We’re going to do a bit of Japan stuff now, and we’re starting with this great promo poster of the one and only Meiko Kaji, star of numerous violent pinku flicks, looking lean, green, and very cool in 1974. See more Kaji here, here, and here.

Above, four posters for Meiko Kaji’s legendary Joshuu sasori series, known in English as Female Convict 701: Scorpion, Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41, Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable, and Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701's Grudge Song, 1972 to 1973. We're actually missing posters in this series (there are two for most of the installments) but haven't come across them yet. We'll keep looking and tack them onto this post later if we find them (Update: check here, here, and here). In the meantime, if you haven't seen the Joshuu sasori flicks, we recommend them. They're seminal pinku productions, pretty much standard viewing for the genre. And below, Meiko rocks the all-corduroy look on a poster from the mid-seventies.  

Japanese promo pamphlet featuring Meiko Kaji as Scorpion, in the pinku classic Joshuu 701-gô: Sasori, aka Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion, 1972.

The other day we realized that nearly all of our femmes fatales released records at some point, so we have a megapost of sleeves today representing a fraction of these multi-talented women’s musical output. We’ve heard most of the music, believe it or not, and while its quality varies, we do suggest you check out both Marilyn Chambers and Reiko Ike—their simulated orgasms are quite pleasing to the, er, ears.

Promo poster of Japanese actress Meiko Kaji, star of the seminal pinku sword opera Lady Snowblood, photographed here by Takeshi Izumi in 1973. This is the first time this image has appeared on the internet.

Meiko Kaji as the avenging dervish Yuki, in the classic sword and samurai gorefest Shurayuki-hime, aka Lady Snowblood, 1973.     

Nora-nekko rokku: Sekkusu hanta, aka, Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter is the third installment of a Nikkatsu Studios-produced pentology of loosely connected Stray Cat Rock films. This one attempts to address two real world issues: the notorious Japanese penchant for racism, and Japanese resentment concerning the post-war occupation of their country by American troops. Meiko Kaji and her friends, who comprise a girl gang called the Alleycats, run afoul of a J-supremacist street gang called the Eagles when one of the Alleycats refuses to betray her half-Japanese/half-black boyfriend. Parallel to this, Meiko finds herself drawn to another mixed race boy who happens to be in town searching for his missing sister. The leader of the Eagles, twisted by the traumatic memory of his sister’s rape at the hands of American servicemen, goes fully bughouse insane over all this race-mixing and decides to solve it by embarking on a citywide rampage against anyone he thinks isn’t pure Japanese. As usual, we won’t spoil the film by giving a full synopsis. Find it, rent it, watch it, love it, and then go bash some racists. It's good clean fun. Nora-nekko rokku: Sekkusu hanta opened in Japan today in 1971.