“Sukeban” is a Japanese word that means, basically, “girl gangster.” You see a collection of them on this poster for Sukeban: Taiman shobu, but the most important one is the boss—or banchô—Reiko Ike, who sits atop the art and who we saw just a couple of days ago. The movie, known in the U.S. as Girl Boss 6: Mano a Mano, or sometimes Girl Boss: Diamond Showdown, premiered today in 1974, and is a staple entry in Toei Company’s pinky violence cycle, the sixth entry in a series.
In the opening Reiko is thrown in prison for trying to kill the yakuza leader responsible for the death of her sister. A credit sequence montage shows us how she’s toughened in a juvenile facility. When she’s released she needs to help a friend, one of the previous parolees, out of a financial jam, which brings her back into contact with the organization of the man she tried to kill. Synchronism? Well, screenwriting.
When a duel she wins places her at the head of a group of troublemakers called the Sunflower Gang, Reiko suddenly has muscle as well as determination, however a chance meeting with someone who mistreated her in juvie but who’s now reformed and married makes her think more deeply about life. Maybe she isn’t destined to be a lone she-wolf after all. Maybe life is bigger than revenge. But there are subplots, and you can bet Reiko will find herself in the middle of them—surrounded by bad men.
Sukeban: Taiman shobu relates its story in frenetic style, and Reiko, cute as hell of course, gives her typical physically demanding action performance and uses those soulful chocolate eyes of hers to induce audience sympathy for her tough outside/soft inside character. Other entries in this series may be better, but we enjoy pinky violence flicks in general. They’re fun, exotic, and sometimes surprising. And as for Reiko—she’s incomparable.
