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Nora-neko Rokku: Boso Shudan '71
Stray Cat Rock: Beat '71
Stray Cat Rock: Crazy Rider '71 / Stray Cat Rock: Wild Measures '71
Japan 1971
produced by Hideo Koi for Nikkatsu, Hori Productions
directed by Toshiya Fujita
starring Meiko Kaji, Takeo Chii, Yoshio Inaba, Yoshio Harada, Yuka Kumari, Tatsuya Fuji, Bunjaku Han, Michiko Tsukasa, Nobuko Aoki, Takashi Fujiki, Eiji Go, Torahiko Hamada, Mari Koiso, Soichiro Maeno, Yusuke Natsu, Masaki Nomura, Masaaki Sakai, Toshiya Suzuki, Sari Takano, Fujio Tokita, Rikiya Yasuoka
written by Tatsuya Asai, Hideichi Nagahara, music by Hiroki Tamaki
Stray Cat Rock
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Hippie Furiko (Meiko Kaji) is madly in love with Takaaki (Takeo Chii) -
much to the dismay of his father, mayor Araki (Yoshio Inaba), who sees his
political career threatened by his son associated with a gang of hippies.
So eventually, he sends a team of his security men to grab him and drag
him back by force. Problem is, when being taken by force, kills one of his
father's men by accident - and somehow, the others manage to pin the
murder on Furiko - who even takes the rap in her lover's stead ... but
escapes prison soon enough with cellmate Aya (Yuka 'Kumari). And while she
places Aya in the safe hands of her hippie gang led by Piranha (Yoshio
Harada), she goes on a quest to win back Takaaki - but soon has to realize
Takaaki has changed, as he now wants to be the perfect son to his dad.
When Araki and his men learn that Furiko is out and about though, they
quietly kidnap her and incarcerate her in the mayor's mansion. And
Takaaki, who's perfectly aware of this, does nothing to save her ... Aya
in the meantime has convinced Piranha and company that by going after
Takaaki, she was heading for her own doom, and so the gang go after her,
try to free her by various means, even by taking Takaaki hostage, but
whatever they try they fail, until they're driven out of town by the
police - but take refuge in a nearby ghost town like out of an old Western
movie to wait for their chance. In the meantime though, Araki wants his
own son Takaaki to shoot Furiko dead ... and only when Takaaki is about to
lift the gun does he finally realize what he's doing and he turns against
his father - and things are sure to go to hell from there ... The
fifth and final film of the Stray Cat Rock series doesn't
follow the girl gang approach established by Yasuharu Hasebe with Delinquent
Girl Boss, but (just like the other entry directed by Toshiya
Fujita, Wild Jumbo)
takes a more free-form approach to the genre, being very relaxed about
storytelling, injecting many fresh and unorthodox ideas into a standard
genre plot, populating the movie with a colourful cast of characters (with
series lead Meiko Kaji's character actually being rather pale in this
one), and taking inspiration from pretty much everywhere, be it nouvelle
vague or spaghetti Western, and in all in its portrayal of hippie culture,
its eclectic soundtrack and its emphasis on contemporary style, it most
certainly is a very enjoyable piece of nostalgic genre entertainment, that
in its laid back attitude still seems fresh enough though.
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