Sukeban Deka: The Movie (1987)

Starring: Minamino Yoko, Sagara Haruko, Asaka Yui, and Ibu Masato. Director: Tanaka Hideo. Writers: Hashimoto Izo, Tsuchiya Tokio. Original Manga: Wada Shinji

The Sukeban (Delinquent Girl Boss)/Girl Gang genre craze really reached its highest highs in the early 70s Pinky Violence explosion. Naturally, it eventually was replaced. Even though the glory days were gone, these films were still being made but with smaller budgets and smaller screens. In the case of Sukeban Deka, it was first manga then TV series then films continuing the series then Anime film then a 2006 reboot (which shortly afterwards had a softcore parody).

 

Each Sukeban/Girl Gang series has its gimmick - the Sukeban Deka series has a Yo-Yo. This is no ordinary toy, it's a steel compound Yo-Yo used to fight crime.Think Rinku from YuYu Hakusho's Dark Tournament saga except a delinquent young woman that works for the police in a specialized unit of young women that use Yo-Yos or Marbles.

 

Saki Asamiya (Minamino Yoko), the most recent and powerful Sukeban Deka, has retired after a few years of being an undercover special forces officer with a deadly Yo-Yo. One of her old squad is moving away to England, and the others have gone their separate ways. University is the only thing on her mind until she stumbles into some young juvie boys who escaped Hell Island...I mean, Hell Castle. Just before she bought a regular Yo-Yo from a street peddler played by the franchise creator and artist, Wada Shinji. Hell Castle's new headmaster, Hattori (Ibu Masato), has plans launch a Fascist coup d'etat of the government. He's putting the students through harsh military training and brain washing them to create the ultimate soldiers in his new regime. Though he isn't a lone wolf, the Dark Director is backing him.

Post-electric torture from Hell Castle staff, Saki asks her old bosses to help with destroying Hell Castle. They "can't" help her but they still give her a super powerful new Yo-Yo that can crush bones upon impact and probably kill a fully grown man.. Reuniting the old team, with the addition of one of the juvie boy's little sister who knows her brother has to be alive. Donning vaguely pink Power Ranger-esque stealth outfits, they dock onto Hell Castle, which is island bound except for a single bridge connecting it to the mainland. The girls brought life boats, explosives, and moxie on their person. The assault goes too well, and the new girl spilled the beans to Hattori in exchange for her brother. Saki has to fight her way out the bunks aka prison cells for regular students and save her team.

The girls execute the exact same plan as before and it works perfectly this time. Hattori remains despite the school burning down around him. Saki stays to fight Hattori, who knew her before her retirement. He was KIA but received special surgery to become a new man...or cyborg in this case. The new girl found her brother, but he's gone through severe brain surgery. She takes a bolt to the heart for Saki. This gives Saki enough time to recover. Wrapping her Yo-Yo's metal chain around his leg and a generator electrocutes Hattori (it gets very Terminator here). The police are there just in time to thank the reunited Sukeban Deka team.

This is not the type girl gang film I'm used to. The sleazy underbelly (or belly in the case of some series) isn't there. The stars of the film don't contribute to the soundtrack or sing any song used in the film period. The plot didn't involve the Yakuza or a male gang. There is no outrageous fashion of the era. If anything, it uses the skin of the Girl Gang genre as a way to mask its political subtext into something more palatable and to not ruffle too many feathers as well. Maybe it was because I was expecting a sleazy 70s Toei girl gang flick and got this very 80s action film instead. Which is not a problem by any stretch, I really did dig this. 

It's always a good sign to start with a montage. In this case, it was a montage of fight scenes from the live action TV series that had just concluded mixed in with Saki in a smoky shadow-laden room, threateningly playing with a Yo-Yo. From moment one, we know she can handle herself and luckily, we don't have to wait too long for a fight. Though this presents a problem, the team behind this film were on the TV series. It assumes that you are familiar and already 100% onboard with Saki. It felt like jumping into the deep end. For some that's a killer but I quickly caught up to it and its world.

Tanaka, Hashimoto, and Tsuchiya really, really took a caustic shot at the contemporary administration in Japan. The prime minister was Nakasone Yasuhiro from the Liberal-Democratic Party. To those of us in the West that sounds like the opposite of the right or far right as presented in the film but this is the equivalent to the Conservative Republicans. During Nakasone's reign, he encouraged a new sense of nationalism and aligned with Ronald Reagan on many issues. Not just that, but he was continuing the rhetoric of the Shadow Shogun, Tanaka Kakui. He had been a primary player in politics since the late 1940s. Starting out as a self-made man in business, he ran a successful company which he then shifted into a fast growing political career. He was the mastermind behind the Liberal Democratic Party for decades despite his public persona as a corrupt yet charming leader. He was prime minister from 1972-1974 (resigned after 2 years), because of the Lockheed Martin scandal. The party still supported him and he was president of the party while mid-trial for 8 years. He still retained so much power that he more or less picked the next 3 prime ministers. Given his influence, he was called the Shadow Shogun. A name that he lived up to.

The parallels to that political moment in Japan are palpable. Hattori's plan is a nightmare of what if the Shadow Shogun was even stronger than he was in real life and try to re-establish his grip over the nation again. The Dark Director was the real villain and used Hattori to push his agenda like what the Shadow Shogun with the successive prime ministers and various Diet members. Nationalism was on the rise and Hell Castle's training was clearly evoking the militaristic cruelty of the Imperial era under Emperor Hirohito. It was all coded into the ridiculous world of this live action Anime and breathes life into what could have been a great idea with zero substance.Given the political climate and their death grip on the Diet. I imagine the Liberal-Democratic Party was not happy.

Saki Asamiya and her crew are the next generation of Sukeban heroines, after receiving the torch from Kaji Meiko, Oshinda Reiko, Sugimoto Miki, etc. The Dekas are street smart, scrappy, and completely fearless and dress noticeably more modest than their predecessors (the cultural climate had shifted, Sleaze was not en vogue like it was). In a lot of American media (or media in general), a female hero is given 2 reasons for action - motherhood or a man. In Sukeban Deka: The Movie, that is as far from the case as can be. Once Saki catches wind of the Hell Castle plan, she initiates the plot. She gets her team back to not only defeat Fascism but to rescue those students still with free will. In her selfless act, Saki becomes a cartoonishly good-natured girl but it never feels false.

Minamino Yoko's acting ability is on par with Aoki Rica except a more innocent version of Rica. This is not the struggle of lower class women in the post-occupation era. It's the struggle for political stability under the Shadow Shogun's reign. Even the gender roles are radical, the male student from Hell Castle, takes on the traditional female role. He is more emotional, needs to connect with his fallen friend's younger sister, and gets killed to propel the plot. Bullets tear through him and we get to see several squibs explode in weirdly realistic splendor. That image of a killed teenager is powerful since the government was OKAY with killing a child for the sake of Fascism. The girls kick ass and the guys either fight them...and lose or get killed/maimed in the fray.

 
A film like this couldn't be made in the US. Yes, this is an 80s film and this was the heyday of children in Life-Or-Death situations in mainstream film. Tanaka Hideo takes things even further though. You see children getting shot at by feds. You see abusive, harsh military training being forced on children. You see a teen get shot to death in jarringly graphic detail with incredible squib work. Yet somehow, the movie works on multiple levels. It's dark and grim but bizarrely bright and delightful at the same time. It's barely within the Sukeban/Girl Gang genre but is a good primer for the sleazier 70s peak years of it.

Sukeban Deka: The Movie (1987) is available on DVD.