Their meeting took place in a cramped, stuffy van. In the air, hot both from the summer heat and from the temperament of juvenile criminals sitting opposite each other, there was an acquaintance of two equally assertive sukebans - already having her own group of Maya (Reiko Ike) and not yet had time to achieve high criminal status, but very ambitious Komasa (Miki Sugimoto). The traditional words about “the air sparkled with tension” will, however, not quite appropriate – Maya initially shows herself from a very reasonable side, clearly counting on possible further cooperation. It will come, however, only in a very long term - after all, before fully joining forces and becoming best friends, between the young bandits will be enmity, jealousy, and the death of loved ones, and, of course, turned upside down the criminal world of Osaka.
The Sukeban film line is one of the most prominent representatives of Pinky Violence, singled out as a subgenre of Pinku Eiga and produced specifically by the Toei film studio. The formula of the series was quite simple and corresponded to all the canons of the chosen direction - the plot revolving around a group of young criminals, frequent rivalry with the same competitors and close relationships with more influential yakuza, often leading to problems for the main characters. Each separate part is a completely independent story, where director Norifumi Suzuki tried to build a new batch of bloody erotic and, often, slightly absurd adventures around the same concept (and often coincidental cast). In the case of “Revenge”, he, however, went even further, because the local plot for verification is almost a complete remake of the previous film in the franchise – “guerrilla war of the girl-boss” (also known as “Sukeban Guerilla”). The same trails, the same deaths of characters with the same types - such "sameness" could look like a blatant hack, if not noticed after an hour and a half of timekeeping, when any claims of the level "well, why was it repeated?" become surprisingly meaningless.
Once again, we see the story of two leaders of girl gangs, who at a certain moment find themselves on opposite sides of the barricades because of a young guy named Tatsuo. Forced in the past to join the ranks of the yakuza, he also finds himself between two fires, where the desire to climb the criminal career ladder is at odds with the hostile attitude of his boss to Maya and Komasa. Despite the similar “skeleton” of the scenario, the meat around it is growing much more evenly this time, creating a shocking pace of the narrative and not forgetting to deepen the characters of the characters with a rather interesting disclosure of their backstory. Such praise, however, is difficult to address the local villains from the yakuza – because the operetta images, where the deceitfulness of their leader is combined with the clumsiness of his subordinates in battle, clearly does not set in a serious way. Which, of course, is not needed here. Although the story itself has dramatic moments, but, in general, tries to maintain a bright and rather relaxed mood, which the viewer usually expects from an operational film of this kind.
And in general, it is worth noting that the very concept of “Boss Girl Guerrilla War” was so successful (and, in part, slightly unpressed) that its reuse is hard not to justify. And although often to evaluate a work of art separately - the surest way in the direction of mythical "objectivity", sometimes the context around specific films is not that worth a separate discussion, but even participates in the formation of the plot basis, giving it additional meaning. In this case, however, we are not talking about any political background or mood in society (please forgive us, we have a movie here for an illiterate people), because even the usual rebellious spirit of such films is nothing more than a consequence of the close relationship of their criminal content with marketing orientation. Another thing is the personality of the actors behind the characters, who, due to the popularity of their alter egos, can also sometimes influence the very fact of creating some projects. Will the idea of the existence of any "Expendables" without the plume of filmography around the caste involved mean much? Or, God forgive me, “The Killing Rematch” without the stories of LaMotte and Balboa?
In “Sukeban-blues: Revenge” (as in the previous tape), a pinch of sharpness to the screen confrontation was added by the very history of the relationship between the two central actresses. The careers of Ike and Sugimoto were closely intertwined more than once - they both debuted in the quadriquette of the Hot Springs Geisha series (also directed by Suzuki), and later began to almost "share" the title of the main sukeban in the genre, often converging on the screen of the same films. In the case of the title series, it’s still funnier – Reiko Ike has already played the role of the gang’s lead twice, while Miki has only joined the third film. And according to the plot, as it is not difficult to guess, it is she who plays the role of a conditional beginner who wants to pluck a piece of territory of the already experienced and successful Reiko heroines. Well, to add some more oil, Norifumi Suzuki reported that on the set, the actresses are feuding and generally see each other as rivals. Which, judging by the many testimonies of their then friendship, was certainly not true.
Being in many ways an improved version of Sukeban Guerilla, Revenge turns out to be perhaps the best film in the Sukeban franchise and one of the most fascinating films on the theme of the misadventures of young bandits. And although the movie is difficult to attribute to the category of believable criminal films, such isolation from any more serious films about the yakuza only plays into the hands of the work. Moreover, from a certain point of view, such slightly comical works can be considered as a transitional stage for male gangster films. At the junction, when the movie of the 60s about proud and principled yakuza (Ninkyo Eiga) has almost died out, and the genre of Jitsuroku Eiga with its dirty realism has not yet had time to emerge, these tapes were released, whose semi-mocking tone served as another blow to the crumbling canons of the criminal genre. And therefore, before the modern viewer “Sukeban-blues: Revenge” will appear intentionally deformed cast of the time, where the prevailing mood in society is mixed with the near-real world, in which war ladies can put harmful yakuza in place, and from punishment to escape, proudly leaving the city seized from the state cars.