Die Nackten und die Bestien

A gang consisting of seven women roams around the country to steal and resell everything that makes money. When the gang leader falls in love with a samurai and agrees to steal guns for him, he betrays her and soon the women are chased by many enemies. It's a case of "if you don't stick to the rules of your game, you get in trouble", and the moral lesson is as sinister as that of an Italian western.

Director Yasuharu Hasebe is best known for his works with Meiko Kaji in the "Scorpion" and "Stray Cat Rock" series. This movie is nowhere near the quality of those, though. Nudity, harassment and sadism keep the show going, but except for a wonderfully edited scene with a nun singing and beating a drum, the visual work consists of undecided bits and pieces. Most versions around have censor cuts between 4 and 6 minutes which naturally doesn't help to improve.

I have actually never heard about this 1972 Japanese movie titled "Sengoku Rokku Hayate No Onnatachi" (aka "The Naked Seven") as I stumbled upon the movie here late in 2022. Of course I opted to give the movie a chance, as I hadn't already seen it, nor knew what it was about, and I do enjoy the Asian cinema quite a lot.

Now, I have to say that I wasn't expecting the movie to be one of those sort of lewd movies from the 1970s, but that is what writers Yasuharu Hasebe and Atsushi Yamatoya went with here. I will actually say that the storyline in the movie was quite enjoyable and well-written, if you can abhor from the lewd scenes and nudity. Take away the lewd scenes and nudity and you actually have quite a good movie.

The acting performances in the movie were fair enough. Needless to say that I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but the actresses and actors put on fair enough performances to carry the movie.

With the movie being 50 years old, of course you're not in for a grand cinematic experience in terms of special effects. Director Yasuharu Hasebe did have some special effects in the movie, particularly blood gushing effects. Now, if you have ever seen a 1970s samurai movie, then you know that these movies have virtual fountains of fake blood, and so was the case with this movie too.

I was actually genuinely entertained by "Sengoku Rokku Hayate No Onnatachi", and luckily there was a fast-forward option readily available whenever there was a lewd scene. Not that I am a prude or anything, but I just don't want to waste my time watching such when being entertained by a movie.

My rating of "Sengoku Rokku Hayate No Onnatachi" lands on a six out of ten stars.