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Savage Streets (1984)
1980's American Exploitation Classic
Savage Streets (United States, 1984)
Infamous American exploitation movie from the mid-80's featuring a very young looking Linnea Quigley (she was 26 at the time) as a deaf-mute younger sister to a too-old-to-be-in-high-school Linda Blair (she was 25 at the time).
A cartoonish looking gang of four expelled teens brutally rape the younger sister and leave her for dead, while Linda Blair tries to figure out who it is. Holding her back is a regular string of problems at school (fights in the girls shower!) where she's reprimanded by the slimy but tough Principal played by John Vernon (Dean Wormer from Animal House).
Eventually she extracts her revenge on the gang, though it's not nearly as violent or creative as everything leading up to it.
The hair, the music, the clothes, the bad acting, and even a Linda Blair nude scene highlight this American Exploitation classic that's still entertaining and watchable.
Jokôsei: Tenshi no harawata (1978)
More than just exploitation...
Angel Guts - High School Co-ed (Japan, 1978)
dir: Chûsei Sone
Kawashima and his two biker friends spend their time riding around and raping unsuspecting young girls. Much younger than them. His sister, Megu is coming of age, and men are starting to notice her. Ironically being overprotective he starts to feel conflicted.
One day while out with his sister he saves a girl from his friend trying to rape her, which ends up leading to even more conflicted feelings. Has he fallen in love? What makes her different from the other rape victims he shares with his friend? Does he see his sister in this girl? Is he attracted to his sister? Is he distancing himself from his gang?
Director Chûsei Sone shoots this like the viewer is there, hanging out and observing, privy to the private conversations and shocking behavior. That makes it all that more realistic and difficult to look away from.
It's part of a series obviously meant to titillate and yet it goes to great lengths to show us the ugliness and the pain of the victim. Machiko Ohtani as Nami, the girl who the gang fights over, gives a pretty brave performance considering especially what she has to go through in here (and Megu Kawashima as well, as the sister).
This is still an exploitation film, but it's been made as a well-crafted movie, with something more to show you than just bikers punks raping school girls. That's just an ugly world that happens to exist - we're thrust inside of it when it suddenly tries to gain a conscience.
The ending is unsatisfying, as a way to finish a story. It was summed up better when, late in the movie, Kawashima asks one of the victims "Who did this to you?" and she answers, "It doesn't matter who does it" as if in the end it's just a foregone conclusion in the world they live in.
Shokei yugi (1979)
3rd in the Trilogy...
The Execution Game (Japan, 1979)
directed by Tôru Murakawa
Cool but quirky Hitman Narumi (Yûsaku Matsuda) is back in the final part of the trilogy, much more weary and tired of it all, but drawn back in anyway. He's kidnapped and given an assignment, untrusting and unsure of what it's all about, having a history of double crosses.
He still has a knack for pissing off anyone who tries to get close to him, especially women, but this time he's fallen in love with a nightclub singer. That doesn't usually end well in a hard boiled movie, and he finds out she was ALSO kidnapped by these guys, forcing him to do this job.
Director Tôru Murakawa's trilogy of these films may follow a specific formula in their presentation, but this is a character who has grown throughout that trilogy, no longer falling asleep at a strippers stage or carelessly surrounding himself with party girls that he can't pay the bill for... life has worn him down... the booze, the women, the killing...
Mottomo kiken na yuugi (1978)
70's Japanese Anti-Hero
The Most Dangerous Game (Japan, 1978)
directed by Tôru Murakawa
Hitman Narumi (Yûsaku Matsuda) is hired to rescue one of a series of kidnapped CEO's in this gritty, urban crime movie (the first of three), involving yakuza, crooked cops, and corrupt businessmen.
There's a STYLISHLY realistic atmosphere to it, as opposed to an actual one, but it looks cool, and 1970's Japan is one of my more favorite places to see a movie filmed.
Keiko Tasaka plays the sexy girlfriend of one of the bad guys, who gets smacked around by our 'hero', before he rapes her! She of course ends up 'liking it' and then refuses to leave him alone. She spends the rest of the movie hounding him.
In fact, it seemed weird to me how often he gets beaten up, except when he's roughing up women or weak people, but of course when he starts shooting - then pretty much everyone goes down.
As 70's Japanese Anti-heroes go, he's got the cool shades, can take a beating, is a little quirky, can take or leave the most beautiful women and still get the job done at the end of the day .
Kuroi Mehyô M (1974)
Worth seeing for Reiko Ike fans!
Lots of Japanese regulars take part in Reiko Ike's only Nikkatsu film, giving it some substance, but not enough to make it rise above the titillation of her previous work or the quality seriousness of the three Kinji Fukasaku movies she'd follow up with.
Still, she wouldn't be the focal point of those three, whereas here she takes center stage. Nikkatsu makes her run and jump all over the place in this movie, primarily in and around and up and down industrial buildings, all while wearing clogs! It's entertaining, and she looks great of course.
And even though the first 20 minutes drag a bit, it sets up the ending which has a great deal of eyebrow-raising tension to it and makes it one worth seeing.
Furyô shôjo Mako (1971)
Bad Girl Mako, a decent example of it's genre
Bad Girl Mako (Japan, 1971)
Mako (Junko Natsu) is a.. bad girl, running around smoking weed, cheating people for money with a gang of girls...despite the fact that she carries around a teddy bear for the first half of the movie (or at least until she finally loses her virginity). Tatsuya Fuji plays her older brother, a young yakuza trying to win favor in the ranks. (Jo Shisido in a small role plays the big boss)
Jiro Okazaki leads a gang of young street hoods, and Mako falls in love with one of them, despite the fact he cheated over the Yakuza her brother is involved with. You can probably figure out what that leads to.
Junko Natsu had a pretty busy 1970 and after the final installment of the High School series in January of 1971, she found herself graduating BACK to the bad girl real world of urban Japan with this Nikkatsu film.
As skinny as you can be, but with her gang of girls, tough enough to strong arm anyone from local horny dudes to little school children, Mako doesn't take no lip. Not as hip as the Stray Cat movies (though all of the elements are here - cool clothes, rock bands, drugs), but not as raw as what would follow, the camera DOES however love Junko, and her pretty face is regularly close upped for reaction.
Very watchable, moves along at good pace, and Junko is cute as a button.
P (2005)
Recognize much about this movie....
Great review by Richard Brunton!
I'm going to say right off the bat, that I have rated this higher than most people here would, as I currently am living in Bangkok, recognize most of the scenery here, understand and am familiar with the Go-Go Bar business, and have friends that work in it.
Can't wait to show a few of them this movie!
The first Thai feature movie to be directed by a Westerner (Brit Paul Spurrier), it starts off as what seems like perhaps a morality tale: A young Thai girl (they make sure to let us know she is 18) can't afford medicine for her Grandmother, and living way out in the jungle of Thailand, has no way to make any money... so naturally there is someone who can 'help her out' by meeting up with a contact in Bangkok.
It's a recruitment thing to get poor Thai girls to work in the Go-Go Bar, and it goes into some pretty specific detail as to how it all works. The director did his homework as far as the conversations, the jealousy, the tier system... it's well put together. But, just as you think you've got it figured out - it becomes a horror movie!
Actually, the hints were there from the beginning, as the sick old grandmother was teaching her daughter about magic, and trying to prepare her for the real world. Each one of her rules, though, she ends up breaking later on and... the special effects aren't CGI or anything, but they're not bad for a movie with a $200,000 budget! The main cast, almost every female in it, only has this movie to their credit.
Really, I was entertained from beginning to end, but I am a bit biased.
Ankokugai no bijo (1958)
Enjoyable early Seijun Suzuki Crime Noir
Underworld Beauty (1958) directed by Seijun Suzuki A dark look at the yakuza underworld, where a boyfriend will cut the stones out his freshly dead girlfriend's brother just to get rich!
Miyamoto (Michitaro Mizushima) upon being released from jail, retrieves three diamonds from a robbery that put him there, only to tell the yakuza boss he's giving them to his partner, who lost a leg in the crime, kept his mouth shut, and is living in poverty. They're not keen on that idea. The beauty here is Akiko (Mari Shiraki), his partner's younger sister, who's more interested in partying and posing nude for a local mannequin maker, who she also dates.
The sets are impressive, the blacks are as jarring as I've ever seen them in a B&W film, and Suzuki moves this crime noir along at a pretty steady pace, already showing some of his interesting touches. His juxtaposition between the young teens dancing at the soda shop and the dark world of the yakuza is interesting... the pure joy and sexuality in their behavior against everyone trying to get their hands on the diamonds in their miserable dark spaces...
It's not a film without it's flaws - at times it looks so good, it's easy to forget it was put together cheaply and quickly, but it's worth seeing especially for an early look at Suzuki's work.