BAD STUDENTS

Why study when you can party?


Joshi gakuen: Yabai sotsugyô is known in English as Hazardous Graduation, and is the sequel to Joshi gakuen: Warui asobi, aka Girls’ Junior High School: Dangerous Games (1970) and the predecessor of Joshi gakuen: Otona no asobi, aka Girl’s Junior High School: Too Young to Play Like This. In brief—it’s too dumb to recommend. Like the other films, this one stars Junko Natsu, and plotwise she and her coterie of rebellious followers resist attempts by school adminitrators to teach sexual abstinence. They of course prove that adults are hypocrites. While the movie isn’t worth watching (there’s even a cake fight, for fuck’s sake), we decided to share the poster anyway because Natsu is an important action star who would later feature in important films such as Bad Girl Mako and Wolves of the City. Joshi gakuen: Yabai sotsugyô premiered today in 1970.
They're trouble in triplicate.


The above poster was made for Sanbiki no mesubachi, usually known in English as Three Pretty Devils, starring Reiko Ohara, Yoko Ichiji, and Junko Natsu. It concerns three female con artists who are running loose during the gigantic World Expo in Osaka. They engage in every type of grift—they pick pockets, sell counterfeit parking passes, coax free meals from bedazzled older men, engage in a little sexual blackmail, and more. Eventually they get the bright idea to put together an escort service for foreigners, but in order to do so have to cross the local yakuza. Needless to say, that’s a bad idea.

The yakuza boss, who’s played to the edge of caricature by a frowning, sneering Tsunehiko Watase, perceives the girls more as an opportunity than as competition, and wants to turn them into escorts. Ohara’s mancrush Saburo, a yakuza footsoldier, tells her to leave Osaka before it’s too late, but when the yakuza find out about his betrayal they shoot the poor sap dead. No self-respecting devil gives up easily, so even cold-blooded murder doesn’t end the girls’ scheming ways. Eventually their chance for a big score finally comes when Natsu appropriates a bank document worth 200 million yen. The yakuza, as always, stands in their way.

Our synopsis makes this all sound dramatic, but the movie is mostly lightweight, with serious moments but a lot of comedy and music. Regarding the latter, legendary gay performer PūtÄ has a featured role as a transvestite nightclub singer. It was an early role for him. He’s on the promo art in the red turtleneck, which is why there are seemingly four pretty devils on a poster where you’d expect three. While he serves as local color in a nightclub that features prominently in the plot, his treatment by the filmmakers is completely respectful, which is noteworthy considering the year. On the whole, Sanbiki no mesubachi is a pretty good movie. It premiered today in 1970.

When she's bad, she's really bad.

Above is a poster in tateken size for Nikkatsu Studios’ pre-roman porno action flick Furyô shôjô Mako, aka Bad Girl Mako, a film for which we showed you a standard sized promo a while back. We didn’t really talk about the movie back then, but we’ve seen it. There’s lots of fighting, lots of music, and lots of guys in suits getting roughed up. Junko Natsu plays Mako, a tough party girl who meets a boy named Hideo, lets him stick his honeydripper in her jar of manuka, and decides she’s in love. It’s amazing that she reaches this conclusion after one quick throw in the back seat of a convertible, but whatever. Unfortunately, before their relationship progresses much farther loverboy is killed and Mako, like any good pinku revenant, gets stabby on the bad guys. There’s nothing unexpected here, but in the end you still have a reasonably entertaining entry in the girl gang genre, and the many club scenes and nice exterior cinematography add extra value. Furyô shôjô Mako premiered in Japan today in 1971.

Even in Japan payback is a bitch

Above, a nice but slightly damaged poster (it had a strip of tape across the top) for Joshi gakuen: Otona no asobi, aka Girls’ Junior High School: Too Young To Play Like This, starring Junko Natsu and Yoshiko Ikebo in a movie about students at two girls schools—Shirobara Academy and Kawakira Junior High—and how their rivalry turns into open conflict. There are many subplots as well, among them a Yakuza father’s neglect, uptight adults, budding young love, and more. There’s a really funny scene in this where the two schools’ volleyball teams get into a massive brawl started by the Shirobara girls in order to cover for injecting Kawakira’s best player with a drug. It’s right out of M*A*S*H. There’s also a bit where someone spikes a ball into someone else’s crotch. We knew volleyball shots could be underhanded, but that’s just plain evil. Joshi gakuen: Otona na asobi premiered in Japan today in 1971.

When good girls go bad.

Above, a striking poster for 1971’s Furyô shôjô Mako, aka Bad Girl Mako, starring Junko Natsu. We really like the design on this. The movie has the distinction of being Nikkatsu Studios’ last production before shifting into pinku-inspired roman porno, a seventeen-year period during which it almost exclusively made high budget sexploitation films. Junko Natsu, pictured on the poster, started her career in 1967 with Violated Angels and acted in more than forty movies and many television shows. We haven’t actually seen this movie yet, but if we do we’ll be sure to get back to you about it. 

Update: and here you go.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1938—Seabiscuit Defeats War Admiral

At Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore, Maryland, the thoroughbred stallion Seabiscuit defeats the Triple Crown champion War Admiral in a match race that had been promoted as “The match of the Century” in horse racing. The victory made Seabiscuit a symbol of triumph against the odds during the dark days of the Depression, and his story became the subject of a 1949 film, a 2001 book, and a 2003 film, Seabiscuit, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

1984—Indira Gandhi Assassinated

In India, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two of her own Sikh security guards in the garden of the Prime Minister’s Residence at No. 1, Safdarjung Road in New Delhi. Gandhi had been walking to meet British actor Peter Ustinov for an interview. Riots soon break out in New Delhi and nearly 2,000 Sikhs are killed.

1945—Robinson Signs with Dodgers

Jackie Robinson, who had been playing with the Negro League team the Kansas City Monarchs, signs a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers to become the first African-American major leaguer of the modern baseball era.

1961—Soviets Detonate Super Nuke

The Soviet Union detonates an experimental nuclear weapon called Tsar Bomba over the Arctic Circle, which, with a yield of 100 megatons of TNT, was then and remains today the most powerful weapon ever used by humanity.

1901—William McKinley's Assassin Executed

Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of U.S. President William McKinley, is executed at Auburn State Prison in Auburn, New York by means of the electric chair. Czolgosz had shot McKinley twice with a cheap revolver and the President had lingered for several days before dying. After Czolgosz is executed, he is buried on prison grounds and sulfuric acid is thrown into his coffin to disfigure his body and result in its quick decomposition.

1982—Lindy Chamberlain Convicted of Murder

In Australia, Lindy Chamberlain is found guilty of the murder of her nine-week-old daughter. The baby was killed during a camping trip in the Australian interior. Chamberlain claimed a dingo had taken the baby, but a jury decided Chamberlain cut the infant’s throat and buried her. The body was never found, but forensic experts played a large role in the conviction. Four years after the trial the baby’s jacket is found inside a dingo lair, backing up Chamberlain’s claim, and she is released from prison.

T’as triché marquise by George Maxwell, published in 1953 with art by Jacques Thibésart, also known as Nik.

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