Intl. Notebook | Oct 27 2020 |

They don't make happy music but it'll stick with you for a long time.
Above, a Toei Company promo photo for Zenka onna: koroshi-bushi, aka Criminal Woman: Killing Melody, featuring one of the great girl gangs of pinku cinema—comprising, counterclockwise from upper right, Reiko Ike, Miki Sugimoto, Masami Soda, Chiyoko Kazama, and Yumiko Katayama. We have some beautiful material on this flick, here, here, and here. It premiered today in 1973.
Vintage Pulp | May 21 2020 |

That whole prison rehabilitation thing doesn't seem to be working.
Well, this completes the collection of posters we have for Zeroka no onna: Akai wappa, aka Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs, starring Miki Sugimoto as a vigilante cop released from prison to take on a gang of kidnappers. We've shown you the limited edition poster panted by Toru Shinohara, and the tateken sized promo. This is the standard sized poster and finishes up all the promo material we have on this iconic film. Don't worry, though. We have more on Sugimoto and even some rare promo images of her never before seen online. We'll get to those later.
Vintage Pulp | Mar 1 2020 |

They're planning to make a sizable withdrawal.
Above is an alternate poster for the bank heist flick Suke Yakuza, aka Female Yakuza Convict, which premiered in Japan today in 1974 and starred Reiko Ike and Yoko Horikoshi. We still haven't tracked down the movie, and since we know of no other promos than the four—including this one—we've now shared, if we ever do find this we won't be able to write about it because we'll have no art to pair with a write-up. Unless, of course, there's yet a fifth poster out there. But we doubt it. So consider this rare horizontally oriented version the last you'll hear from us about this film.
Vintage Pulp | Jan 3 2020 |

It's rough going for anyone who gets on Meiko's bad side.
Above we have another promo poster for Meiko Kaji's pinky violence actioner Nora-neko rokku: Bôsô shudan ’71, aka Stray Cat Rock: Crazy Rider ’71, aka Stray Cat Rock: Beat ’71, which premiered in Japan today in—you guessed it—’71. This great poster is just as rare as the others we shared. See those here and here.
Vintage Pulp | Nov 17 2019 |

New main ingredient, same old Female Prisoner Scorpion.
We've already shared two posters for Yumi Takigawa's women-in-prison pinky violence flick Shin joshuu sasori: 701-gô, aka New Female Prisoner Scorpion: 701, which premiered today in 1976. Above is the slightly different tateken sized poster, added here for the sake of completeness. The film is a reboot of the original Female Prisoner Scorpion series starring Meiko Kaji, and most consider it to be of lesser quality than the first four films, but quality is a relative term in pinku. Some would say all the films are bad. Not us. But some would say that. Bonus material: a Yumi promo image below. And you can see the other posters here and here.


Vintage Pulp | Oct 27 2019 |

What music do you want played at your funeral?
The classic pinku revenge tale Zenka onna: koroshi-bushi, aka Criminal Woman: Killing Melody had three incredible posters, and with the sharing of this one we've completed the trifecta. This is a rare two-piece bo-ekibari, similar to what in the U.S. is sometimes called a billboard poster. You'll see it nowhere else online. At least not until it's taken from here. The movie starred icons Reiko Ike and Miki Sugimoto as deadly rivals, was perfectly directed by Atsushi Mihori, and premiered in Japan today in 1973. See the other two posters for this here and here.




Vintage Pulp | Sep 25 2019 |

Yamauchi and Shibata are back for an encore.
Several years ago we shared a rare tateken sized poster for Bankaku Rokku, aka Bankaku Rock, aka Ranking Boss Rock, and today, above, we're circling back to the film with the hansai sized poster, which we usually just call standard sized. We didn't share this in the earlier post because we didn't have it then. It just wasn't available at the time. That omission is now rectified. Something else that wasn't available back then was the movie. Well, we found that too. Our efforts are unceasing.
Bankaku Rokku is a juvie delinquent pinky violence flick in which the Akabane 100 Club and Ikebukuro Cavalry battle for supremacy. Emiko Yamauchi plays Yukiko, the “bankaku,” or chief bodyguard of the Akabane 100. When she's released from reform school she decides to settle an old score with the Cavalry gang's leader Taka, played by Etsuko Shibata. But Yukiko's revenge gets complicated when she's accused of a murder that was actually the work of Johuku Clan, a male gang of pimps and thieves.
This flick is all alienation and disaffection. When the police come looking for Yukiko her authoritarian father even urges them to give her the death penalty. Will Yukiko dodge the cops and get her sweet revenge? It wouldn't be pinky violence if she didn't at least get the chance. Broken bottles, supersharp scissors, and razor blades are the order of the day, along with numerous boobs and climactic bloodspray. There may not be much of a point to it all, but for pinky violence fans it should hit the spot. Bankaku Rokku premiered in Japan today in 1973.
Vintage Pulp | Mar 8 2019 |

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.

















Vintage Pulp | Jan 4 2019 |

Kanô and company are still Crazy after all these years.
Today's deep dive into the pinku pile has produced this two panel promo for Sukeban: Tamatsuki asobi, aka Girl Boss: Crazy Ball Game, which starred Yûko Kanô and premiered today in 1974. Not every pinku movie had these types of posters but we've acquired quite a few. We'd upload others, but we don't know what films some of them are for. We'll get around to sharing them anyway, though.
Looking below, you'll see we've grabbed some promo photos. These came from an online auction. The last panel shows Yûko Kanô's co-stars Ritsuko Fujiyama, Emi Jô, Harumi Tajima, Rie Saotome, and Ryôko Ema having some wild and watery fun. Sukeban: Tamatsuki asobi has it all—violence, sex, violence, Yakuza, violence, and more. You can read a bit more about it at our write-up from some years ago, located at this link.








Vintage Pulp | Dec 30 2018 |

When Meiko comes 'round trouble is sure to follow.
We're in Japan again today with another Meiko Kaji poster. Above you see an incredibly rare circular promo for the pinku film Joshû sasori: Dai-41 zakkyo-bô, aka Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41, along with the standard promo. It premiered in Japan today in 1972. Meiko's paid her debt to society for now, so we'll let her go, but don't worry. She's a career criminal—she'll be back.
