling back into the water filled
bathtub and blood spreading slowly like a Japanese water color.
Now she begins to use her smarts and sex appeal
to sow discord among the men and make them turn against each other. Of
course why she simply doesn’t use her hidden gun to kill them all is a
bit of a mystery – instead she often stands passively by as the woman is
raped and drugged and other innocents are killed. It ends in great style
like a Western showdown in a small dusty deserted group of buildings that
once were used as brothels for the nearby U.S military base. In fact, Noda
often takes a few slaps at the presence of the U.S. – at one time having
the men urinate on a US Army sign. This is an entirely corrupt world though
– not just the U.S. but the the cops and the politicians are dirty too
and Rei is used to take care of their dirty laundry. The cops are
almost as cruel as the crooks and at one point capture one of them and
methodically torture him with a blowtorch and then a water nozzle down
his throat. Miki Sugimoto had a career primarily in exploitation and “pinku”
films – some titles being Hot Springs Kiss Geisha, Shoguns General’s 21
Dolls, Modern Porno Tale - Inherited Sex Mania, Sukeban Guerilla and Violent
Lynch Classroom. She isn’t very expressive but she is enormously attractive
with her dark intense eyes and red lipsticked lower lip set in a perpetual
pout.
My rating for this film: 7.5
Zero Woman: Final Mission (1995)
The first film in the 1990’s series is one
of the best of them – well-photographed, good use of color, interesting
plot, good soundtrack and a solid quota of kink and sleaze. In this first
episode Rei (Naoko Iijima) is seemingly a low-level police woman/office
lady who works at police headquarters. Only her supervisor knows that she
is in truth a deadly assassin when called upon. In the opening scene she
walks into a bar as if she is modeling for Victoria Secret and pulls a
gun out of her deep cleavage and blows away a few miscreants. When she
gets home she parks her gun right next to her Barbie doll. In this one
Rei actually seems connected to the normal world and it is her friendship
with a fellow cop (who is unaware of Rei’s real status) that brings her
into danger.
The lovely Miss Yumi is the daughter of a wealthy
magnate and she has a public image of being a good Samaritan and benefactor
to a school for orphan children. Her private life is another matter as
she likes seducing young men who are beholden to her – nothing wrong with
that I suppose – but then she begins to insist on a little rough S&M
role-playing – often in the back seat of her convertible. When one of these
young men resists and walks away, she is insulted and runs him down while
still naked in the car. Rei, her friend and his girlfriend are witnesses
to this act, but are unable to stop or identify the woman. Dad wants to
keep it that way and so he sends professional killers to clean up these
little loose ends – fortunately like many of us Rei keeps a gun next to
her when she showers but her friend is not so lucky. Rei decides to go
after the bad guys on her own and is captured and then strung up and tortured
by a dwarf dressed in a blazer and shorts who looks a lot like North Korean
leader Kim Jong-Il!
There is a decent amount of action in the film
– though like all the films the action is never particularly well-choreographed
or physical – it is mere spectator sport for seeing these women work their
way out of danger with the use of a gun. Actress Naoka is mildly sympathetic
and doey attractive, but not particularly dynamic or memorable in this.
She was born in 1968 and has been in a few other films (“Funky Monkey Teacher”,
“Messenger”) and some Japanese TV series. She was married to a member of
the popular musical group, Tube, though they are now divorced and is a
singer in her own right. One rather amazing factoid about the film is that
the composer is Shigeru Umebayashi who went on to do music for “In the
Mood for Love”, “House of Flying Daggers” and "2046" – and there is a little
musical riff that instantly reminded me of something from “In the Mood
for Love”.
My rating for this film: 6.5
Zero Woman (1995)
Though this one is often assumed to be the
first in the series due to its lack of a sub-name, it is in fact the second
in the series – though in some ways this one sets the Zero Woman personality
for the films that follow. The production values and style are not up to
the first film, but it has much more action, more characters and perhaps
the best looking of the actresses to portray Rei, the beautiful Natsuki
Ozawa (only Cheiko Shiratori compares). While the first Zero Woman was
somewhat modest in displaying her nudity, Natsuki embraces it fully! Born
in 1976, Natsuki had a short career as a pop singer/actress before shocking
people by making some hard-core films with titles like “Reverse Soap Heaven”,
“Lewd Model” and “Sexy Butt”! She also appeared in the zombie flick, “Junk”.
It begins again with a spurt of bloodshed. Rei
has been assigned to steal some bearer bonds away from a criminal gang,
but a trio of punks beats her to it by carving the holder's arm off. She
is still able to send one bad guy away with a final question to him “Do
you believe in heaven?” Later she ponders to herself, “I once heard that
blood tastes like pomegranate. That’s not true, blood tastes more bitter
and warmer” – she should know. Now both she and the gang are after the
three punks and Rei is teamed up with another cop who seems to clearly
have his own agenda. But she sleeps with him first of course – in fact
about twenty-minutes after she meets him – and about 30-minutes after a
butcher attempts to rape her next to his raw meat. Sleeping with Zero Woman
though is almost tantamount to signing your own death warrant.
A lead takes them to a female fortuneteller and
it turns out to have been her brother who was one of the thieves. A number
of turns and betrayals later, the fortuneteller has been kidnapped by the
gang and she is being strung up in your typical B movie warehouse – Rei
and the kung fu kicking brother (Caine Kosugi – son of Sho) take them on.
In one nice moment, Rei kills one henchman and then calmly eats his pizza
as bad guys creep up on her. The final fifteen minutes is all show down
and nice use is made of some color schemes to give it a slash of style.
In this film Zero Woman takes on many of the basic characteristics that
are to serve her throughout the series – a loner, an agent of death and
a sexual need to feed her emotional emptiness as the killing begins to
take its toll on her.
My rating for this film: 6.0
Assassin Lovers (1996)
Rei (Kumiko Takeda – looking to me like a cross
between Susan Sarandon and Rosamund Kwan) is finding the killing more and
more difficult to stomach. She swerves to block a car and gets out of her
vehicle in her long black leather boots and shoots one guy in the head
and the other man in the face even with his hands up in a gesture of surrender.
But she can’t finish off one of the wounded men and her Zero handler (Tokuma
Nishioka portrays this character in the first three films) accuses her
of showing pity – a trait a Zero Woman can never have. She says she has
had enough of this life and throws her gun at him and walks away – but
of course she is dragged back in to this killing game.
She finds a man that fits her like a glove. Unfortunately,
he has been sent to kill her but he too may be in need of career counseling.
In a bar she is throwing darts and he has her in his gun sights when he
notices a lone tear running down her cheek and he hesitates wanting to
know what is causing this. They end up in bed all too aware that they could
kill each other at any moment, which only excites them all the more. Katsumura
(Keiji Matsuda) works for the gang that she has been assigned to eliminate
– “exterminate to the root” are her instructions – and sooner or later
he knows he will have to face her but he can’t bring himself to kill her
– not even when she walks into a bar and fires randomly in a bid to commit
suicide assassin style. Instead he wounds her and then takes her back to
mend her. She needs to get better quickly because she still has four names
on the list that she has to find and kill. In a less than discreet manner,
she tapes up pictures of the people she has to kill on her living room
wall and then puts a big red "X" through the ones she has expunged.
The film utilizes blood a lot more readily in
this episode – with the syrup gushing out of head wounds on a few occasions
like a burst pipe. It forgoes a shower scene for a stay in a sweaty sauna
as she waits for a target to show up. There is also a modicum of background
to the Zero Woman – a rarity – but she has nightmares about when her father
murdered her mother – killing as she says “must be in my breeding”. There
are also the requisite sex scenes – one an S&M sessions that looked
quite silly between the gang boss and his Mistress. The film in general
feels much more generic than the first two in the series and doesn’t try
too hard to add any stylistic urges. Actress Kumiko is generously endowed,
as are all the Zero Woman and has an interesting slightly world-weary face.
She can also be found in the film “Close Your Eyes and Hold Me” and has
appeared in over 30 films or TV shows. Born in 1968 she has moved to San
Diego and you can apparently contact her through her
site that has her profile and some pictures of her.
My rating for this film: 5.5
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Zero Woman