 The lone stranger rides again.  
We usually watch movies in the order we're able to acquire them, so as a matter of availability we ended up watching parts one and three in the Rika the Mixed Blood Girl trilogy without having seen the middle entry. Last night we remedied that and screened part two, Konketsuji Rika: Hitoriyuku sasuraitabi, known in English as Rica 2: Lonely Wanderer. You see a rare tateken style poster for the film above—along with a nice zoom—that you won't find anywhere but on Pulp Intl. We already expounded upon the change in spelling of Rika's name in the English title a while back. Shorter version: we don't know why Rica makes more sense than Rika. Probably it doesn't. Take it up with the honchos at Kindai Eiga Kyokai.
Rika 2/Rica 2 stars Rika Aoki and she's once again required to right wrongs, as she escapes from the frying pan of reform school and lands in the fire of urban crime and other hazards endemic to pinku cinema. The main plot involves a ship that exploded and sank in Misawa harbor, and a survivor—Rika's friend Hanako—who's in a mental hospital as a result. But Hanako is mentally fine. She's actually hiding in the one place hired killers can't reach her. Turns out the ship was yakuza owned, and everyone who survived is being hunted down. Rika goes to the police and demands an investigation, but the cops are yakuza owned too. Why must everyone who survived the ship disaster be killed? How high does the conspiracy go?
Rika handles her business with moral outrage and violence, but she also has time for a musical number or two. She's the Dylan of the Misawa nightclub district. Check out her lyrical stylings:  
As with the other films, some of the action in Rika 2/Rica 2 veers into slapstick. Also like the other films, there are racial and political digressions, and they aren't subtle. For instance, when Rika and a friend are accosted by Americans at one point, the group consists of one cowboy, one hippie, one guy dressed in a suit, etc. Later Rika is told point blank that it's lucky she's half white, because being half black like her friend Hanako would make her even more inferior to anyone fully Japanese. These are villains talking to her. The movie's default setting is anti-racist, which of course is correct and moral, but it's funny how what's considered racist evolves over time. Hanako is played by Japanese actress Masami Souda in shoe polish and an afro wig. Oops! For pinku cinema, it's just another day. But all-in-all, a reasonably fun one. Konketsuji Rika: Hitoriyuku sasuraitabi premiered in Japan today in 1973.
               
 She's a little bit of this, a little bit of that. 
Above is a Toho Company promo photo of Rika Aoki made for Konketsuji Rika, known in English as Rika the Mixed-Blood Girl, released today in 1972. Though the promo is copyrighted by Toho, that was the distribution company. Kindai Eiga Kyokai actually made the film, which tells the tale of a half-Japanese half-white gang leader who deals—violently—with a lot of very bad men. It was part of a Rika trilogy, of which we've seen installments one and three. This promo reminds us to check out the third.
 Rika Aoki has plenty of fight left in her. 
This poster was made to promote the pinku film Konketsui Rika, aka Rika the Mixed-Blood Girl, which premiered today in 1972 starring Rika Aoki. We showed you another high kicking promo for the same film a while back. See that and our write-up on the movie here.
 Mess with her and she’ll put you straight to sleep. 
Doubling up on the movie posters today, we also have this great Japanese sheet for Konketsuji Rika: Hamagure komoriuta, released in English as Rica 3: Juvenile’s Lullaby. The observant may have noticed the change in spelling of Rika's name. We have no idea why that happened, especially because the first movie Rika the Mixed-Blood Girl didn't have a spelling change. But being precise types, we didn't want you think we made a typo. Though that happens al the time anyway. Directed by Kôzaburô Yoshimura, Rica 3 caps off Rika's Amerasian trilogy by following the Japanese/anglo heroine’s exploits as she tries to save her friend from sexual predators intent on making her the lead in a porno film. These pinku plots are never simple, but that’s the main thrust here. There’s also some expounding upon racial matters. For instance, we see that, like in America, in Japan being half black biologically makes you 100% black as far as the prevailing racist culture is concerned, but that’s nothing we didn’t already know.
We were more interested in the action, but much of it is played for laughs, like when we see Rika beat the shit out of some guys with what must be the world’s sturdiest baguette. They’re in good company. Virtually every man in the movie ends up laid out like a stunned carp (see below), but they all have it coming for being so mean and rapey. Rica 3 isn’t a great pinku, but it’s worth a look for fans of the genre. The women are smart and tough, and the heroine comes out on top. Which is the whole point, as far as we’re concerned. Konketsuji Rika: Hamagure komoriuta premiered in Japan today in 1973.
             
 Never mess with a woman in a jumpsuit. 
This is the poster on which yesterday’s high-kicking image of Rika Aoki found a home, promoting Konketsuji Rika, aka Rika the Mixed-Blood Girl. In the film Aoki is the offspring of one of the American G.I.s who raped her mother, suffers the loss of her own virginity to a rapist, and is a product of constant physical abuse. Thus we have the two crucial ingredients needed for a pinku movie: a woman who really hates men, and men who really deserve whatever she does to them. The plot behind all the bloody mayhem involves her trying to save her gang of delinquent girls, who have been captured by crooks planning to sell them as sex slaves to American soldiers in Vietnam. Aoki gives a game performance, but she doesn’t radiate the pure heat a movie like this could use at its center. However, she does have the physical size needed to make her destruction of the evil men seem realistic, and in general the movie has enough blood, bullets, blades, and girl-fights to please fans of the genre. As a bonus for fashionistas, Aoki wears some sick jumpsuits. But if you dress like her, you better be able to kick ass. Konketsuji Rika, which was based on a manga comic and is the first film of what would become a trilogy, premiered in Japan today in 1972.
          
 Kicking up her heels. 
This great image of pinku actress Rika Aoki was featured on the poster for her first movie, 1972’s Konketsuji Rika, which for its English language release was called Rika the Mixed-Blood Girl. With a title like that we couldn’t pass it up, so we’ve located a copy and we’re watching it tonight. We’ll report back tomorrow.
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The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
1939—Batman Debuts
In Detective Comics #27, DC Comics publishes its second major superhero, Batman, who becomes one of the most popular comic book characters of all time, and then a popular camp television series starring Adam West, and lastly a multi-million dollar movie franchise starring Michael Keaton, then George Clooney, and finally Christian Bale. 1953—Crick and Watson Publish DNA Results
British scientists James D Watson and Francis Crick publish an article detailing their discovery of the existence and structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, in Nature magazine. Their findings answer one of the oldest and most fundamental questions of biology, that of how living things reproduce themselves. 1967—First Space Program Casualty Occurs
Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when, during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere after more than ten successful orbits, the capsule's main parachute fails to deploy properly, and the backup chute becomes entangled in the first. The capsule's descent is slowed, but it still hits the ground at about 90 mph, at which point it bursts into flames. Komarov is the first human to die during a space mission. 1986—Otto Preminger Dies
Austro–Hungarian film director Otto Preminger, who directed such eternal classics as Laura, Anatomy of a Murder, Carmen Jones, The Man with the Golden Arm, and Stalag 17, and for his efforts earned a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, dies in New York City, aged 80, from cancer and Alzheimer's disease. 1998—James Earl Ray Dies
The convicted assassin of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., petty criminal James Earl Ray, dies in prison of hepatitis aged 70, protesting his innocence as he had for decades. Members of the King family who supported Ray's fight to clear his name believed the U.S. Government had been involved in Dr. King's killing, but with Ray's death such questions became moot.
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