GIRLS, GANGSTERS & ZOMBIES is available today on DVD

Switchblade Pictures

Presents

Girls, Gangsters & Zombies

Directed by Masahiro Asao

Japan, 2011, 77 minutes

Girls Gangsters & Guns, the latest sexploitation release from Switchblade Pictures, is available today in a single disc DVD edition. It's about a trio ripping off a shady drug deal, and is not to be confused with Girls, Guns and Gangsters (1959), a B-movie that's also about a heist, nor with Gangsters, Guns & Zombies from 2012.

The title is actually a bit of a misnomer, as there's only one "girl" in the film, aside perhaps from some incidental female zombies. Her name is Maki, and she's portrayed by -- as the DVD cover informs us --  AV (Adult Video) superstar Laura Aoyama. She's slim, very small-breasted, and has a long, rather snub nose. And she does, I must say, rock her fishnet stockings.

Maki's boyfriend Akio works is an underling to Mr. Awazu, a yakuza who has decided to "borrow" 70 million yen from "the family" to finance an independent meth deal with some Koreans. Awazu knows that the old man of the family wouldn't approve of the deal, which is why he's carrying it out on the Q.T. He truly intends to return the money before it's missed but only after he's made 100% profit on the "loan."

Things don't work out that way because Akio has come up with a plan to rip off the 70 mil. Maki and Kenji, the third accomplice, steal the suitcase with the money as Awazu, Akio and two others are on their way to buy the meth. The trio go to bury the money at Mt. Ryujin, a sinister place which the yakuza use as a dumping ground and where suicides are committed. It's also the site where the 731st Japanese Army Corps allegedly worked on a bacterial weapon during World War II.

In no time at all, betrayal breaks out amongst the trio, the gangsters come after the them to get the stolen yen back, and the undead are swarmin' all over Mt. Ryujin.

It's unfortunate that with such a promising title, the film doesn't really deliver. By my count there are five scenes that feature nudity, but they tend to be rather brief and not particularly hot in any way, shape or form. Director Asao either doesn't know how to film soft-core sex scenes very well or his "heart" just wasn't into it. Since he also wrote the screenplay, he must also bear the blame for a plot that falls way short of its promise. The acting is par for a Japanese direct-to-video (a.k.a. V-Cinema) film, not horrendous, but not particularly good either.

The disc's special features, such as they are, consist of the Japanese trailer for the film, trailers for some other offerings from Switchblade Pictures, and DVD credits.

Girls, Gangsters, & Zombies is not a terrible entry in the sexploitation genre, just a very mediocre one.

ACF Rating: 2 out of 4 stars; fair-to-middling.

For a much better Japanese girls and zombie film, though one admittedly without  gangsters, check out Big Tits Zombie ( a.k.a. Zombie Stripper Apocalypse and Big Tits Dragon) which stars Sor Aoi, another AV superstar.

SMOKEY & THE BUSHIDO - DEKOTORA 2 now available on DVD

Switchblade Pictures

presents

Smokey & the Bushido - Dekotora 2 / Dekotora Gal Nami 2

Directed by Hideo Jôjô

Japan, 2008, 76 minutes

Nami is back again! Yep, that hard-drivin' trucker from Big Bad Mama San is haulin' ass in another adventure. The single disc DVD of Smokey & the Bushido - Dekotora 2 is available today from Switchblade Pictures.

Ayano (left) and Nami prepare to do battle

This time around Nami, again played by Akiho Yoshizawa, has a run in with a figure from her past. Ayano (played by single-moniker actress Asami) was the head of a girl gang at North High at the same time Nami headed a rival gang from West High. The film begins with a black and white flashback (or perhaps it's a dream) of them going at one another on an isolated beach. In a marvelous transition, the film switches to color and the film's present where Nami is sleeping in her track in a parking lot near where the face-off took place. (I can't praise this transition enough, it's so smartly done, a real piece of imaginative and intelligent film-making.)

Nami (left) is confronted by Ayano while other truckers look on

In the here-and-now of the film, Ayano is now a cop and she busts Nami for vehicular violations. Nami's license is temporarily suspended and she has to do roadside cleanup as community service. Fortunately Kikuo (identified as "Loverboy" in the credits and again played by Mustuo Yoshioka) is once again available to help her out.

Ayano (right) insists that the madam of Misako's Room cooperate with her investigation

But Ayano is involved with more than just harassing Nami and other truckers. She's independently investigating serious criminal activities that took the life of someone who greatly mattered to her. These activities include not just drug smuggling, but also prostitution and organ trafficking. And Ayano uses a trick to get Nami to indirectly help her by performing -- of all things -- baby-sitting duties! Of course, no self-respecting kick-ass trucker like Nami is going to remain on the sidelines, so she and Kikuo wind up directly involved in the big take-down.

Nami's dekotora or decoration truck

Like Big Bad Mama San, Smokey & the Bushido is helmed by Hideo Jôjô, and for my money, he's done an even better job with this sequel than in the fine original film. (The English title obviously is a reference to Hal Needham's 1977 Smokey and the Bandit, which starred Burt Reynolds, and its two sequels.) I've already mentioned the terrific transition at the beginning of the film. The obligatory sex scenes are a cut above those in the first one. And the script, which Jôjô co-wrote with Ryo Chris Kaihara, is also a bit more sophisticated this time around.

The disc offers both an original Japanese language soundtrack (with English subtitles) and and English dubbed version. The subtitles are usually in easy to read yellow, but sometimes they are white to make it clear that another character is speaking. Nice touch. Special Features are limited to the original Japanese trailer, some trailers of other offerings from Switchblade Pictures, and DVD credit information.

ACF Rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars; highly recommended as a superior film for its type. It has action, humor, and nudity in a surprisingly well-crafted package. Here's hoping that Switchblade will also be putting out the next entry in the series, Banzai Express! Personally I can't wait to watch more of Nami and her highly decorated truck.

HELLCAGE: INMATE 611 PART 2 available on DVD today

Switchblade Pictures

Presents

Hellcage: Inmate 611 Part 2 / Joshû 611: onna-tachi no gyakushû

Directed by Riichi (a.k.a. Toshikazu) Katsu

Japan, 2007, 77 minutes

Hellcage: Inmate 611 Part 2 (a.k.a. Female Prisoner 611: Revenge of Evils) is available today on DVD from Switchblade Pictures. It's the sequel to Hellhole: Inmate 611, which I reviewed yesterday. Despite the same inmate designation in the title, this second film is not about Saya Mizushima (Akira Kiuchi) at all, but rather focuses on Reika Walka (Harumi Nemoto). Both characters/actresses, as well as almost all of the rest of the cast, were in the first film. Reika is referred to in the subtitles here as inmate number 48, then 42, then 48 again, which is a bit confusing, but relatively inconsequential.

Eri gets some from Masatoshi while Reika is in the slammer

We are treated to three new characters. One is Masatoshi Goto (Wataru Seihodo), a boyfriend of Reika's who wants to break her out of prison with the help of another new character. The third is Eri Hayashi (single-monikered actress Ruka), a friend of Reika's who shoots meth.

The sets are pretty much the same as in the original, cheap-looking even for a direct-to-video film, which both Inmate 611 features seem to be. The formula is also the same: a few sex scenes, none of which involve the main actress. And again there's a point at which the main character -- Reika in this case -- has to spend some time in solitary confinement because of crossing bitchy warden Mikawa.

Reika (left) with Warden Mikawa

But the story and the cinematography in this sequel are a significant cut above the original, which I didn't think much of. The film essentially takes place in two time periods set roughly six years apart, and I felt that director Katsu exhibited more finesse in going back and forth between them than he did in the first film. Even the sex scenes seemed improved. Unfortunately, both films end rather abruptly, as if having reached the seventy-some minute mark meant "that's a wrap."

Japanese men keep their underpants on when they're screwing, at least in the Inmate 611 films

Special Features consist only of trailers of other films from Switchblade Pictures and the disc credits for Hellcage: Inmate 611 Part 2. Fortunately there's no problem with the aspect ratio such as what I experienced with the original.

There is a third film -- Joshû shiiku 611, which I believe translates simply as Inmate 611-- in the series, but at this point I don't know if Switchblade will be putting it out. If it does, rest assured that AsianCineFest will be reviewing it.

The ACF Rating for Hellcage: Inmate 611 Part 2 is 2 out of 4 stars; a fair film, even for its not particularly demanding genre; rather mildly recommended but even that only if you like this sort of thing.

HELLHOLE: INMATE 611

Switchblade Pictures

Presents

Hellhole: Inmate 611 / Joshû 611: onna-tachi no yakata

Directed by Riichi Katsu

Japan, 2007, 75 minutes

The world of women-in-prison is a time-honored guilty pleasure genre. Hellhole: Inmate 611 (a.k.a. Female Prisoner 611: Hell Hole), which was released by Switchblade Pictures on DVD in November, 2013, unfortunately is not a very good addition. 

Saya Mizushima (Akira Kiuchi) is a celebrity who has been sentenced to prison for assault. She had been seeing Ando Yuya (Kentaro Nakakura), the handsome, wealthy young CEO of CyberSector, an IT company. After discovering that he was also getting it on with Takako Sawaguchi (Minami Aoyama) of CyberSector's accounting department, Sayaka lost it and attacked both of them.

Assigned  prison number 611, she refuses to knuckle under to the dictates of Keiko Mikawa (Jaguar Yokota), the female warden and a real bitch. This leads to a lengthy period in solitary after which she is assigned to a cell with four other female prisoners. One of them is Reiko Wada (Harumi Nemoto). She and Saya had at one time been members of "The Ladies," a girl gang. Reiko also had some dirt on one of the male wardens, which she had used to blackmail him into insurinng the parole of another prisoner.

There are a few scenes showing tits and ass. One is the ludicrous "can-can" performed by a new inmate in which she is naked and jumps from one leg to another, the intent being to get anything hidden in her vagina to fall out, he butt already having been subject to a visual search using a flashlight. Another sex scene features simulated intercourse between one of the female prisoners and a male guard.

Sadly, there are no lesbian encounters. Saya, it should be noted, is not one of the prisoners who gets naked. Neither does Kei Mizutani, the Queen of the Japanese B-movies in the '90s, who here plays a rather benign prison guard. It's been awhile since I'd seen her in a movie and I was looking forward to it. However, I was rather disappointed: she didn't have much to do and would probably have been better utilized as the dastardly prison warden played by Yokota.

In fact disappointing is the word that best describes my overall reaction to this film. I don't expect a helluva lot in terms of story, dialogue or acting in sexploitation fare such as this, but even so Hellhole: Inmate 661 was quite a letdown. Even the nudity was rather ho-hum.

The only menu selections on the DVD are for playing the movie or selecting the special features, which are limited to the Japanese Trailer, trailers of other titles available from Switchblade Pictures and the disc credits for Hellhole: Inmate 611. Thus there is no "Setup" option, although the English subtitles can be toggled on and off using the appropriate button on your remote or computer DVD player.

There seems to have been a manufacturing problem in mastering the video. The aspect ratio indicated  on the DVD box is "LB 4:3" but when inserted in various players, the default 4:3 image was squished on the sides, making it necessary to select an aspect ratio such as "Full" or "Wide Zoom," depending on the player and TV input. (I tried it on four players, including a PS3, an older Panasonic DVD player, and my relatively new iMac and found this to be the case on all of them.) On my Sony portable DVD, for example, I had to select the "Full" vs. the "Normal" LCD aspect feature. I can't recall ever encountering this type of annoying problem before; fortunately, experimenting with the various aspect ratio settings was a fairly quick and easy work-around.

ACF Rating: 1 out of 4 stars; poor, not recommended. Switchblade Pictures has put out some decent to very good offerings, but sadly this is not one of them.