Wednesday, May 8, 2019

STRAY CAT ROCK: DELINQUENT GIRL BOSS (1970) **


Ako (Akiko Wada) is a tough biker chick who gives a seemingly innocent girl named Mei (Meiko Kaji from the Lady Snowblood movies) a ride on her motorcycle.  Mei’s destination happens to be an all-girl gang rumble and Ako decides to join the club.  Together, they get mixed up in a scheme involving a crooked boxing match and begin a bitter feud with a rival male gang.  

Not to be confused with the similarly titled Delinquent Girl Boss franchise, this first in a series of five Stray Cat Rock films suffers from a meandering pace and some serious lulls in between the thrills.  Sure, there’s one great moment involving a girl getting a blowtorch to the boob, but moments like this are few and far between.  The action is sparse for the most part too.  There’s a protracted motorcycle vs. dune buggy chase scene that begins with promise, although it’s much too leisured paced (both in that the editing is unrushed and that the vehicles are slowly moving) to gather much excitement or momentum. 

In the meantime, you can be content with some chintzy footage of the girls attending garish go-go clubs where they hear non-stop shitty music.  (The film is only eighty minutes, but the musical performances help to heavily pad out the running time.)  Heck, Wada even gets to belt out a number.  Probably the biggest blunder is that the usually magnetic Kaji isn’t given very much to do.  Instead, Wada is given the bulk of the movie to carry on her shoulders, although she’s not quite up to the challenge.

Director Yasuharu Hasbe later directed the nutty Assault!  Jack the Ripper.

AKA:  Female Juvenile Delinquent Leader:  Stray Cat Rock.  AKA:  Stray Cat Rock:  Woman Boss.  AKA:  Alley Cat Rock:  Female Boss.

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