Vintage Pulp

February 28 2022

FIRE ENGINE RED

Bunta Sugawara spits hot lead in Machine Gun Dragon.

Cagney! Bogart! And… Bunta? This poster, if you look at the text in the righthand margin, suggests that Bunta Sugawara is a gangster on that level. We’ll see about that in a minute, but one thing is sure—this is a kick-ass image of him. It was made for his crime flick Yokohama ankokugai mashingan no ryu, known in English as Yokohama Underworld: The Machine-Gun Dragon. Sugawara plays a rogue gunman, thief, and fashion plate who decides to rob the Matsumi yakuza clan of a billion yen worth of drugs. Ill gotten gains are hard to keep in crime movies, so you know already what the story arc is here: the people he robbed come looking for him.

However, there are some quirks. For example, Sugawara has a disturbingly close relationship with his mother. The two take baths together, as mom dispenses parental wisdom like, “The most important thing in the world is money. A guy without money is garbage. He might as well not have a dick,” while peeking at Sugawara’s dick, which thankfully is out-of-frame. It’s under mom’s influence that Sugawara robs the Matsumi group, a heist the pair pull off in the first moments of the film. They plan to hold the goods until the heat cools, but another gang deduces that Sugawara was involved and demands half the drugs for not turning him over. The cops are soon closing in too, since the robbery resulted in a quadruple homicide.

Eventually, Sugawara engineers his own arrest. It’s the only way he can avoid capture by the yakuza, and in jail he can presumably regroup. But Matsumi has men inside. Those men have no idea how ruthless and resourceful Sugawara is, and in the film’s best sequences he shows how survival inside this particular prison is about who’s willing to be the most vicious. He doesn’t spend long in jail, which means that upon release his problems still must be faced. But fire breathing dragons are very hard to kill. As hard as Cagney and Bogart? Well, let’s just say that if Bunta goes out, he’ll go out guns blazing. Yokohama ankokugai mashingan no ryu premiered in Japan today in 1976.

Japan, Yokohama ankokugai mashingan no ryu, Yokohama Underworld: The Machine-Gun Dragon, Bunta Sugawara, Shin'ichi Chiba, Sonny Chiba, Aiko Mimasu, Kyôko Enami, poster art, cinema, yakuza, movie review

Vintage Pulp

August 31 2019

STREET FIGHTING WOMAN

Etsuko Shihomi looks soft but hits hard.

This rare poster was made to promote Onna hissatsu ken, aka Sister Street Fighter, which premiered in Japan today in 1974. The movie is fourth in the Street Fighter series, after The Street Fighter, The Return of the Street Fighter, and The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge. In this one karate master and undercover drug agent Sonny Chiba goes missing in Tokyo, prompting his bosses to recruit his sister Etsuko Shihomi to search for him. Shihomi collects clues, allies, and esoteric enemies, but of course finally learns her brother is exactly where any viewer would expect—in the villain’s lair, where he’s been forcibly addicted to drugs.

Generally, penetrating these evil underground strongholds is perfunctory, but in this film Shihomi has more problems than usual. She’ll get there, though—what’s a ’70s martial arts film without a subterranean showdown? It’s all a bit silly and clunky, if surprisingly gory at the end. Interestingly, the movie tries to be instructive, actually freeze-framing to label certain martial arts techniques, weapons, and important characters. Weird, but okay. In the end Shihomi wins using basic stick-to-itiveness—with nunchakus upside multiple male craniums. Oh, and by the way, there are lots of reversed swastikas in this film. We talked about those, but if you missed that discussion check here.

Japan, Tokyo, Onna hissatsu ken, Sister Street Fighter, Etsuko Shihomi, Shin'ichi Chiba, Sonny Chiba, Sanae OÌ‚hori, poster art, cinema, movie review

Vintage Pulp

June 19 2019

DASSO COOL

Sony Chiba battles the mob in a breakout performance.

How many movies did Sonny Chiba appear in? Like two-hundred? It must be close to that. These posters were made to promote his actioner Dasso yugi, known internationally as Escape Game, or alternatively as Jail Breakers. Chiba plays a career criminal who breaks out of the joint and ends up joining a cartel that specializes in prison breaks. They’re “escape coordinators.” It’s a great set-up for a flick. However, Chiba fans who haven’t seen this should be forewarned that he’s no martial arts master here. He’s just a regular ex-con trying to make a fast yen in the face of long odds. It’s a pretty good film, with nice twists, fun stunts, a cool soundtrack, and, in Chiba, one of the most bankable stars of ’70s Japanese cinema. And while the movie doesn’t feature his trademark martial arts, it does feature Haruko Hanibuchi in a co-starring role, and she’s an art form all her own. We’ll show you what we mean a bit later. Dasso yugi premiered in Japan today in 1976.

Japan, Toei Company, Dasso yugi, Jail Breakers, Escape Game, Sonny Chiba, Shin'ichi Chiba, Haruko Wanibuchi, poster art, cinema, movie review

Vintage Pulp

March 8 2019

COUNT TO 13

A step by step guide to being a total badass.

This incredibly cool collectible poster was made to promote Wakai kizoku-tachi: 13-kaidan no Maki, aka 13 Steps of Maki: The Young Aristocrats, which is more girl gang goodness from the schlockmeisters at Toei Company. Etsuko Shihomi (sometimes spelled Shiomi) plays Maki of the 13 Steps, leader of the Stray Cats, a group of very tough, martial arts trained femi-delinquents. Maki and the gang bury an arrogant one percenter up to her neck on a beach in retaliation for a traffic related insult, which is all good fun, but the victim is Takako, daughter of the powerful, yakuza connected owner of Ebihara Tourism. Once she digs herself out of the sand she retaliates. This in turn brings re-retaliation from the Cats, which brings re-re-retaliation from Takako, and pretty soon things are well out of control.

The movie is based on an Ikki Kajiwara/Masaaki Satô comic, and director Makoto Naitô uses some amazing comic book style, multi-character framing, as seen in our screen grabs below. This is top notch work from Toei’s pinky violence line, about as fun as a Japanese actioner gets. And in supporting roles you’ll encounter Sonny Chiba, Meika Seri, and Yûko Kanô. Watching movies like this almost makes up for all the Nikkatsu roman porno misfires we slog through. Almost. Etsuko Shihomi is considered a bit of a film icon in Asia because her martial arts skills were real, and she appeared in so many movies. We have numerous posters of hers to share later and they’re even more amazing than this one. Wakai kizoku-tachi: 13-kaidan no Maki premiered in Japan today in 1975.

Step one is here, on the bottom of my platform boot. Have a close look.

Step two is don’t put your face where people tell you. We’ll get to step three after you heal.

Japan, Toei Company, 13 Steps of Maki: The Young Aristocrats, Makoto Naitô, Etsuko Shihomi, Shin'ichi Chiba, Sonny Chiba, Ikki Kajiwara, Masaaki Satô, Meika Seri, Yûko Kanô, poster art, cinema, pinku, pinky violence, cinema, movie review

Vintage Pulp

April 26 2017

CHASING TALE

Etsuko Shihomi in hot pursuit.

Above, an alternate promo for the Japanese actioner Karei-naru tsuiseki, aka The Great Chase, released today in 1975. This was surprisingly good. See the other poster and read about the movie here.

Japan, Karei-naru tsuiseki, The Great Chase, Etsuko Shihomi, Sonny Chiba, poster art, cinema

Vintage Pulp

April 26 2016

RIGHT ON THE DOTS

There isn't much chasing in The Great Chase but the movie is definitely great.

Norifumi Suzuki’s Karei-naru tsuiseki, aka The Great Chase is fast, funny, and bizarre entertainment. Etsuko Shihomi plays a Formula 1 driver who also works for the Japanese secret service, in this case taking down an international drug syndicate. Shihomi was already a star in Japanese cinema from her supporting roles in Sonny Chiba’s Streetfighter and its spin-offs. Karei-naru tsuiseki sees her honing her solo chops—literally, as she karates the shit out of dozens of guys. But you get so much more than fistfights here—you get Shihomi in disguises, a corpse filled with cocaine, a girl in armor being force fed a banana, a nun brawl in a church, a mob boss dressed as a bear, a fight on what has to be the world’s highest cable car, and more. Pure cheese, but of the most flavorful sort, and with a top notch promo poster featuring Shihomi in a discolicious polka dot two-piece. We have posters for five other Shihomi actioners and she looks badass on all of them. We’ll share those in the future. Karei-naru tsuiseki premiered today in 1975.

Japan, Toei Company, Karei-naru tsuiseki, The Great Chase, Streetfighter, Etsuko Shihomi, Norifumi Suzuki, Sonny Chiba, poster art, cinema, movie review

Vintage Pulp

April 5 2016

HELL OF A GUY

Liars and tigers and bloodspray—oh mai!

Beautiful and very rare, the two posters above were made to promote Toei Company’s Urufu gai: Moero ôkami-otoko, aka Wolfguy: Enraged Lycanthrope, a rollicking thriller that premiered in Japan today in 1975 and starred Shin’ichi Chiba, better known in the West as Sonny Chiba. Based on a manga series by Kazumasa Hirai, the movie involves a vicious invisible tiger that’s killing the members of a Tokyo rock band who gang-raped a woman named Miki and infected her with syphilis because a powerful politician wanted her relationship with his son sabotaged. The tiger is the manifestation of Miki’s curse.

You may be saying to yourself, “But none of that has anything to do with lycanthropy.” You’d be right, but there is in fact lycanthropy here—Chiba the tough reporter is a werewolf. He can’t yet harness his power, but try telling that to J-CIA, a secret organization that will stop at nothing until they obtain Chiba’s vital fluids and create human-wolf hybrids. Hero and heroine’s paths and genitals eventually cross, and from this union Chiba realizes how to control his wolfly abilities.

But there’s more, oh so much more, to this film. Urufu gai: Moero ôkami-otoko is gory good fun, low budget, but well worth a viewing thanks to Nami Etsuko as Miki and, of course, the legendary Chiba. Good luck tracking down a copy. Ours was a cable television rip with all the crazy Japanese commercials intact.

Hello Pulp International readers! I’m Commercial Girl. The Pulp guys have asked me to introduce five screenshots from Urufu gai: Moero ôkami-otoko. Please enjoy and have a wonderful Tuesday!

The enraged lycanthrope acquits himself admirably in a fight as none other than Steve McQueen the King of Cool looks on with studied approval.

Some girls don’t like wolf blood so when you find one who digs it this much she’s a keeper. Napkins? Nonsense! This blood is finger licking good.

Wild thing you make my heart sing… and squirt like a lawn sprinkler. It’s just give give give with this girl.

Hey, douche nozzles, why the fuck did I hire you? Look at my mouth. That thing hanging there? That’s called a cigarette. What does it need? Here’s a hint—why does it emphysema like you never fuckin’ listen?

Shhh…I can hear her spirit speaking to me through her portrait. She says KFC bucket meals are 30% off for a limited time only. Um, Wolfguy, you turned off the tv in the other room, right?

Hi! Commercial Girl here again. The Pulp guys say Tuesday sucks especially hard. Even more so when your fantasy baseball team goes 2 for 39 and you lose seventeen points! So here’s one more screenshot because you need extra cheering up!

All of us in Kiss want every one of you out there to remember to rock ‘n’ roll all night and party EVERY DAY! Geishas RULE! Sushi and blow FOREVER! So long Tokyo! Or as you say here, Sayonara!

Japan, Toei Company, Urufu gai: Moero ôkami-otoko, Wolfguy: Enraged Lycanthrope, Shin'ichi Chiba, Sonny Chiba, Nami Etsuko, Kazumasa Hirai, Steve McQueen, poster art, cinema, movie review

Vintage Pulp

September 15 2014

ASSASSIN’S CREED

Sonny Chiba is the Duke of hazard.

Above: a poster for Golgo 13: Kûron no kubi, aka Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon, starring Sonny Chiba, who is better known as Shin’ichi Chiba in his native Japan and the rest of Asia. Chiba plays an assassin named Duke Togo, but codenamed Golgo 13, whose latest contract proves more complex than he imagined. The movie, based on a popular manga, was a Japanese production set in Hong Kong, and was an influence on the excellent crime thrillers that came out of Hong Kong in the 1980s, particularly those by John Woo. Plenty of reviews online so we won’t go into detail, except to say that this one is well worth a viewing, in our opinion. Golgo 13: Kûron no kubi premiered in Japan today in 1977.

Japan, Hong Kong, Golgo 13: Kûron no kubi, Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon, Sonny Chiba, Shin'ichi Chiba, poster art, cinema

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

July 16

1941—DiMaggio Hit Streak Reaches 56

New York Yankees outfielder Joe DiMaggio gets a hit in his fifty-sixth consecutive game. The streak would end the next game, against the Cleveland Indians, but the mark DiMaggio set still stands, and in fact has never been seriously threatened. It is generally thought to be one of the few truly unbreakable baseball records.

July 15

1939—Adams Completes Around-the-World Air Journey

American Clara Adams becomes the first woman passenger to complete an around the world air journey. Her voyage began and ended in New York City, with stops in Lisbon, Marseilles, Leipzig, Athens, Basra, Jodhpur, Rangoon, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Wake Island, Honolulu, and San Francisco.

July 15

1955—Nobel Prize Winners Unite Against Nukes

Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, which reads in part: We think it is a delusion if governments believe that they can avoid war for a long time through the fear of [nuclear] weapons. Fear and tension have often engendered wars. Similarly it seems to us a delusion to believe that small conflicts could in the future always be decided by traditional weapons. In extreme danger no nation will deny itself the use of any weapon that scientific technology can produce.

July 14

1921—Sacco & Vanzetti Convicted

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are convicted in Dedham, Massachusetts of killing their shoe company’s paymaster. Even at the time there are serious questions about their guilt, and whether they are being railroaded because of their Italian ethnicity and anarchist political beliefs.

July 13

1933—Eugenics Becomes Official German Policy

Adolf Hitler signs the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, and Germany begins sterilizing those they believe carry hereditary illnesses, and those they consider impure. By the end of WWII more than 400,000 are sterilized, including criminals, alcoholics, the mentally ill, Jews, and people of mixed German-African heritage.

July 13

1955—Ruth Ellis Executed

Former model Ruth Ellis is hanged at Holloway Prison in London for the murder of her lover, British race car driver David Blakely. She is the last woman executed in the United Kingdom.

July 13

1966—Richard Speck Rampage

Richard Speck breaks into a Chicago townhouse where he systematically rapes and kills eight student nurses. The only survivor hides under a bed the entire night.

DON’T RIDE THE WHITE HORSE

Rafael DeSoto painted this excellent cover for David Hulburd's 1954 drug scare novel H Is for Heroin. We also have the original art without text.

BARN GIRLS

Two Spanish language digest novels from Argentine publishers Malinca Debora and Malinca Nueva Pandora.

Argentine publishers Malinca Debora reprinted numerous English language crime thrillers in Spanish. This example uses George Gross art borrowed from U.S. imprint Rainbow Books.

LOVES OF A BLONDE