Stray Cat Rock (Blu-ray) Arrow

The Stray Cat Rock series stars Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood, Blind Woman’s Curse) who with these five films began her reign as the badass action queen of the era.

In these five tales of rebellious youth she stars alongside the gorgeous Bunjaku Han (Love Letter) and Tatsuya Fuji (In the Realm of the Senses). In Delinquent Girl Boss, the girl gang go up against criminal organisation the Seiyu Group, where following a fixed boxing match blood is shed and friendships are tested. In Wild Jumbo, Kaji and the gang get involved in a kidnapping and the robbery of a religious organization. In Sex Hunter Kaji’s girl gang go up against The Eagles, a group led by Fuji where sex and violence erupt over the treatment of ‘half-breeds’. In Machine Animal gang rivalry is once again the focus with two gangs pursuing some LSD pushers looking to move a big score. The series swansong, Beat’71, sees Kaji framed and sent to prison by her boyfriend’s father and with the help of some hippies she strives to be re-united.

Directed by genre veterans Yasuharu Hasebe (Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701’s Grudge Song) and Toshiya Fujita (Lady Snowblood) the films feature a psychedelic mix of girl gangs, bikers, sex, drugs and rock and roll with plenty of ass-kicking to boot, all captured in a delirious mash up of pop aesthetics including split screens, freeze frames, injections of colour, frenetic editing and dizzying angles, making these films a riotous joy from beginning to end.