A bi-weekly deep dive into the world of Japanese V-Cinema courtesy of Arrow Film’s comprehensive set
This week for my Bi-Weekly V-Cinema roundup courtesy of Arrow’s V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayals are two very different films that showcase both the depth and breadth of this Japanese sub-genre.
This might be the best disc on the set and I don’t say that lightly, first up is a hard boiled actioner that just exudes cool — 1991’s Burning Dog, directed by Yoichi Sai. The heist film follows Seiji Matano as Saju, who if you’re following along on the set, played the heavy in Crime Hunter on the first disc. Here he’s front and center as the lead, which is a bold choice given his Italian/Japanese heritage, but if you take in director Yoichi Sai’s own Korean and Japanese heritage and the fact this film is all about outsiders on the fringes of society, it all makes sense.
The film starts off with Saju (Seiji Matano) finishing up a successful heist, with no casualties and just as they’re diving up the spoils someone gets greedy and opens fire on all his accomplices, Saju included, who takes a bullet and is left for dead. He then tracks down the traitor on the run, promptly filling him with lead and takes off with the loot, the problem is without a way to launder the money and no passport he can’t leave the country without getting caught. This is where he falls into another heist with an old friend promising a passport, based on a real life heist that targets 20 million in cash on an Okinawa Military Base on a pit stop, before its heads out as pay for soldiers in the Gulf War.
The film has Saju first battling with whether or not he should even get involved in the heist, dealing with the previous betrayal and sitting on the cash from the previous heist. To complicate matters even further he runs into a previous love interest/accomplice now living as a civilian selling furniture to the military families. After spending some time with Saju we quickly learn he definitely believes in a code of honor among thieves and doesn’t want to kill anyone, but if pushed or betrayed, you’re done. The film wonderfully spends the first two acts setting up these damaged outsiders around Saju, who understandably has trust issues, and is always on the lookout for the weak link who would have a reason to betray him.
Burning Dog is a densely layered heist film, with some truly impressive character work by its cast that is loaded with subtext. You have a group of former criminals, which labels them as outcasts to Japanese society, who have all traveled to Okinawa to disappear and all end up in service of the US military. Okinawa famously, thanks to its large military population, unlike most of Japan, would allow the likes of Saju and his new crew to find work and live even with being criminals which is . Also, how some of these Americans, have fallen into the world of Japanese organized crime was something you’re not going to see in most Japanese cinema.
Next up was the film that lured me into this amazing set 1991’s Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat, a rebootquel if you will, that actually connects directly to the iconic 1970 Female Prisoner Scorpion series that starred Meiko Kaji. Given it was a V-Cinema sequel my expectations were definitely cautiously optimistic, but what I got was something that surprised the hell out of me, with not only how it connects to the previous films, but its bonkers religious and supernatural subtext. Directed by Toshiharu Ikeda who also helmed the excellent Mermaid Legend, this film definitely combines the pink film sensibilities of his earlier filmography with the action that would make up the latter half, when the director would transition into tokusatsu television shows.
The film stars model/movie star hybrid “visual queen” Natsuki Okamoto who begins the film as a Yakuza assassin who is hired by the prison warden from the Scorpion series who is about to run for office. Still missing the eye that was taken by Sasori’s make-shift spoon/shiv, the assassin is charged with embedding herself in the women’s prison to kill the Scorpion before the prison is decommissioned and they find the woman – who’s now been in solitary confinement for twenty years. It becomes quickly apparent to our assassin that the women of the prison are using the transition of the move to hopefully escape and in the process rescue the woman known as “The Scorpion” who could never be broken by the man.
You know, that would be fine if that was simply the plot here, but the film takes an interesting turn in an ode to the visual style of the previous films when the assassin completes her task and his strapped to a giant red cross in the prison yard, in front of the Japanese flag to be crucified and torn apart by the prisoners. The film doesn’t stop there as it just keeps pushing the level of madness that occurs when the spirit of Nami Matsushima is transferred to the assassin via her magical spoon/shiv to the young woman (Yes, really!), after she has metaphorically died for her sins against the women she betrayed. The film just ends with a killing spree as the assassin now going by the same name as the Scorpion is the reincarnation now charged with killing any man that gets in her way.
The film succeeds thanks to not only Natsuki Okamoto’s flawless interpretation of the iconic Sasori that slowly takes form throughout the film, but how Toshiharu Ikeda perfectly recaptures the mix of surreal avant garde and exploitation of the original. It’s no easy feat, but I was floored by how not only insane Death Threat goes, but how because of that it fits perfectly in the canon. While I would have absolutely loved to see Meiko Kaji return in some form or fashion, the actor has made it very clear she wants almost nothing to do with her exploitation classics, which is sad. Even without her, she’s still here in spirit and because of that I can’t recommend this enough, if you’re a fan of the original films and looking for more in the same vein.
