Rica (1972) - Director: Ko Nakahira, Starring: Rika Aoki and Kazuko Nagamoto

The scope of Japanese exploitation is as wide and varied as each individual snowflake on the peak of Mt. Fuji. Well, not that much but there are a couple very different and very iconic genres within it - Roman Porno, the Yakuza flick and the girl gang film. In the 1950s, Nikkatsu mastered the Yakuza flick usually set in Yokohama. That formula dried out by Suzuki’s Branded To Kill (1967). The replacement genre was the girl gang film, the gender flip of the Yakuza flick. Toei and Toho firmly took over and made sure that they milked everything out of it. One of most intriguing and forgotten series was, Kontetsuji Rika (Rika the Half-Blood aka Rica).

Rika Aoki headlines the franchise as Rika Aoki, a delinquent half American teen with a gorgeous mane flowing down her back. Her mother, Kayo, was raped by a white American soldier during the tail end of the initial occupational period. That man was a family man with a happy wife and happy kids. Kayo was just a girl they saw and attacked. Her family rejects her except for her grandmother who was also rejected. A failed abortion followed by grandmother’s death sends Kayo on the trail of becoming a fallen woman like a Mizoguchi film. Kayo raises Rika and tries to maintain a career as a mistress and whore. Of all the setups for girl gang films, this is easily the most depressing and most real.

While on a scroll, Rika comes across a pregnant woman mid-labor, one of her sisters, Kazue, from her gang. Kazue was abandoned by Hiroshi the Bald from the Tachibana gang. Kazue poisoned herself after getting pushed aside by him. Despite Rika’s assistance, the baby died along with her sister. In a one of several brutal acts of revenge, Rika delivers the dead baby to Hiroshi. Unknowingly, she kicks off a gang war where all her girls get sold into sex slavery for Americans in Vietnam. The Tachibana are not alone. Kayo’s boyfriend and the Osaka clan, and Mr. Z, the local pimp, are all involved with the sex trade. The odds are against Rika saving her girls from certain doom before the ship departs for Vietnam. She’s also in and out of the Aiyu Reform School where the local queen bee, Reiko the Dragon God (played by Kazuko Nagamoto), is dead set on killing Rika. Eventually, she gets help from a detective, Tetsuo. He wants revenge against the Osaka and Tachibana gangs. Teamed up with Tetsuo, they sabotage the trip. Reiko is among the girls rescued. The squad of freed girls strike back at the Tachibana and and Osaka. In the flurry of fists, Tetsuo and Reiko die taking down the Yakuza bosses with Rika.

Rika isn’t passive. She’s straightforward to a fault. When she’s on the rampage (basically the entire movie) she will do anything to save her only family, her gang. Her mental and physical endurance is that of an Olympian. She is raped by her mom’s shitty boyfriend (her first time), beaten to pulp several times, blamed for 2 murders she never did, and tolerates endless amounts of sexism from horrid dudes like Mr. Z. In her pursuit of her family, she has no shame. Hand trauma, limb removal and delivery to the yakuza gang, and aggressive bluntness are her weapons of choice. The only problem is that she is one person. Tetsuo has to save her a few times, but it never feels like a damsel in distress. The pattern is as follows: mob of guys attack, she is overwhelmed, Tetsuo mysteriously appears and they kick ass together. He rehabilitates her after the worst attack and she enjoys sex for the first time. Now, that is fine but Tetsuo is a grown man and she is technically a child. It’s a strange scene but loving moment. She even turns the table on evil men. The secret weapon of every man is their penis. She ups that and uses a knife, a sharpened steel penis capable of death.

Thematically, sex and nudity are used in a way that is intended to be off-putting but at other times trying to be titillating. Ko Nakahira (director of the cult classic, Crazed Fruit) is really trying to have it both ways and it comes off as…confused. He clearly shows that in the context of post-occupation Japan women are objects to men, in particular white men. Sex and nudity are used in ways to humiliate people, either the person walking in on it or the people in the act. Nakahira does a great job showing how women are objectified by men but he himself participates in the act as well. It works primarily by not showing rape. He cuts away before the act but willingly had nearly every actress topless at some point. This will turn some people away but Nakahira doesn’t hold back which is a positive. The world is ugly. Men can be cruel and disgusting to people different from them. It’s ok to show this in film, if done responsibly. 

The women in these gangs are fighting the tradition of the quiet, loyal girl. They are loud, brash, and be what they want. Rape and assault is used to keep them in line and maintain tradition. The only times sex and nudity isn’t meant to be humiliating or embarrassing are Rika/Tetsuo and Hanako/Jimmy. There is mutual consent between partners and true passion. Almost in a slasher like way, both men are killed by the end for violating the unspoken rule of not punishing these women to stay in line.

The influence of American armed forces on Japan was devastating to those who didn’t already a standing in society. Rika and her family, blood and non-blood, are poor. They come from next to nothing and barely survive month to month. The threat of the Yakuza was a tolerable reality. You see products and signs of the USA throughout the film in many ways. The influx of American soldiers turned it into an unbearable reality. The women from these lower classes aren’t people to these predators, they are objects for profit. Mr. Z, the Osaka gang, and Tachibana gang all work with the Americans in the sex trade. The patriarchy's portrayed as trying to keep women under control through brutal force. Despite Rika saving her family, there are countless other women at risk of being victimized by men. Especially, Mr. Z, who openly tells any woman he fancies he wants to lay them and that it will happen. He is the real villain. That being said. The individual soldiers when seen in Rika’s time are sympathetic and scared. They're also miserable. They know Vietnam is a scam and bullshit assignment. When we hear soldiers being discussed in the film, it’s in the most extreme terms of horror and fear. On an individual level, they are just people and nothing more. This disconnect shows that there is hope in this hopeless city. These women are not alone. They do have support from good men but men who have no social power. The complex portrayal of men show how convoluted this tricky paradigm was to navigate for everyone from teens to Yakuza in Post-War Japan.

Her family is entirely female. The father doesn’t count because he left and clearly never cared about Kayo (or whether or not she had a child). You do see women antagonizing each other but by the end, Rika has recruited them to her side. Even Reiko, who pinned a murder on Rika, turns around on her. She does work alone initially but in the end has converted several women to her cause. It’s a movement. It’s inspiring. It never stops until the job is done. Rika isn’t the smartest and makes mistakes like an actual teen would do. That doesn’t matter. By the end, the legend has begun. Rika the Half Blood fought the patriarchy and won a small but important victory. It showed the Yakuza gangs and corrupt Americans that women are not to fucked with.

 Kontetsuji Rika/Rica 1 is unfairly overlooked and well worth your time and money. If you need more convincing, the writer is Kaneto Shindo (Onibaba, yeah that ONIBABA).