Inspired by the rebellious counter culture movement of the day, and aimed squarely at the youth market, Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss stars pop singer Akiko Wada as tough female biker Ako, who falls in with an all-girl Tokyo street gang, the Stray Cats, led by Mei (the gorgeous Meiko Kaji, of Lady Snowblood and Female Prisoner Scorpion fame). When Mei's boyfriend Michio (Kôji Wada) angers local gangsters the Seiyu Group by failing to convince boxer Kelly (Ken Sanders) to throw a fight, the girls step in to save him but find themselves on the run as a result.
Wild women, groovy pop music, tough talking, cool posturing, motor-bike riding and street fights are the order of the day, but despite an interesting visual style (director Yasuharu Hasebe employing plenty of handheld camerawork) and lots of easy-on-the-eye Japanese actresses, Delinquent Girl Boss is actually a lot less engaging than I had hoped for. On paper, this is precisely the type of cult '70s flick that Quentin Tarantino would have a boner for (indeed, boxer Kelly reminded me of Butch from Pulp Fiction), but in reality it's actually not as hip as it sounds: the fight scenes are poorly choreographed, and the girls don't look all that tough; the chase scenes fail to provide the intended adrenaline rush (watching the 'bike and buggy' scene gets really dull as the vehicles weave in and out of concrete columns and go up and down steps ad nauseum); and the plot is quite weak, causing the film to drag in places.
Those who like their Japanese exploitation gritty and brutal will no doubt lap up the part where a 'Stray Cat' is tortured by a woman with a blowtorch (the victim burnt on her chest), but the rest of the violence is relatively tame, making the action a lot less memorable than the film's groovy title suggests.
Wild women, groovy pop music, tough talking, cool posturing, motor-bike riding and street fights are the order of the day, but despite an interesting visual style (director Yasuharu Hasebe employing plenty of handheld camerawork) and lots of easy-on-the-eye Japanese actresses, Delinquent Girl Boss is actually a lot less engaging than I had hoped for. On paper, this is precisely the type of cult '70s flick that Quentin Tarantino would have a boner for (indeed, boxer Kelly reminded me of Butch from Pulp Fiction), but in reality it's actually not as hip as it sounds: the fight scenes are poorly choreographed, and the girls don't look all that tough; the chase scenes fail to provide the intended adrenaline rush (watching the 'bike and buggy' scene gets really dull as the vehicles weave in and out of concrete columns and go up and down steps ad nauseum); and the plot is quite weak, causing the film to drag in places.
Those who like their Japanese exploitation gritty and brutal will no doubt lap up the part where a 'Stray Cat' is tortured by a woman with a blowtorch (the victim burnt on her chest), but the rest of the violence is relatively tame, making the action a lot less memorable than the film's groovy title suggests.