Zeroka no onna: Akai wappa

As an enthusiastic fan of Japanese exploitation cinema from the 70s I was full of anticipation to see Yukio Noda's "Zeroka no onna: Akai wappa" aka. "Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs", and the film certainly deserves its cult status. "Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs" is an extremely violent and sleazy exploitation gem that even surpassed my expectations. The film which stars the ravishing exploitation goddess Miki Sugimoto as the eponymous heroine, is explicit from the very beginning. Gory murders, rapes, tortures and all kinds of sleaze and sexual violence are omnipresent in the film, and yet the film has way more to offer than only gore and sleaze, as it is immensely stylish and brilliant in all respects. The incredibly sexy Miki Sugimoto is great in the lead, as Rei (aka. Zero Woman), a beautiful female undercover cop who is assigned to infiltrate and eliminate gang of sadistic and perverted criminals who have kidnapped the daughter of a prominent politician... I will not go into detail any further, as I don't want to spoil any of the fun, but I can assure that "Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs" is a must-see for every fan of Japanese exploitation cinema.

The film is based on the manga comics by Tooru Shinohara, who also created the manga series that the brilliant "Joshuu Sasori" (aka. "Female Prisoner Scorpion") films are based on. The film has a delightfully black sense of humor, and an enormous level of sleaze and violence, even for Japanese 70s exploitation standards. The camera work is excellent and the supporting cast includes several familiar faces for Japanese cinema fans, such as Tetsuro Tamba, or Yôko Mihara, who is known for her female bully characters, most prominently in Shunya Ito's exploitation masterpiece "Joshuu 701-gô: Sasori" aka. "Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion" (1972), the first of the brilliant 'Sasori' films. The funky score in "Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs" is also very good, even if it admittedly resembles the score of the 'Sasori' films a lot, especially the theme song performed by star Miki Sugimoto is very similar to the Sasori-theme 'Urami Bushi' sung by Meiko Kaji. The great Toei Company released quite a number of excellent exploitation films in the 70s, and "Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs" is one of them. A bunch of new Zero Woman films, none of which I've seen so far, were released in the 90s, but they can't possibly reach the greatness of this 1974 original. "Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs" has everything great exploitation cinema needs, lots of sleaze and female nudity, an enormous dose of violence and gore all brought to you with immense style, and a super-cool and stunningly beautiful heroine played by the sexy Miki Sugimoto. In short: This is exploitation-gold and an absolute must-see for all lovers of cult-cinema! Awesome!

Yukio Noda's 'Zero Woman-Red Handcuffs' lives up to it's reputation, featuring a truly impressive level of violence mixed in with it's artistic style. I made the mistake of trying to watch this one in the morning. I had to stop it during the scene where a gang member is getting his skin burned off with a blowtorch, by a police detective. When I watched it all the way through I found this to be a very impressive 'pink' film, dealing with revenge, kidnapping, and torture. A gang of thugs who get their kicks raping and killing random people, believe they hit the big time when they kidnap the daughter of an important political figure. The amazingly sexy and tough Miki Sugimoto, the Zero Woman, is hired to bring back the girl, and to her delight, she is given an order to leave none of the kidnappers alive. This sets up the stage for some truly impressive scenes of brutality, and Rei, the Zero Woman has an almost religious devotion to 'justice'. We see this at the films amazing first sequence, where she allows herself to be taken to a hotel room by a wanted rapist/killer, and hands out her own brand of 'justice'. One reason that the film is so disturbing is that everyone, including the cops, is portrayed as wild animals with no compassion for human life. The gang especially, seem like a pack of savage hyenas. And much of the violence is directed at the Zero Woman herself; she is on the receiving end of many beatings and ugly rapes. I actually felt a little queasy in the stomach at times, but Miki Sugimoto is a gorgeous heroine, pure eye candy, and this visual beauty made the films ugly scenes a bit more bearable. Not that 'Zero Woman' is an ugly looking film; This is filmed with a great level of style, and utilizes garish colors especially well. Rei sports a red gun and red handcuffs, and the whole thing is quite surreal. This is the only thing that i have seen from director Yukio Noda, but judging from this one, the guy is a maniac. 'Zero Woman-red Handcuffs' is a fine 'pink film', and should not be confused with the vastly inferior 'Zero Woman' trash films from the 90's. This 1974 classic has absolutely nothing in common with those later films, other than the name. Essential viewing for fans of 'pink' cinema and violent cop dramas, this is a real assault on the senses!

I'm not big on Asian cinema, but I went into this film with high expectations anyway considering all that I'd heard about it, and the film certainly didn't disappoint! It reminded me a lot of the Mario Bava masterpiece (and fellow 1974 release) "Rabid Dogs" and it's interesting to consider the difference in style between what are probably the world's two biggest cult film producing nations; the films handle similar topics, yet the style and execution couldn't be much more different. Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs is an exploitation thriller with themes of comedy, action and horror thrown into the mix. The central themes are rape, kidnap and murder and the film excellently blurs the lines between the good and bad guys. The central character is Rei; a lady cop who finds herself in jail after murdering an American diplomat as an act of revenge. Shortly afterwards, a politician's daughter is raped and, after realising who she is, the rapists turn kidnappers and hold the girl for ransom. The Government then has no choice but to send Rei in to kill the gang and rescue the girl...

The film kicks off with a gory cold blooded murder sequence and less than five minutes later there's a brutal rape sequence; which gives a good impression of what this film is all about! Director Yukio Noda really doesn't hold back where violence or blood is concerned and the film features several brutal scenes, most of which result in heavy blood loss - the spraying blood effect is a particular highlight! The central role of course goes to the beautiful Miki Sugimoto, who plays the 'zero woman' of the title. She's a very cool character and looks awesome chewing scenery in her long red coat; although I have to say that she becomes a bit of a disappointment as the film goes on - considering her introduction sequence, the character would have been put to much better use if she were given the upper hand over the kidnappers, rather than being constantly beaten down. Her weapon of choice is a pair of red handcuffs, which she somehow manages to kill people with...the result being 'interesting'. The mellow music really tops the film off; providing a stark contrast to the on screen action. Overall, this is not a perfect film by any means; but its good gory fun and certainly comes recommended to my fellow cult fans!

An hour after I watched the movie, I calmed down enough to write this. One hell of a roller-coaster ride. Wow! The story is simple: a politician's daughter is kidnapped. He does not only want to get her back alive, but also the kidnappers must disappear completely so they can't talk to the press and everything can be hushed up. Scandals aren't good for his career. So who would do the job secretly, but with maximum violence? Zero Woman (Miki "Girl Boss Guerilla" Sugimoto)! The ex-detective who loves to strangle bad guys with the red chain of her favorite handcuffs is released from prison, goes to work and whatever she does from now on doesn't stand a chance on a PG rating. She looks great, talks even less than Arnie in "Terminator 1" and is as cold blooded as a snake in Antarctica. Got to love this woman, that is, from safe distance... staying on the other side of the screen. Recommended if you think Stallone was too sweet as Rambo.

Miki Sugimoto is Rei; undercover cop who dresses in a very cool red overcoat and delivers her own brand of vigilante justice that would be in good company with a certain Inspector Harry Callahan. She's sent after a bunch of crooks who have kidnapped a wealthy and up-and-coming politician's daughter and soon all hell breaks loose. While not as sleazy as something like Terrifying Girls Highschool or as exhilarating fun as Girl Boss Guerilla, fans of the genre will not be disappointed. It's (very) bloody, it has the requisite rape and nudity scenes that make any film of this sort work and just enough of a plot to keep you from glancing at your watch. It kind of drags in the middle but makes up for it with a blistering final act that involves among other things, blood gushing from gunshot wounds, a man burnt to a crisp and handcuff strangling.

One of the problems I had with it is that the first scene establishes Rei as this uber-cool badass cop chick with a style all her own; red handcuffs, gun and overcoat. A comic-book character that you can see kicking all sorts of butts. But then for the next hour she becomes this very passive character that gets tossed around and abused by a bunch of hoodlums. She's obviously trying to be as Meiko Kaji circa Lady Snowblood as possible (cold stare, silent, all that) but I like her better when she goes wild. All in all a decent pinku with a central character that could have been a lot better, but enough gore and sleaze to keep me happy. There's also a cameo by Tetsuro Tamba.