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[The Pinky Violence Collection] Criminal Woman: Killing Melody movie review

Criminal Woman: Killing Melody, the first film in the Criminal Woman series, marks the 10th pairing of Reiko Ike and Miki Sugimoto, and frankly, it is one of the best.

The film opens on Reiko Ike in a trendy go-go club. Dressed in everyday housewife garb and looking quite worried, she seems incredibly out of sync with the blaring music and gyrating, strutting, topless bodies in the center of the room. Then we notice her worry seems mixed with determination. She clutches a kitchen knife. In walk a group of local yakuza. She spots them and goes to work, slashing and stabbing in a wild flurry of motion, until she is caught; forcibly subdued by the very gangsters she set out to kill. The shot freezes and the title displays, brilliant red across the screen. Welcome to Criminal Woman: Killing Melody.

A hard boiled revenge tale at its core, Criminal Woman: Killing Melody chronicles Ike’s quest to avenge the death of her father at the hands of the drug dealing Oba clan. The first half of the film is your standard women in prison fare (although far more pleasant than the institutions found in the Sasori, or even Jack Hill women in prison films), establishing Ike’s change from meek domesticated female to the single-minded, power suit wearing vengeance-machine witnessed upon her release. The second half is a tale of gangland intrigue, as Ike and her all-girl crew, through skillful deceptions and calculated alliances, pit yakuza gang against yakuza gang, clearing the urban battlefield for Ike’s final confrontation with the head of Oba clan. Along the way you have not one, but two lengthy tooth-and-nail knife fights featuring Ike and Sugimoto, one particularly nasty torture sequence involving a lit cigarette (Sugimoto as torturer), gunfights, explosions, and a pack of beautiful women that would just as easily kick your ass as give you the time of day.

The first, and only Pinky Violence effort by director Atsushi Mihori, it is also one of the best of the genre. Elegant in its straightforward simplicity, the film works as a noir revenge tale, and, surprisingly, feminist action flick. Yup, I said feminist. Though the film does have its share of nudity and compromising situations Mihori’s camera never leers. Rather, he focuses on the event only long enough to convey the emotion to the audience. For example, a sequence depicting Ike’s rape at the hands of the Oba Yakuza lasts a second and a half, at most. The men in the film are primarily dolts, blind to the actions of the women due to their constant preening and posturing, their preoccupation with power and pleasure, and their deep rooted gender biases. Believing the women incapable of anything other than deferring to the “superior” male intellect ultimately leads to their own undoing. You may be asking, “If the film really is so feminist, what about the poster?” Well, Toei had to sell tickets, didn’t they?

Also worthy of note is Mihori’s use of quick flashbacks, complete with final freeze-frame mentioned above, to convey the histories of the women in the gang prior to landing in jail. All prove quite amusing, such as one member’s pick-pocketing of a cop, and another’s theft of a motorcycle, laughing and gulping sake with cops in hot pursuit, no less.

Though Ike and Sugimoto were the powerhouses in this film, easily my favorite performance was that of Yumiko Katayama (Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion, Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless to Confess). Although a supporting character her plucky standoffishness, combined with anime-cute looks, proved immediately endearing (Note to PanikHouse: See about releasing Horror of Malformed Men). Ike and Sugimoto do provide worthwhile performances, despite one or two overly-long confrontations.

Fast, lean, smart, and gripping, Criminal Woman Killing Melody is a blast from start to finish. Its natural cool will keep you coming back for repeat viewings. Along with Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless to Confess, it is one of the prime reasons to check out the Pinky Violence collection.

The Disc.
Again a brilliant, impeccable transfer from Panik House. As with the majority of American exploitation/drive-in films, the collection of promotional materials, including set photos and theatrical posters, for the most part feature images of situations that never actually factor into the feature film. Nevertheless the set photos are undeniably cool, and a nice companion to the film. The star and director bios are here again; the Miki and Reiko, and Yumiko Katayama entries reproduced from the other discs. The audio commentary by Andy Klein, film editor of Los Angles City Beat, and Wade Majors, senior film critic for Box Office magazine, is pretty rapid fire conversation, covering the film’s similarities to American blacksploitation films, Japanese Yakuza films, Bond films, and more. The two are very knowledgeable, and quite fun to listen to.
All in all, a solid disc for a rock-solid film.

About the Author:

Chris Nelson is a Technical Writer in the Silicon Valley. He is currently studying for a Software Engineering degree at San Jose State University. He has been a film fanatic since age six.

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Tags: Atsushi Mihori, Miki Sugimoto, pinky violence, Reiko Ike, sukeban