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[The Pinky Violence Collection] Terrifying Girls’ High School: Lynch Law Classroom movie review

If I were still my bachelor self from six years back, I think Terrifying Girls’ High School: Lynch Law Classroom might have been my favorite film in the set. However, for the me that exists today, the film was a tad uninteresting. The second film in the Terrifying Girls High School series came as the rivalry between Nikkatsu and Toei was at its peak. Both had been working to show audiences things they could not see on television, but Nikkatsu’s success with its Roman Porno (Romantic Pornography) line had spurred Toei to further increase the nudity and sex factor in its own Pinky Violence. As such, Terrifying Girls’ High School is comprised of roughly 50% sexual situations (ranging from semi-erotic to decidedly perverse), 40% scathing indictment of the reform school institution, and 10% school-girl riot action. Call me strange, but I would have traded the sex for more story and quite a few more brawls.

The film concerns a reform school (with mission statement proudly proclaiming a dedication to making good wives), whose twisted staff employ a fascist discipline squad hell-bent on intimidating, torturing, and sometimes killing their fellow delinquent girls for their own sadistic pleasure. The officials have paid off the police, so no problems are ever encountered, even when an unsuspecting student meets a sudden and violent end. Enter Noriko (Miki Sugimoto) girl gang leader and delinquent extraordinaire. She and her fellow new arrivals have no interest in kowtowing to the demands of the discipline squad. In fact, they seek to expose the school officials’ salacious agendas, and the criminal exploits of the discipline squad. And, with the aid of Maki (Reiko Ike, Sex and Fury) a gang leader with whom Noriko holds a longstanding rivalry, and her friend, a former policeman turned blackmailer, Noriko and her group of girl gang debs just might be able to succeed.

The susceptibility of appointed disciplinarians to corruption has been well documented (see: Stanford prison experiment), and the discipline squad in this film is no exception. Their torture repertoire covers the psychological, the sexual, the painful, the humilating, and any mix thereof (one complete with a wonderfully subversive comment regarding torture methods employed by the American military in Vietnam). As such the related sequences lend a very dark, rather perverse tone to the film, though thankfully Suzuki’s skilled direction and keen visual sense (with quite a bit of emphasis on striking reds) raise it above other artless torture/porn hybrids such as Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (incidentally, another boring time at the movies for me). In fact, some sequences sans torture are genuinely erotic in their own strange way. As mentioned above, the school officials, being the target of Suzuki’s wrath, are emblematic of the greed, corruption, hypocrisy, and overall perversion he found permeated such institutions — grabby Catholic Priests turned Enron executives could only hope to be this despicable. One key sequence involves the girls seducing the principal, who confesses to constant lusting after the uniformed girls, which in turn gives way to one of the most entertaining revenges in the film. Given this pervasive blanket of oppression, the film’s massive school-riot finale, with girls using kendo sticks and school desks to thrash everything and everyone in their path, the audience has been worn down by ugliness, serves as both entertainment and catharsis.

With the constant diversions into sex and torture, there’s really not much time spent on character development. Reiko Ike is largely left to the sidelines, her character being introduced over half of the way though the film’s runtime. We know she’s a rebel, by her loud dress, and the fact she drives a motorcycle, but other than that she really doesn’t have much to flesh out her character. Similarly Miki Sugimoto is tough, as evidenced by her cross tattoo, and preference towards “going commando”. It’s worth noting that Ike’s presence had been scaled back in this film to give Sugimoto and the other gals a bit more screen-time, but given the fact that Sugimoto’s character doesn’t come across any stronger is a bit disappointing. Both women do look nice, however, so I can’t say it’s all bad.

There’s no denying Terrifying Girls’ High School: Lynch Law Classroom is a well put together film. It’s just not that enjoyable. The dark, twisted sexual nature of the film is definitely off-putting. Its lack of a fully fleshed narrative may be of no concern to the average bachelor, but for me, even with its ventures into Sapphic schoolgirl love, I can’t say it will see much replay in our collection.

The Disc:
Once again Panik House delivers a brilliant transfer of an exploitation classic. Of the five releases I’ve seen so far, all have been consistently stunning. This type of care is usually reserved for big studio fare or Criterion releases, and thus usually commands a much higer than normal DVD purchase price, but PH has somehow continued to release these niche films at prices that don’t really impact your wallet. The colors are all represented wonderfully, with no discernable bleed (yes, bleed. One sometimes has to deal with such antiquated issues on obscure cult releases).

The Terrifying Girls High School disc has all the extras you would expect, trailers, photo galleries, production notes, and director and star bios, and this time Chris D is again doing the commentary track. He’s got a lot to say on the whole erotic/grotesque genre, and his insights actually help the overall enjoyment of the film. I’d say it’s almost worth watching the film with his commentary first, and then watching the film with the normal audio track. Once again, even though I didn’t enjoy the film that much, the disc is excellent.

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: Miki Sugimoto, Norifumi Suzuki, pinky violence, Reiko Ike, sukeban