(1974/JAPAN)
REVIEWED BY-STEVE GENIER DIRECTED BY-YUKIO NODA CAST-MIKI SUGIMOTO, EIGI GO, TETSURO TAMBA, HIDEO MUROTA, YOKO MIHARA, ICHIRO ARAKI and SEIJI ENDO. SOURCE-DISCOTEK MEDIA DVD (NTSC REGION 1 / 2005 / 88 MINS)
Undercover cop Rei (Miki Suimoto) loses her job and is charged with murder after killing a foreign diplomat. Taking the situation a little too personal after a friend is murdered. While in jail she is approached to seek out the daughter of a top politician who has been kidnaped and held for ransom. Though willing to pay the money, they know will enough that even paid, the kidnappers will kill the girl in fear of her exposing them. So, in order to receive a full pardon and to be reinstated to the police force, she must secretly find the hostage and kill the kidnappers in any way she sees fit to kill them. All must be done without the knowledge of the media to avoid ruining the girl’s father’s political career. Of course as Rei makes her way into the group of kidnappers, getting them to trust her, things take a different route. Those who employed her seek swift action, even at the expanse of Rei and the hostage. As there must be no survivors in hopes of saving the hostage’s father from a huge scandal. This rubs Rei the wrong way and plans to stick to the mission of rescuing the hostage and killing the kidnappers.
Director Yukio Noda brings us a live-action version of the famed Manga created by Toru Shinohara or Toru Fugiwara depending on who you talk too. About a female assassin/cop who works for a secret outfit under the politician’s control called Zero. Spawning several sequels, including a direct remake in 1995. In the first installment ZERO WOMAN-RED HANDCUFFS, the leads is played by Miki Suimoto. Of course there is a different lead actress in each of the different sequels there after. Draped in a world of torture and exploitation, ZERO WOMAN like many of it’s counterparts of the 70's like FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION, show the women as powerful tools. These women are exploited to the tilt and then when their perp’s guard are down, they strike with a vengeance. Armed with a set of long red hand cuff, in which she uses with percussion as the complete killing tool. A run pistol as a back up and of course the main weapon that of her body. Subjected to pure torture, including rape, Rei puts herself in harm’s way to get the trust of a gang of small time kidnappers to get their hostage out safe.
ZERO WOMAN-RED HANDCUFFS suffers from a shallow plot, but let’s face it, that isn’t the reason people are drawn to a film of this nature. It’s the hardcore exploitive elements that are homed here, the mixture of mainstream 70's pop culture and pinky cinema violence. Both aspects run deep in ZERO WOMAN. There is also another smaller aspect underlining the film’s storyline, a deep political wound if you may. Running theme with the Japanese after the US occupation after World War 2. There are several areas in the film that suggest this, the one main situation is during the film’s beginning soon after the kidnapper’s leader is set free from prison. Right back into the fray, they seek out a young couple having a domestic in a parked car. There they break into it, grabbing the girl, who later becomes their hostage and ransom key. They severely beat up her boyfriend and continue in group raping her. Now, the political tie in here is that most of the group are wearing US army jackets, a symbol of the torture and hardship they themselves had to endure during the occupation.
Along with the exploits and violent nature of this films, falls loads of gory situations as well. This is yet another factor in Japanese cinema that is always quite present. ZERO WOMAN is no exception by no means, as there are a few scenes that are with the best fo them. A couple in particular are when the younger and quite naive brother is beaten to a pulp with a beer bottle ending in a very bloody mess. Also, during the shootout at the end, the main cop who hires Rei has his face and head brunt to a crisp. Still, with all the blood being gutted all over, there is still a huge onslaught of some very stylized cinematic moments in ZERO WOMAN.
The new Discotek Media release is fairly good, but lacks in the extra’s department. So it all depends on what you look for in a DVD release. The film itself has been restored to a very clean anamorphic wide-screen presentation. The audio is also very clean and is presented in Japanese 2.0 Dolby Digital with English subtitles in which you can turn off. The only extra present on the disc itself is a set of two trailers. One for ZERO WOMAN, the other being one for LUPIN 3, yet another mange turned into a live action film during the 70's. The packaging for the disc is quite nice as there is a protective cover which I’m gathering will only be provided with the limited edition of this release. There is also some liner notes on the film written by Thomas Weisser of Asian Cult Cinema. There is also a German release of this which is pretty much in the small boat for extras, so I would probably go with this release.
STORY/FILM-3.5/5 BITCH SLAPS PICTURE-3.5/5 BITCH SLAPS AUDIO-3 BITCH SLAPS EXTRAS-1.5/5 BITCH SLAPS OVERALL DVD-3/BITCH SLAPS Buy this at X-Ploited Cinema after October 25 2005.
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