
Less than five minutes into Yasagure anego den: sôkatsu rinchi, aka Female Yakuza Tale: Inquisition and Torture, Reiko Ike is already hanging nude by her wrists being interrogated and tortured. But as the poster makes clear, her tormentors pay for their indiscretions at the point of her sword. The plot here concerns Reiko being framed for a crotch-gouge murder (self-explanatory, no?), and the featured set pieces include one in which a man throws bullets almost as effectively as if he’d shot them from a gun, and another in which a gang of about thirty nude women get into a melee against various hapless Yakuza.
Naturally, Reiko strips down as well, once during a reprise of her nude sword fight from the classic prequel to this film, and once to prove she isn’t hiding something up her sleeve during a card game. She is hiding something, but a little misdirection goes a long way—when she whips off her kimono to expose her tattooed body she also flings the evidence away undetected. The gangster who accused her must pay with three fingers and Reiko—always a friend to other women—spares the middle one because every man needs that one to keep his girl satisfied. Yep, it’s that kind of film. Filled with slapped faces, avulsed digits, and invaded body cavities, Yasagure anego den: sôkatsu rinchi is pretty much everything we expect from pinky violence, and more. It opened in Japan today in 1973.
