Zubekô banchô: Zange no neuchi mo nai

This film was included in the Region 1 Pinky Violence Boxset, and unfortunately it has to be said that it's the worst of the set. Like many of this type of film, the plot is overly complicated and confusing; but unlike other genre films, the overall film is entertaining enough to adequately mask the plotting problems; and therefore the film is more of a boring mess than an entertaining one. That being said, Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless to Confess still has it's moments and is not a complete waste of time for fans of this type of film. The plot focuses on delinquent girls, and one in particular is Rika - she's fresh out of reform school and decides to track down the father of one of her friends from inside. She finds him and it turns out he runs a garage. He offers her a job and lodging, and being short on other options; she takes him up on the offer. However, the local Yakuza want a share in the garage and insist on getting it despite the owner's reluctance to agree. Naturally, it all ends in violence.

The film is not nearly as over the top as some other films in the genre and that's a shame as it gets boring too often. There's also not a great deal of skin featured - naturally there's no full frontal nudity, but oddly there isn't any naked breasts either. Luckily the film is decent enough on the style side of things and director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi provides some vibrant colours and there's a decent musical score also. Reiko Oshida takes the lead role in the film. She's not one of the big Pinky Violence stars, and I'm not too surprised at that as she doesn't have the same level of charisma as the likes of Miki Sugimoto and Reiko Ike. However, it's a good performance and she leads the film well. There's a handful of fight scenes but nothing really all that memorable up until the end. Suffice to say the film does end on a high with a good bloody battle, but the process of getting there isn't as exciting as I would have hoped. Still, while this isn't a great genre film; I'm sure that fans of Pinky Violence will get some sort of kick out of it.

It seems that some might disagree with me, but i think 'Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless To Confess', while being an OK film, is the weakest entry in the phenomenal "Pinky Violence Box". After being knocked out by other entries such as 'Girl Boss Guerilla', and my personal favorite, Suzuki's 'Terrifying Girl's Highschool', I was expecting more of the same from this one. What brought down Delinquent Girl Boss for me was the over use of the dumb, slapstick comedy. Of course films like this need a bit of comic relief, or many might find the brutality a bit harder to take. There was simply too much of it here. And the presence of Reiko Ike and personal fav Miki Sugimoto was sorely missed, although Reiko Oshida, whose image graces the cover of the box set, is certainly gorgeous, in a Barbie doll sort of way. But she lacks the raw intensity of the others, as this film lacks the intensity of the other films. Another thing wrong with this one was the lack of violence and sex! I know that sex and violence does not necessarily equal good cinema, but for this genre, it is actually expected. For a 'pinky violence' film, there was very little violence, and even less 'pink', or skin. Of course 'Worthless To Confess' has it's shining moments, especially towards the end, when the gang dons their trench coats and exacts their revenge on the yakuza gang that did them wrong. But again, it just seemed more comical than powerful. However I cannot compliment the other films enough. 'Criminal Woman: Killing Melody' is probably the most well made film of them all, and might be Reiko Ike's best role. And the music cd of Reiko singing is dazzling as well. But 'Worthless To Confess' just didn't really stand out for me, unfortunately. I recommend this collection regardless.

Seeing this after a few other 'Pinky Violence' movies of the time, this seems a little slow, rather complicated and more of a melodrama than an all out sex and violence thriller. It has it's good points, however, plus the inevitable grand finale. There is nothing particularly original here but Yamaguchi does cover a lot of ground, starting in a women's prison, following one of the girls into the outside world, introducing the yakuza and picking up stories of what turn out to be other inmates and finally bringing all the strands together as the girls sweep into street action in matching red trench coats, I have a feeling a second viewing will be less confusing and thereby more rewarding because there is plenty of sexy action and stylish fighting, especially the end game shot partly up through glass floor.