Bad Girl Mako Film Review

Aka - Furyo Shoujo Mako

Oh. Mako. You should have known better. Bad Mako. Produced by Nikkatsu right before they jumped into Roman Porno is a last gasp for them in the Pinky Violence genre. This is a bit of a downer as it wanders around in a daze like a second-rate boxer who has gotten a stiff uppercut to the jaw. It feels as if they are trying to tell young women - don't go down this path or you too will destroy your life. The direction from Koretsugu Kurahara in his debut looks great - crisp cinematography and a few cool scenes of dancing in discos - but our heroine Mako just gets more and more annoying as does the film as it goes along. It has some of the requisite elements of a Pinky Violence films - nudity, a gang of delinquent girls, stabbings, Yakuza and rape - but it has a desultory pacing to it. And there is nobody to like. I am not sure if we were supposed to care about these girls, but I just wanted to give them a spanking and tell them to go home.

Mako (Junko Natsu) is the top girl in a small gang of six sexually active teenage girls. Her auburn colored hair sets het apart from the others. At first the film has a light mood - almost Girls Just Want to Have Bad Fun - as they hang out in a bowling alley in the daytime and a disco at night - walk down the street singing "Raccoon balls are swinging even if there is no breeze" - and taking time to beat up a guy who welches on a bet and a group of schoolgirls who have been shoplifting. I was set up for some fun. Life is good for Mako and her stuffed bear that she always takes with her. Her brother Tanabe (Tatsuya Fuji) has some status in the Yasuoka Clan - Yakuzas - and that gives her status as well. The girls run errands for the gang and sell weed - nothing big. The mood begins to go sour though when the girls entrap Hideo who came on to Mako in the disco. They beat him up and humiliate him. But he has a small gang too - too lowly to be Yakuzas but with aspirations. And they kidnap Mako and slap her around. Naturally, she and Hideo (Jirô Okazaki) fall in love.

It just gets worse for Mako and her friends - the Yakuzas beat up Hideo and his gang and they swear revenge. Damn, you punks. Taking on the Yakuza never ends well. The girls decide to hook up with them and betray the Yakuza and Mako's brother. It gets nasty - "punish their bodies" is apparently code for beating them up and raping them. Less than 90-minutes but it drags along. The director was to quickly jump into the Roman Porno films with what I am sure are classics like Sex: Rider Wet Highway, Sex Rider: Injured Lust, Rape Me: Sexual Assault in a Hotel Room. Jo Shishido has a small cameo in the film.