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.
