Ms. 45 (1981)

Ms. 45 is one of the best rape revenge films ever made. This one takes the familiar rape/revenge concoction and sends it off in a totally different direction. Between Abel Ferrara's brilliant direction and Nicholas St. John's writing, Ms. 45 becomes more of a piece of art to be debated and discussed rather then pure exploitation. While the film does still manage to hold those beloved elements of an exploitation film, it seems to be something more. Something with a controversial theme. That theme is of course feminism.

  Zoë Lund does a brilliant job in this movie. Her acting is on point and she gives the main character Thana so much life. Considering Zoë Lund was only 17 years old when she took this role on, makes it all the more astonishing. Thana is a silent mute who seems to be completely disgusted with the male gender. This repulsion will of course grow when she has the worst day of her life. On her way home from work with her sleazy boss Thana is harassed by the droves of horny men on the New York City streets. They give her all the usual "hey baby, hows it going" pick up lines, blow her kisses and whistle at her as she walks by. Before she gets home to her apartment she is pulled into an alley by a masked rapist played by no other then directer Abel Ferrar.

The rapist comes complete with a gun and one of those creepy translucent masks from movies like Alice Sweet Alice and Last House On Dead End Street. The masked scumbag rapes Thana at gun point and makes it a point to tell her "See ya, later. I'll be back baby". Thana picks herself up from the filthy city street and makes her way back home only to realize that another man has broken into her home. When the burglar finds nothing worth stealing he takes it out on the freshly raped Thana and yes you guessed it, she is raped again. This time around the rapist doesn't get away so easy. Thana picks up a clothing iron and caves the dirt-bags head in.

Since our main character has been sexually assaulted twice in one day, I think it is safe to say that she might not be so mentally stable. Her repulsion for men grows to a deep hatred and its not long before she goes on a brutal killing spree of revenge with the loaded gun she stole from the now dead rapist. One of the things that makes Ms. 45 so much more interesting then the average rape/revenge flick is the fact that the main character isn't really acting out vengeance on the ones that did her wrong. Instead she takes her anger out on the entire male gender. This would of course be explored again in a later French film called Baise-Moi (2000) but it was done much more effectively in Ms. 45.

   It is this thought provoking feminist theme that so often brings Ms. 45 into discussion and debate. While it is arguable that all or most rape/revenge films have the underlining message that ALL MEN ARE SCUM!!! This movie takes it to a new level. However I feel that most view this movie slightly wrong. While at first glance it may seem that  Zoë Lund's character is the ultimate feminist, it doesn't mean that the film is a pro-feminist movie. In fact it portrays her more as a damaged human being with many social and probable mental disorders. In this review I used the word repulsion a lot because the character of Thana greatly resembles the disturbed character of Roman Polanski's Repulsion (1965). In fact the similarities are so great that I am almost positive that Ferrara and the Ms. 45 crew were highly influenced by Polanski's horrific art-film. Damaged in the brain or not the audience can't help but love the character of Thana. The remainder of the film we watch the fem-fatale blow away men with her beloved pistol. Some of them seem to deserve it and others... not so much. It all comes to violent end where Thana dresses up like a nun and massacres the men at a Halloween party. 

Ms. 45 has the perfect blend of art and exploitation. It comes complete with locations from the great genre film Death Wish, a pretty cool musical score and it really captures the mean streets of NYC in a time long past. A must see for genre fans.

Lady Snowblood (1973)

This movie is awesome! If you are new to the Samurai genre Lady Snowblood is usually one of the first you would come by, due to its huge cult following. I would say Shogun Assassin and then this one are probably the two most popular and rightfully so.

Lady Snowblood is a classic Japanese tale of  revenge. The film opens up in a female prison with a dying woman giving birth to a baby girl named Yuki. Yuki's mother was done great wrong in life and decides that Yuki will dedicate her life to vengeance. The newborns fate is already sealed. She will walk the path of revenge and kill the scum who murdered her father and raped her mother. Yuki is raised by a mean-hearted gray haired dude who teaches her to be tough. Similar to so many Hong Kong Kung Fu Films, Yuki goes through a long painful training period and many of the techniques seem quite ridiculous. Especially this one scene where she is put in a barrel and kicked down a hill. I'm not quite sure exactly what that does to train someone in martial arts but it does happen more than once in this movie. Anyway as Yuki becomes an adult she seeks out the bastards that destroyed her family and rips through them one by one with her samurai sword.

Yuki is played by the great Meiko Kaji who you might remember from the Female Prisoner # 701 : Scorpion movies. She is just as bad-ass in this one and sheds enough blood to keep the average gore-hound happy. When it comes to the blood & guts department we have plenty of Japanese style blood spraying, severed hands go flying, a very brutal scene in which a Yakuza gang violently takes turns stabbing a man to death and a very gratuitous scene in which a woman hangs herself and then has her torso cut in half, complete with buckets of pouring blood. On the other hand oddly enough Lady Snowblood does not offer any nudity. That is of course with the exception of a very uncomfortable moment when we see a prepubescent Yuki striped down nude. Although it is the furthest thing from kiddie-porn or anything like that, the scene might feel a bit wrong to Americans.

Lady Snowblood would go on to spawn a sequel in the following year which many don't think holds up to the first films standards. None the less the follow up is still entertaining and action packed. Quentin Tarantino would be heavily influenced by this movie and steal large chunks of it for Kill Bill. What else is new? Lady Snowblood is of course far superior to Kill Bill or anything else that fan-boy Tarantino has ever done. If you dig movies about strong women who fuck shit up and take no prisoners Lady Snowblood is perfect for you. There is nothing negative to say about this movie. Its a masterpiece!

Rapeman (1993)

Once again we have to give a round of applause to the Japanese for coming up with such innovative forms of smut and sleaze. This one comes in the form of a super hero for hire known as Rapeman. Need I say more?

Rapeman derives from a popular Japanese Manga book of the same title and is not the easiest of items to find on dvd with English subtitles but is well worth sorting out and makes for a nice novelty addition to your trashy dvd collection.

Rapeman is a good guy. Just look at that face. Rapeman stands for justice through penetration. Decked out in a black hockey mask, a leather jacket, leather gloves and comes complete with handcuffs and a trusty butterfly knife. He helps the helpless rape by rape.

This early 90's filth-fest is shot on video and is extremely low budget but unlike the majority of American shot on video garbage Rapeman offers up a maniacal story in pure bad taste.

Just like our beloved Superman, Rapeman is your average every day joe. In this case he is a school teacher and the students love him, especially the girls. On a typical day Rapeman is given gifts from his female students. They show their appreciation to their teacher by giving him their panties but by night Rapeman has to get to work and his latest case turns out to be a big mess. A jealous waitress at a night club hires Rapeman to victimize the wife of a corrupt politician. Rapeman obliges and takes care of business but he is double crossed and black mailed. Soon Rapeman finds out that the politicians are working for the Yakuza and it is time to take the bad guys out one rape at a time.

Rapeman is not a gore flick at all. It is pure exploitation however. The rape scenes although very strange are shot in slow motion. This doesn't look all that great. In fact it is a bit on the blurry side but the blurry imagery and the shot on video cheapness is easily looked past due to the outrageous subject matter.

Might not want to watch this one with your girlfriend unless she is really cool. There is lots of nudity and rape mashed into a short 74 minute movie. I could see most being offended by this. Definitely not for everyone but then again those sensitive types would probably not even be reading this.

Death Proof (2007)

In 2007 Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino put together a double feature known as Grindhouse. Rodriguez's feature was an 80's style zombie flick called Planet Terror and Tarantino's being a Slasher crossed with a 70's carsploitation flick, known as Death Proof.

Kurt Russel (The Thing, Escape From New York) plays Stunt-Man Mike, a deranged ex stunt-man who now gets his rocks off by stalking hot girls and killing them with his car. "Do I scare you? Is it my scar? No. Its your car."

The car chase scenes are pretty amazing in this movie. Cars flip, motorcycles crash, girls hang from the hood of the car and we have plenty of homage to American car flicks, especially Vanishing Point. Anyone interested in Tarantino's influences for the fast paced car action in Death Proof might want to check out a documentary called Not Quite Hollywood : The Wild Untold Story Of Ozploitation. In this documentary Tarantino discusses Australian car flicks and the influence they had on him.

Death Proof even has a bit of dialogue that mentions Australia when Someone mistakes Zoe Bell's New Zealand accent for an Australian one. Death Proof is full of the normal witty dialogue one would expect from Quentin Tarantino and in one scene the director recreates the memorable diner sequence from Reservoir Dogs with an all female cast.

Death Proof is loaded with homage to classic influential films and actors. In one of my favorite frames Sydney Tamiia Poiter (Daughter of Sidney Poitier) copies Briggite Bardot who is posing in a poster above her. Foot fetishists should find Death Proof to be a bit stimulating to say the least. Every other frame in the movie seems to have a close up of foxy females toes and in the films trashiest moment Kurt Russel licks Rosario Dawson's feet while she sleeps.

Death Proof eventually shifts gears into some what of a revenge flick but before the revenge takes place some of the high notes consist of Rose McGowan (Doom Generation) having her achy-breaky skull smashed in, in a brutal car crash. Another girl has her head sawed in half by a flying tire, legs are severed and sent flying, we have some gun violence, a pipe to the face, a head is stomped into the pavement and a whole lot of damage to really nice cars. We also have an amazing soundtrack which is pretty normal for a Tarantino movie.

I personally like to watch Planet Terror and Death Proof together, the way the gods intended them to be seen but if I had to choose between the two I think I prefer Death Proof over Planet Terror. Death Proof plays more like a true 70's exploitation film despite the use of cellphones and modern female chit-chat. I was lucky enough to catch both films in the theater upon the Grindhouse release. They came complete with all those great fake trailers. The films worked well together in that memory for me. For everyone else who wasn't able to catch the theatrical release, I can't really see how much they would appreciate either one of these movies.

Death Proof was made by a fan-boy, for fan-boys and it is a shame that when the two movies were released for dvd the films were split up with all the added fun missing. For me it almost feels like I am watching a cut down version of the movie and we all know how much it sucks to watch a cut film. I still await the proper dvd release of Grindhouse.

He Who Gets Slapped (1924)

When it comes to Lon Chaney it is never easy to choose but if I had to Laugh Clown Laugh is probably my favorite of all Chaney movies. So when I learned that he also played a clown in He Who Gets Slapped and many considered the character to be more sinister I had to see it.

This time Lon Chaney plays a scientist named Paul. Paul has two loves in his life. His work and his wife. It just so happens that Paul has proven his theory on the origins of mankind and he is going to become rich and famous. Well at least he would be. Paul's wife has been cheating on him with his best friend and now the two will give him one final slap in the face and steal his work and claim it to be their own discovery. Paul sinks into an awful depression and joins the circus as "He" the clown who gets slapped. He is gaining a lot of attention and is becoming the main attraction of the town. Paul has been slapped in the face by his loved ones and laughed at by everyone else. At least now he is getting paid to be slapped and laughed at by complete strangers.

The only thing is that underneath all of the makeup. He is plotting out his revenge. When his old friend no longer had a use for Paul's wife he left her for a young girl in the circus. This just so happens to be the girl that Paul or He is falling in love with. He refuses to be slapped again and he decides to kill the man who has brought him so much grief.

This time around Lon Chaney uses a circus lion as his murder weapon. For those familiar with The Unholy Three and the epic killer ape ending, it was most likely heavily influenced by this film which would be released on year earlier. The final fight is more emotional then it is thrilling. Lon Chaney pours it on thick as he gets revenge. "We will see who will have the last laugh".

The truth is I still prefer Laugh Clown Laugh over He Who Gets Slapped. While I am glad I picked this one up and very happy to have added to my collection I am still yet to find a Chaney movie that brings the amount of emotion that Laugh Clown Laugh does. None the less Chaney fans will not be disappointed by this one. It is artsy, metaphoric, emotional and creepy.

Kinjite : Forbidden Subjects (1989)

Kinjite is  apparently a word that is used in Japan to describe a taboo subject such as sexual abuse, child molesters and prostitutes. Kinjite is a Forbidden Subject in Japanese culture but luckily for us Americans it is not forbidden to watch.

Charles Bronson plays Lieutenant Crowe, a police officer who is on a pretty rough assignment and the job just might be getting to him. A typical day for Lieutenant Crowe involves tracking down pimps and making them eat their $25,000 wrist watch and sticking dildos up child molesters assholes but we will get back to all that good stuff in a bit. Kinjite was directed by J. Lee Thompson (Ten To Midnight, Happy Birthday To Me) and the director offers up all the Forbidden Subjects that we can stand. In this movie Charlie Bronson is tracking down some pimps who like to abduct young (very young) girls, molest them and put them out on the streets addicted to smack for a profit. After Bronson's own daughter is groped on a bus by a perverted Japanese man, he might not be the best candidate to help find a young pre teen Asian girl who has been corrupted by the dirt-bag pimps.

Kinjite is sleazy and disturbing at the same time. The audience can not help but feel uncomfortable with the contents of the depraved subject matter. We have plenty of naked female flesh on display but considering what is happening to these girls it is anything but attractive. This one depends more on the twisted story then it does on the shoot-em-up more typical Bronson stuff. Of course we get all the expected revenge but it is the sickness within the plot that really separates Kinjite from the more typical Death Wish type stuff.

As I mentioned earlier Charlie Bronson has his own way of dealing with the scum on the streets. In the most memorable scene he forces a kiddie-touching pimp to swallow his own watch. Then Bronson blows his car up as a final fuck-you. In another scene he sticks a rubber dick up a mans ass. Now that's justice! He also throws a pimp off of a balcony, leaving a fine looking corpse with a shattered achy-breaky skull. The film also offers up quite a bit of racism from our vengeful hero Bronson. We have young Asian prostitutes, child junkies and multiple explosions. On a down note Kinjite comes complete with one of the worst musical scores I have ever been forced to sit through. The soundtrack is painfully bad but it is a small price to pay for the overall experience of Kinjite.

Although very different in the plot, I would say the best audience for this movie, aside from Charlie Bronson obsessed lunatics would be fans of J. Lee Thompson's Ten To Midnight. Its sick and twisted but justice is served. This one really doesn't work for die hard action fans. Luckily for me, I do not fit into that catagory.

Death Wish 3 (1985)

If you look at the Death Wish series and then look at the Rambo movies, you might notice an interesting pattern. The original Death Wish put Charles Bronson forever in our hearts as the revenge guy. The oh so necessary follow up Death Wish 2 comes along in 1982 which is the same year that the first Rambo movie came out. Now I am sure that First Blood just blew Death Wish 2 away in the box office and Charlie Bronson did not relive his day in the sun. Jump forward to 1985 and Death Wish 3 is being wrapped up and ready to hit screens. Guess what else is getting ready to hit theaters... If you guessed Rambo 2, you would have guessed right. Now my guess is that the Death Wish boys were not about to give up the fight so easily and lose to Rambo again, so instead of doing another 70's style rape/revenge flick they chose to do an all out shoot-em-up action flick.

Well that is pretty much what we get here and the vengeful Paul Kersey is back in New York to kill the scum that pollutes the city streets. This time Charles (Paul Kersey) Bronson is working for the pigs. The East New York police are corrupt and not much better then the punks that terrorize the streets but Kersey doesn't have much choice. He will either rot in jail for a murder he did not commit or kill the bastards who actually did it. For those who are familiar with the series, the street-scum that Kersey goes to war with in part 2 are pretty outlandish and unforgettable. Well the new gang of punks are more ridiculous then ever and have grown in numbers.

These comic bookish bad guys all come complete with silly face paint and are completely decked out from head to toe in leather. These leather clad bad boys are lead by a Irish goon named Fraker who comes complete with a deep transvestite type voice, an inverted Mohawk and fully automatic weapons. Well it looks like the body count is going to be pretty fucking high in this one huh? Paul Kersey kills everything that jingles when it moves including a stereotypical punksploitation cackling bad guy named "The Giggler". Once the Giggler's brains are splattered across the city side walks Fraker and his gang call in other local gangs to help take out the one man army that is Charles Bronson. Naturally Bronson is going to need a little help of his own so he brings out the heavy artillery which comes in the form of a rocket launcher and a Gatling gun.

To say the least Death Wish 3 is an over exaggerated and over the top version of the classic 70's revenge flick. It is ridiculously mind numbing and you are bound to come out of it short of a few brain cells. Then there is the really cheesy score which Jimmy Page can take the credit for. Despite the huge body count and the giant explosions Death Wish 3 is really a lot softer then the first two films. That nasty 70's vibe is gone and replaced with big shoot outs and typical 80's action type stuff. There is even a rape scene that manages to come off extremely tame compared to the first two films.

Still if you can look past this, Death Wish 3 can be a good time waster. It is fun, it is moronic and it is of course Charles Bronson. This one goes perfect with some beers and some friends who are equally retarded and can enjoy this form of mayhem for mental midgets. Perhaps the funniest thing about Death Wish 3 is that is supposed to take place in East New York but is clearly the suburbs. We also have a ridiculous scene where Kersey shoves a fat skinheads head between prison bars, leaving him stuck and fucked or high and dry if you are more of the sensitive, politically correct type. Is that even possible? This one will raise many of dumb questions.

Check it out for Bronson gun-fu and dead punkers!

Death Wish 2 (1982)

It took eight years for the first sequel to Death Wish to come but it came at us with guns blazin and still stays true to the original. Perhaps if they took their time on the sequels to follow they would have been as interesting as this follow up to the classic rape/revenge tale.

Yet again Bronson proves that it never pays to be close to him. His daughter is raped yet again by another gang of vicious punks but this time she doesn't make it out alive. After the violent rape scene she tries to make her escape but ends up impaled on a metal, spiked pole from a fence in a scene that looks like it should have been in a horror movie. For those who remember correctly in the first Death Wish Bronson's daughter was not the only victim of sexual abuse. His wife was also attacked and killed by the scum bags. I guess the film makers decided that if there was two rapes in the first film there had to be at least two rapes in the sequel. The second rape victim in Death Wish 2 is Bronson's maid. The scum take turns with her and then smash her achy-breaky skull in. Naturally there is vengeance to pay.

Charles Bronson takes to the Hollywood streets. Oh yeah this one takes place in California since the police forced him out of New York City in the first film. He searches every sleaze-ball corner for the degenerates who killed his friend and daughter but what he finds instead is criminals in every parking garage, bus and arcade but the main difference between the sequel and the original is this time around he actually finds the low lives that harmed his family. He finds a few rapping a woman and he shoots them to shit. He takes out a few more in a big shoot out scene when he catches them purchasing automatic weapons.

He drops a cheesy line in one scene when he asks one of the punks "Do you believe in Jesus? You're gonna meet him" the he shoots him full of holes and takes back to the streets for more revenge.

In my favorite scene, the only remaining gang member beats the shit out of half the police force while high on P.C.P. after his arrest he is sent to a rehabilitation hospital. Bronson poses as a doctor and sneaks into the hospital for a final fight scene where Charlie gets stabbed full of holes.

Laurence Fishburne (Apocalypse Now, King Of New York) shows up as one of the rapists. He meets his fate with a bullet to the face. Fishburne walks around with a ghetto blaster and does some silly dances but he sure does have some cool sun glasses. We also get a death by electrocution, some knife violence, dead cops and a really sneaky Charles Bronson. It all makes for a great follow up.

Born Losers (1967)

The mid 60's was the height of Biker Exploitation Films and Born Losers is amongst the best of the lot. After the success of Roger Corman's Wild Angels in 66 a whole slue of these rough-rider movies would follow.

Directed and staring Tom (Billy Jack) Laughlin as the do-gooder Indian who takes revenge against a gang of violent bikers who call themselves the Born Losers.

This is the first time Laughlin would ever play Billy Jack and Born Losers is the best of the lot. The story is strong and so is the suspense and action. Born Losers almost plays like a western with many showdown type scenes between our vengeful Indian in the cowboy hat and the losers that he goes to war with.

About five minutes into the film we are treated to some violence when the Losers kick the shit out of a smart mouth college kid in a traffic jam. They beat the kid to a bloody pulp and everyone turns the blind eye. That is except for Billy Jack. Billy grabs his riffle and shoots one of the bike riding scumbags down. The gang is locked up and so is Billy Jack. The only problem is that Billy's sentence is much worse. "Think twice next time before you help someone". Once Billy Jack is released from jail the Losers decide to make his life a living hell. They fuck with him where ever he goes, they rob his house and steal his money but he doesn't decide to battle these bastards again until they rape a lone-rider babe in a white bikini on a motorcycle played by Elizabeth James (Dirty Mary Crazy Larry).

The bikini clad biker-babe is just one of the many rape victims of the gang. The same day they rape three teenie-boppers and it makes the news. When two of the Losers are identified and caught by the police the rest of the gang terrorize the rape victims and their family.

Well enough is enough! Billy Jack has some ass to kick and it all comes together in a big showdown at the gangs clubhouse. With tire irons swinging and guns-a-blazin.

This one offers up a mute with no tongue who screams in women's faces, a dirty son of a bitch named Crabs "What do ya say we all jump in a shower together", A vice president named Child Of Christ and a bunch of other memorable characters. Achy-breaky skulls are clobbered with tire irons, motorcylces burn. We get gun violence, knife violence, a strip-tease from an "over sexed teenager". Although we do get a little bit of bare flesh this thing could have only benefited from some more nudity but hey I couldn't ask for much more from a movie rated {PG}. If this thing was released today it would clearly be rated {R}.  Still Born Losers is amongst my favorite of all biker films. Its Death Wish meets Satan's Sadists. Oh and watch for the scene between Billy Jack and Elizabeth James in the resturaunt. We get some good continuity where Elizabeth starts to say her lines and stops. Then she picks it up again.

Terrifying Girls High School : Lynch Law Classroom (1973)

This is a very strange Pinku film. Its basically a women in prison movie with a school for delinquents instead of an actual prison. It is extremely violent and holds no punches however it suffers a bit in the plot department.

From the director who gave us the amazing Pinku sleaze-fest Girl Boss Guerrilla we get more of the expected female delinquents on motorcycles but this one plays a less like a Yakuza film then it does a horror movie. There are definitely elements from the American Roughies with gratuitous nudity and of course torture. The story tells of three new delinquents who will be attending the "School Of Hope" where the punishment consists of horrible torture and even murder.

Luckily for us actress Miki Sugimoto from violent epics such as Zero Woman : Red Handcuffs, Criminal Woman : Killing Melody, Girl Boss Guerrilla and many more plays our lead delinquent Noriko and is on yet another path of vengeance. When Noriko learns that a fellow gang member was tortured to death in The School For Hope she swears to kill the group of fascist bitches who were responsible. We are treated to plenty of naked Japanese women and of course all the violent stuff that is expected from a Pinku Violence film. In one of the most disturbing scenes a girl has a red hot light buld shoved up her vagina and is forced to do push ups. Another one offers some humiliation and public urination in the same vain as Last House On The Left which came out one year earlier and I'm sure influenced this Japanese flick. We also have a political statement going on about the corruption of Japanese politicians and mainly the police. I find it amazing that one of the most disciplined countries is able to release such rebellious art. In the films climax we get a revolution lead by the high school girls. They take over the school, run amok and go to war with the police.

Terrifying Girls High School suffers a bit with the numerous subplots. We have a greedy reporter trying to blackmail the school board and politicians. This really doesn't add any depth to the film. In fact it hurts it in a way and takes away from what is really going on. Still it is a fun watch and well worth the buy for anyone who is into this brand of trashy Japanese cinema.

Criminal Woman : Killing Melody (1973)

This Pinku Violence movie plays somewhere between a Women In Prison movie and a classic revenge tale in exploitation. Maki is our lead bad-ass female, who is imprisoned for slashing the face of a Yakuza member who is part of the clan that was responsible for her fathers death.

The prison scenes are very reminiscent of the Scorpion : Female Prisoner movies with gratuitous fight scenes and of course the tearing of clothing to show off some naked flesh which is expected from the genre with movies like The Big Doll House and Caged Heat. The unforgettable knife fight scene between Maki and a rival prisoner has to be seen to be believed. The two women hold a rope in their teeth and slash at each other with a broken shard of glass. The object being that if the opponent screams and the rope falls from her teeth she is of course the loser. This scene runs really long at what seems close to ten minutes but is well worth the time.

Between bare breasted cat-fights Maki shares stories with the other delinquent prisoners and we get a bit of back story on each. Maki also plans on finishing what she started and acting out her vengeance against the Yakuza clan that killed her father. She plots out an elaborate plan of attack to destroy the gangsters. The plan is to kill one important gangster and make it look like an assassination which will start an inner conflict and they will kill themselves off. Then the pickings will be slim and Maki can take the boss and the big men out on her own. Now that's a cool fucking plot!

Maki teams up with three fellow delinquent girls from the neighborhood to help her on her path of revenge. We do get our share of nudity but personally I feel we could have had more. The most blatant sexual scene is a bondage S&M scene that reminds me of a cross between De Palma's Scareface and Girl Boss Guerrilla. Maki is stripped nude and bound with rope. She is beaten for information but when she doesn't speak even when a ruthless Yakuza member gets a bit chainsaw happy. Might I point out that this film came out one year before the classic Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Criminal Woman : Killing Melody comes complete with stabbings, slashings, bad-ass shoot em up scenes, tits & ass, tattooed Yakuza bitches, police officers have their achy-breaky skulls smashed with beer bottles, chainsaw-fu (complete with violence towards mannequins, burning cigarettes to the nipple and much more ridiculous Japanese mayhem all done in Pinku bad taste.

A must see for exploitation fans and lovers of female fatal's!