The Ocho Saga: Sex and Fury (1973) & Female Yakuza Tale (1973)

When you mention Japanese cinema of the 1960s and 70s to most, the image of either a Bunta-esque yakuza or a Mifune-esque samurai would pop up first. Even though the Pinky Violence wave is mostly known for sexploitation and girl gang films, there were outliers in the mix. Pinku badass and icon Ike Reiko headlined a brief but truly unforgettable series of films that need more love.

Sex & Fury aka Furyô anego den: Inoshika Ochô: Wandering gambler, Ocho (Ike Reiko), gets wrapped up into a whirlwind of politics, lost love, and revenge. She’s spent her whole life trying to find her father’s killers. All she knows is they have distinct tattoos. Now, she has a chance to finally find those responsible. Directed by Suzuki Norifumi.

Female Yakuza Tale aka Yasagura Anego Den: Sokatsu Rinchi: Starting anew wandering gambler, Ocho (Ike Reiko), arrives in a new city. A local yakuza gang takes her, tests her out, and tries to frame her for murder, making her look like the Crotch Gouger Killer slaying the local women. This sets off a chain of Ishii brand madcap insanity. Directed by Ishii Teruo.

You could not find such different directors with different sensibilities to tackle the same character. Suzuki Norifumi and Ishii Teruo both thrived in the exploitation boom, post 1960s following the rise of television. Their individual careers are mostly remembered for their outlet during this time. A few years before his Ocho film, Ishii had the infamous Horrors of the Malformed Men and Blind Woman's Curse. Suzuki was not far behind as of 1973, his resume was filled with equally solid and great work. Girl Boss Guerilla and Terrifying Girls’ High School: Women’s Violent Classroom are particular highlights.

Majority of the Pinky Violence films were set in a contemporary city - Tokyo and sometimes Kyoto or Yokohama. The Ocho films were period pieces on top of being Pinky Violence. They follow in the tradition of the Zatoichi, Red Peony Gambler (some of which were directed Suzuki Norifumi), and Sleepy Eyes of Death but with open sexuality, a female focus, and early 1970s Toei youthful ferver. All the typical motifs of the Edo period pieces are in place - Edo era clothing, swordplay, hanafuda gambling, and the shifting society via guns and foreigners.

Yoshimi the Christ, Ishii's tongue-in-cheek reference to Nami the Scorpion

By this point in Reiko’s career, she was solidly back at Toei, after a failed attempt at a music career. Whilst at the time playing the rival-turned-ally with Sugimoto Miki in several films, the Ocho films were a shift and a statement. She was the sole star. Other films showed her acting abilities, but these reassured and proved she was more than a supporting character. Her ability and charisma carry the Ocho films. Ike makes leading a series look easy.

These are revenge films, but not the standard fare. The obvious comparison is the Lady Snowblood series. You can compare them but that’s a waste of time. They are different films with different intentions. It should be noted that the Ocho films preceded Lady Snowblood. Each series has a strong female lead and sword fights in the snow, outside of that there is not much crossover. The biggest difference between them is the classic problem with films I cover here, accessibility. Lady Snowblood and its sequel are fucking Criterion releases. It makes sense that Sex and Fury and Female Yakuza Tale get overlooked.

Ocho’s arc through the series is a strange one. In Sex and Fury, it’s a lifelong thirst to kill the men who killed her father. Each man had a different tattoo and that’s how she’ll know. The device is simple, direct, and effective. She gets her revenge and is satisfied. The emotional beats hit hard and never delve into the potential schmaltz. You are on-board with her choices whilst knowing this is an extreme way to deal with childhood trauma. She follows the classic track of the soft-spoken badass with a brain. The trap of making a woman badass by making her masculine is skillfully avoided. She’s sensitive and willing to help people when they need it. The thing that propels her into the plot is carrying out the final wishes of a random man who needed help. Ocho's not just eye candy, she's a complex and thought out person.

Going into Female Yakuza Tale, she’s starting life anew but gets ripped off by a drug smuggling gang. She’s not as stoic as she once was. Now, she’s cracking jokes to herself and is flat-out a happier person in general. This might be the byproduct of going from a lifelong want for blood and living life in the aftermath. Ishii made Ocho closer to the typical Pinky Violence heroine but maintained her internal strength and humanity. She’s still as caring, clever, and deadly as before.

The differences between Ishii and Suzuki are night and day. Suzuki is the stronger director, to me. He layers Sex and Fury with not only the expected sleaze and violence but with international intrigue and political subtext. Ishii made a crazy, stylish Ishii film. That is not a bad thing, Female Yakuza Tale is as good as Sex and Fury but they are different films with different goals. Suzuki has said in interviews that he made erotic comedies/action films and nothing more. That is false. 

He had a specific flavor and stylistic flares - European influence, cultural and political satire, anti-authoritarian attitudes, and great action sequences. Ishii on the other hand, you can count on off-the-wall choices and general insanity. Each film is a pure distillation of each directors’ styles showing off everything they do best.

The most famous scene from the series is clearly the Sex and Fury nude sword fight in the snow (a bit similar to a scene in Samurai 1: Musashi Miyamoto). It’s delivering exactly what Toei wanted and what the title promises. You get a nude Ike Reiko slashing away at men cutting off limbs, and killing yakuza. It doesn’t come off as pure exploitation. It’s initiated by men peeping on her bathing, her throwing a hanafuda card into one of their eyes, and then grabs her blade. She isn’t humiliated or dehumanized. This is the first moment you realize that Ocho is not to be fucked with. The first is a response to violation that's playful, stylish, and powerful. The second wraps up her emotional journey. It's confined, brutal, and cathartic. Suzuki beautifully complements and inverses the approaches to the types of violence shown. They satisfy the emotion, narrative, and look truly cinematic.

Ishii took note. Female Yakuza Talefollows that pattern but in that Ishii fashion. They lack the ugly, bloody violence of Suzuki’s for hyper stylized and slick violence. To be fair, there is implied grisly violence with the crotch gouger killings. The sword fights could not be anymore structurally different. The opening is a nude sword fight in the rain with a tastefully placed umbrella to hide her lower half. She uses a sword and bladed umbrella. Concluding the tale is a free-for-all Men vs Women battle where the abused women fight back and win. The tone fluctuates between cartoonish sex comedy antics (a few women stomp to death and then piss on a dying yakuza as his life extires) and men getting their bodies slashed and bloodied. Both sequences are fantastic and reach the euphoric Ishii heights you want to see.

Toei did everyone a disservice by not making this a bigger series. Even though we only have 2, there was plenty of material to mine for future films. Either way, Ike was prolific in a short 4-year burst. She is a cinematic titan and should be as known as Kaji Meiko. The Ocho Saga synthesized the heights and highlights of the Pinky Violence wave into 2 films. If you want to see dip your toe into Pinky Violence, these are a great place to start.

These 2 films are on DVD (Region 1, Region 2). Sex and Fury is streaming on Amazon Video as of this review being published.