Less than five minutes into Yasagure anego den: sôkatsu rinchi, aka Female Yakuza Tale: Inquisition and Torture, Reiko Ike is already hanging nude by her wrists being, well, queried and tortured. But as the poster makes clear, her tormentors pay for their indiscretions at the point of her sword. The plot here concerns Reiko being framed for a crotch-gouge murder (self-explanatory, no?), and the featured set pieces include one in which a man throws bullets almost as effectively as if he’d shot them from a gun, and another in which a gang of about thirty nude women get into a melee against various hapless Yakuza. Naturally, Reiko strips down as well, once during a reprise of her nude sword fight from the classic prequel to this film, and once to prove she isn’t hiding something up her sleeve during a card game. She is hiding something, but a little misdirection goes a long way—when she whips off her kimono to expose her tattooed body she also flings the evidence away undetected. The gangster who accused her must pay with three fingers and Reiko—always a friend to other women—spares the middle one because every man needs that one to keep his girl satisfied. Yep, it’s that kind of film. Filled with slapped faces, avulsed digits, and invaded body cavities, Yasagure anego den: sôkatsu rinchi is pretty much everything we expect from pinky violence, and more. It opened in Japan today in 1973. 

It’s pinku queen Reiko Ike’s birthday today, so we thought we’d post a photo of her frolicking in her birthday suit. Yes, we know you can’t see her face, but it’s a cool shot anyway, don’t you think? It’s clear Reiko has made a resolution to be more porpoiseful in her life. Heh. Um, sorry about that. Puns are an addiction and it's possible we need an intervention. In the meantime, let us make it up to you. Look here. 

Now you see how the editorial process works here. Japanese strip club posters get us thinking about Japan and nakedness (duh), and so we promptly post pinku queen Reiko Ike hanging out nude on the seaside being fascinated by her own hands. After seeing her viciously chop off so many heads and limbs, it's good to see her, uh, soft side, right? We were actually planning to post an image of her on her birthday later this month, and now we’ve gone and screwed everything up. Although, like the posters above, the image we had in mind has never been on the internet before, so we may still do it. Check back on May 25. However, today’s image is not new, and following this link will lead you to its source at a kick-ass website we frequent. 

The other day we realized that nearly all of our femmes fatales released records at some point, so we have a megapost of sleeves below 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. 

This one-sheet for Zenka onna: koroshi-bushi, aka Criminal Woman: Killing Melody is one of the more common pinku images on the internet and, for that reason, we weren’t going to post it. But then we decided to do it anyway because, with only one exception, every site we saw had this piece reversed. Yeah, we know—those Japanese characters look the same backward and forward. Unless of course you happen to read Japanese. So for the record, the poster is correctly oriented the way we have it above. As for the movie, well you’ve got Reiko Ike, action, gore, sexploitation, prison, and co-star Miki Sugimoto, all in a fast-paced, straightforward revenge flick. It isn’t quite tops, but even mediocre pinku is good pinku in our book. Zenka onna: koroshi-bushi opened in Japan today in 1973.     

Sometimes you just have to have a little Reiko Ike, so we brought her back today on a poster from her 1971 sword opera Sukeban Blues: Mesubachi no Gyakusyû, aka Girl Boss Blues: Queen Bee’s Counterattack. In this first installment of the Girl Boss series, Reiko plays the leader of a motorcycle gang who angers the local yakuza by daring to engage in sex for sheer pleasure, rather than for profit. As usual, she’s pushed to the breaking point and juliennes her enemies with the help of several accomplices, including fellow pinky queen Miki Sugimoto. While this isn’t the strongest of director Norifumi Suzuki’s films, it’s got the requisite portions of sex, violence, and audacious shock. For fans of the genre like us, that’s more than enough. 

The titles of these pinku flicks can be comically descriptive. Kyôfu joshikôkô: bôkô rinchi kyôshitsu, aka Terrifying Girls’ High School: Lynch Law Classroom is the type of title that might leave you thinking you’ve just learned all there is to know about the film. But that isn’t true because it isn’t plotting, but creative staging of sex, nudity, and violence that makes pinku so interesting. Director Norifumi Suzuki isn’t at the top of his game here, but a subpar effort from the Hendrix of bloodporn still blows most of his peers clean off the stage, especially when it stars Miki Sugimoto and Reiko Ike. Kyôfu joshikôkô: bôkô rinchi kyôshitsu opened in Japan today in 1973.

Anytime you get the bad-ass Ms. Reiko Ike in a flick, vital fluids will stain the walls. Furyô anego den: Inoshika Ochô, aka Sex & Fury, falls into a category generally known as “pinky violence” or “pinku”. Like yesterday’s Seijû gakuenaka, this film is a Norifumi Suzuki-conducted symphony of lesbian sex, shock-nudity and hyperviolent action. Near the mid-point Suzuki treats us to a sequence in which the heroine is surprised in the bath by eight Yakuza, but leaps from the tub and fights them naked. The vicious sword battle spills from the bath chamber into a courtyard, all in wonderfully choreographed slow motion, with arterial spray jetting hither and yon like water from the Bellagio Fountain. It’s one of the most famous and daring sequences in cinema history, and was echoed by David Cronenberg in his recent thriller Eastern Promises. You may notice that Reiko Ike is upstaged on the poster by a bare-breasted Christina Lindberg. Ms. Lindberg is a sexploitation queen who we’ll talk more about in the future. Furyô anego den: Inoshika Ochô premiered in Japan today in 1973.

Japanese actress Reiko Ike, seen here circa 1971, before she got the famous breast tattoo she sports in violent pinku films like... Uh, hello? Yes, we're talking to you. But since you like her so much you can see more images in a similar vein at the Japanese blog Woman Becomes the Picture (very rough translation), located here. We'll have a lot more on Reiko, pinku, and Japanese film in general down the line.