The Rica Trilogy
Rica (1972) - 7.0
Every time I enter the world of Pinky Violence
I do so with a little trepidation. They were a unique genre that only lasted
a handful of years, but in that period there were a lot of them made. I think
they could only have been produced in Japan at the time - Hong Kong had its
female action films but they were not sexually exploitive and Europe had
women in exploitation but they were not female action figures. America had
nothing resembling any of that. Only Japan seemed capable due perhaps to
taste and a lack of censorship that allowed them to combine tough women and
exploitation. It is a balance of exploitation vs female empowerment - with
I think it tilting strongly towards exploitation. In some films more than
others. Pinky Violence films were full of nudity, violence, often rape, beastly
men, misogyny, cat fights and women who get their own piece of flesh back
by the end. They were produced by established studios and directors and look
terrific with splashing colors, splashing blood, great camera work and excellent
soundtracks. There is really nothing like them anywhere else. They are right
in your face and dare you to look away.
Rica which is the first of a trilogy checks
off all those boxes with a bold stroke. This is brutal. Rapes and beatings
proliferate. One scene exemplifies all this. Rica has witnessed a theft and
the Yakuza boss sends one of his men to kill her. The killer tells her this
in her room. Sorry, I have to kill you. Ok but wouldn't it be a shame to
do so before we have sex. You have a point he says. After sex he discovers
she has stolen his knife. Drats, he thinks. More drats to come as she knocks
him down and cuts off his arm slicing through it like after dinner cake.
Rica played by Rika Aoki (her name in the
film and she only has one other credit after Rica) with a tough as nuts attitude.
Not an entirely bad girl though. After she kills a Yakuza boss, she calls
the cops and turns herself in. She has basically been in and out of Juvenile
Delinquent Detention Centers. Usually the out comes by escaping over the
barbed wire fence. Every time she comes back she has to duel with Rieko (Kazuko
Nagamoto) and they bash each other till the fight is called off. It is no
better for her on the outside as she fights with Yakuza who are trafficking
girls to Vietnam. Americans have a part in this - her mother was raped by
two G.I.s - and they are always louts. A common theme in many of the 1970s
films. It is very violent, downbeat, any excuse is used to get a woman topless
but it rarely slows down to catch its breath. It is directed by Kô
Nakahira, who's debut was Crazed Fruit, one of the breakthrough films in
Japan's New Wave. Later he went over to work for the Shaw Brothers and directed
four films.
Rica 2: The Lonely
Wanderer (1973) - 4.0
Rica (Rika Aoki) and a mystery man are
tied up by the bad guys who plan to kill them come nightfall. "I have a knife
in my panties". "How can I get it?". "Use your mouth. Don't be uncomfortable".
A few minutes later he is cutting the ropes with the knife in his mouth.
This is the second in the Rica trilogy and it is really dreadful. Shockingly
so since the director is Kô Nakahira had filmed the first much better
Rica and who had been around since the 1950's when he debuted with a new
wave classic Crazed Fruit, in the mid-60s he jumped over to the Shaw Brothers
using the name Yeung Shu-hei to make four films and then returned to Japan
for a few more films before he retired. I am not sure what he is aiming for
here other than total incoherence. He does away with traditional filmmaking
devices such as plot, establishing a scene, ending a scene and making sense.
Had he decided to make an avant-garde Godard styled film where no explanations
are needed - or did her just have to edit it down to 90-minutes and so he
took a butcher knife to it? Rica is on the beach and is attacked, Rica is
in the woods and is attacked, Rica is on the street and is attacked, Rica
walks into a building where the gang is saying I don't care if you kill me
which they promptly try and do. Why Rica was in any of these places is never
explained. She just is. Rica is Rica. And why she is being attacked is never
explained. She fights off her attackers and is then suddenly elsewhere like
in a nightclub singing.
Before I saw this I read a review on IMDB
in which the person said this "I am not through yet with this director, the
one who made the film I comment now, and the same who gave me the movie commented
one hour ago. Japanese crap at its worst.". My reaction was that this seemed
harsh but now having seen the film he was being kind. In an early scene Rica
is in a train being followed by two guys in sunglasses and the camera goes
back and forth and back and forth between the two and each time a dramatic
loud sound effect is made - for like 20 times. I needed an aspirin. But I
kept going because there is a Rica 3.
At the end of the first Rica she is on
a motorcycle just driving away from the chaos and death left behind. This
begins with her in a girl's reformatory but not for long as she and a friend
climb out the window to two waiting motorbikes. Why they are there nobody
knows but off they go. A second later they are in their apartment that has
a rope ladder to help them escape. A girl comes to them and says that Rica's
half black half Japanese friend Hanaka from the first film is in trouble
but while sitting in a restaurant a man from outside shoots her through the
forehead. Rica gives chase. The man runs. You have a gun idiot. You should
be doing the chasing. Rica beats the hell out of him and he commits suicide
in shame for having been beaten by a girl. She goes looking for her friend
Hanaka and this leads her into trouble with two Japanese gangs, an American
gang, a sunken freighter, professional killers after her and a knife in her
panties. In the end she is riding away on a motorcycle with Mt. Fuji in the
background. This may sound ok but it is basically a series of half-eaten
scenes stuck together.
Rica 3: Juvenile's
Lullaby (1973) - 4.5
When I bought these Rica dvds a few years
back I thought they had a good reputation in the world of Pinky Violence.
Maybe they do but I can't quite see how. The first in the trilogy was decent
enough in delivering the goods, but the second was an incompetent mess and
this third turns into a pervy comedy of sorts. Comedy of sorts because there
is a lot of rapey stuff going on. And it has light bouncy comedic music on
the soundtrack as they occur. A bit off-putting. There are a few good scenes
- Rica coming out of a coffin with a spear gun in her hand, the girls breaking
out of a mental asylum and finding matching helmets, jackets and motorcycles
and Rica beating up everyone she comes into contact with. But it is not shot
with much style or coherence. Nothing drives me crazier than a night scene
that magically turns to day about a minute later. Funny, that I had put off
watching these for so long because I wanted to save some good films for a
rainy day. That rainy day came and went.
Rica (Rika Aoki) is going back to girls
delinquent school and has to prove once again that she is the top dog in
the cell of girls. Among them is Oman, their leader and best fighter but
they also have a skilled pickpocket, an arsonist, a prostitute (the Queen
of Whores she calls herself) and ones with a few other skills. Eventually,
Rica breaks out by knocking out a guard and switching clothes with him. On
the outside she quickly runs into trouble - a gang of teenage boys hate Japanese
of mixed blood - especially American blood - and we get a flashback to their
leader seeing a young Japanese girl raped by GIs. Americans never come off
well in these films. But Rica clobbers all five of them with a loaf of bread
and sends them running. They will be back again and again to challenge Rica.
She makes friends with a black woman whose mixed daughter hates her because
she is shamed with her heritage.
To make it short and not so sweet, she
gets sent back, the whole group is transferred to an insane asylum where
the boss plans on trafficking them to Hong Kong, the guards put a mad rapist
into Rica's cell, they break out and Rica finds out that the mixed daughter
has been kidnapped by the boy gang and as they are about to rape her, they
realize she is worth more as a virgin to sell. To an American who wants to
film her losing her virginity. One last tasteless moment is when one of Rica's
jail cell girls - when they are not fighting each other they have a code
to help each other - substitutes herself in place of the young girl and quite
enjoys having sex. That pretty much did it for me though Rica spear gunning
a few of them was nice to see. Pretty dreadful film all around.
