The late sixties and early 70's were the golden age of exploitation, and perhaps no one did it better than the Japanese. The pink violence films, female driven guilty pleasures, had all the key ingredients: a swagger of funk and cool, sleazy atmosphere, sex, skin, violence, cruelty, more skin, and more funk. There was a wave of bad girl flicks featuring oh so naughy, naughty vixens who'd just as soon kick a guy's teeth in as get him under the sheets.

Girl Boss Guerilla (1972), is the third film in the original Girl Boss Sukeban series. The continuing adventures of Shinjuku bad girls, the Red Helmet Gang- "Sleepy" Yuki, horndog Ukko, Linda, and their tough leader Sachiko (Miki Sugamoto). The girls arrive in Kyoto and make a quick first impression by challenging the leader of the local girl gang. After their topless, parking lot scrap, Sachiko comes out with the win and secures control over the gang. She quickly finds out that they are on the low rung of the gangland ladder and must pay dues to the Tsutsui yakuza group.

Wanting a piece of the girl gangs increasing profits, the Tsutsui group starts harassing the girls more and instigates a takeover. During one nasty confrontation, Sachiko is rescued by a boxer, a champ in training, named Ichiro. Waiting for the heat in Kyoto to die down, Sachiko and the original members of the Red Helmet Gang follow Ichiro to his hot springs training camp. But, defending Sachiko has put Ichiro in bad standing with the yakuza, who arrive to pressure Ichiro and his trainer, eventually leading to tragic bloodshed and REVENGE!

Norofumi Suzuki (School of the Holy Beast, Killing Machine, Sex and Fury) helmed the most notable entries into this series which cemented Reiko Ike and Miki Sugimoto as Japanese cult film queens. Suzuki's exploitation films usually have a lean towards more comedy and sex which often slightly tempered the expected violence, like his penchant for bondage and torture. Suzuki also liked to take stabs at religious figures. You'll find it all here: wacky comedy interludes at a gynecologist office, the girls blackmailing a monk who's sleeping with a nun, getting the clap from a seduced priest and passing it on to the yakuza, just to name a few of the instances that mark it as a Norofumi flick.

Miki Sugamoto is best known for her lead role in Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs though, frankly, in that film, she's a bit of a blank character in a gloriously outrageous work. In this film, she actually shows some honest to god, emotional range and handles heartbreak and stone cold, bad assness with equal charm. Reiko Ike nearly styeals the spotlight in her supporting role as an outsider and former gang girl who's brother is one the main yakuza henchmen.

The DVD: Panik House.

Picture: Anamorphic Widescreen. Fantastic. Panik House has done a first rate job of restoring the film and delivering a solid transfer. The details are all crackling good, from nice deep contrast and good shadow details, to clean sharpness, and rich colors. Technically I didn't notice severe glitches.

Sound: Dolby Digital Mono. Japanese language with optional English subtitles. Another fine job. The source material has some standards quirks, more to do with the eras production values than anything else. The subtitles are excellent, well-timed with no glaring grammatical errors.

Extras: Sticker insert (neat but unfortunately of the censored Panik House cover art, which covers up some boobage). — Film Bios and Production notes.— Poster and Still Gallery.— Original Theatrical Trailer. — Audio Commentary by Panik House president Matt Kennedy and Asian Cult Cinema columnist Wyatt Doyle.

Conclusion: Previously released as part of the four film Pinky Violence boxset, Panik House now offers the film as single release for the more curious buyer. If you haven't been exposed to the wonderful world of classic Japanese exploitation and don't have the cash for a boxset blind buy, this is an excellent way to test the waters with a great example of the genre.