criminal woman, killing melody (atsuhi mihori, 1973. japan)

from cinemastrikesback.com:

Criminal Woman: Killing Melody is not a particularly original story, nor a complex story, but it is a good story told well. Criminal Woman is a combination of several premises – the revenge saga, the women-in-prison film, and the story of a middleman playing two gangs against each other to destroy both. We have seen the latter before, most notably in the classic Yojimbo, where Toshiro Mifune pretends to assist both sides while encouraging them to whittle each other away. The twist here is that the Mifune role is played by a gang of cute girls in mod outfits armed with grenades and rifles. Elements of Criminal Woman also evoke the more recent Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.



Reiko Ike plays the protagonist, Maki, a woman who lost her father and her honor to a rapacious yakuza gang led by Boss Oba (Ryoji Hayama). After a failed public attempt to slay him (in a topless go-go bar, naturally), Maki is thrown into prison. There she meets a group of outcasts and criminals who become her friends. The group includes wild Kaoru (Yumiko Katayama), who assaulted a deadbeat john, super cute and sunny Natsuko (Chiyoko Kazama), who injured a cop during a wild motorcycle chase, and pickpocket Yukie. She also meets, and clashes with, Masayo (Miki Sugimoto) a gangster’s moll who first challenges her to a deadly prison knife fight, but later grows to respect her.

When Maki leaves prison, she and her three friends hatch a scheme to play the Oba gang against Tetsu (Takeo Chii), the uncontrollable heir to the weaker Hamayasu gang. Tetsu, channeling Sonny Chiba’s memorable turn in the second Battles Without Honor and Humanity film, is an unruly thug who is all too happy to break the truce, especially when Maki starts supplying him with weapons she acquires through her connections at the local U.S. Army base. Eventually Maki and her gang must confront not only Boss Oba and his intense henchman Yabuki, who spits deadly globs of chewing gum(?!), but also Masayo who, unbeknownst to Maki, is Oba’s girl.



Ike can’t be the living embodiment of rage and vengeance that is Meiko Kaji – she doesn’t have it in her. Recognizing that, she instead plays Maki as initially inexperienced, getting along on spirit and determination. Still, she does not suit the role as well as she did Inoshika Ocho in the Elder Sister series, and her accomplices often steal the spotlight, especially Katayama and the winsome Kazama.

The plot may be simple but it is laid out with style and pizzazz. Ike and her girls carry out their work in skin-tight leather, club gear and motorcycle gang chic. The battles between Ike and Sugimoto are catfights extraordinaire. Some unnecessary S&M scenes aside, the sleaze factor is high but not ridiculous (and this is one the few women-in-prison films ever to not feature at least one shower scene). There are also plenty of exciting action scenes, and Takeo Chii as Tetsu is a force of nature. Criminal Woman does not break any new ground, but it’s still a blast.