Scarecrow-88 This time Miki Sugimoto is the star and Reiko Ike takes the secondary lead female role. Sugimoto stars as Massayo, the daughter of a murdered alcholic/addict by powerful Yakuza boss, Obi(ôji Hayama), sent to prison when she attempts to kill him in a club. Ike is Maki, Obi's squeeze, in prison she meets Massayo and they become respected "adversaries." Massayo befriends other inmates and they partner up after serving their time, vowing to take down Obi's organization by causing a Yakuza war between him and another inferior gang, the Hamayasu clan who operate the docking port of the city. Massayo prostitutes herself to Americans exchanging sexual favors for artillery, concocting a weapons trade with old man boss Hamayasu's volatile son, Tetsu(Takeo Chii). Maki is back around Obi's arm and warns Massayo of clearing out of town, or else. The rest of the film shows how Massayo and her clever female clan rip apart the two Yakuza gangs by pitting them against each other, while also shedding some blood themselves in the process. And, you can better believe Maki and Massayo will have one more confrontational showdown when so much money and dope are at stake.Fans of pinku revenge crime flicks get their moneys's worth with CRIMINAL WOMAN:KILLING MELODY. As expected nudity and ultra-violence are in abundance with lots of gunfire and Yakuza gangsters blown to smithereens. It's always entertaining seeing a motley group of gorgeous females waging war with the Yakuza, using their brains and looks to gain an advantage. You get a rather mild torture sequence this time around as Massayo is rescued from a rather grim fate by Maki. Chii's bonkers Tetsu(..always with a large bottle of liquor, downing it before shooting at somebody or raising hell against Obi)is hilarious as are the instances where animated Yakuza gangsters are either lifted in the air by dynamite/grenades or shot to pieces by bullet-fire. We get not one but TWO hand-to-hand combats between Sugimoto and Ike(..the first in prison, testing each other's endurance, is a dandy)which it in itself is added incentive for pinku fans to check this flick out. Plenty of bare flesh between Ike and Sugimoto as well. It was nice seeing Sugimoto this time getting to star as the lady of vengeance and when she stares you down with death in her eyes..LOOK OUT! Nothing more dangerous than Sugimoto scorned! Ike may not have the lucrative role here, but she's still looking mighty fine. As expected, the pace is excellent(..the editing and camera work are first-rate)and action set pieces thrilling. And, as you'd expect, nearly everyone is dead by the end of the film.

EVOL666 CRIMINAL WOMAN: KILLING MELODY isn't my favorite of the PINKY VIOLENCE box-set...but it's still a great film. I honestly haven't seen a pinky film yet that wasn't entertaining and full of what I like to see, namely - tits-and-ass, violence, and a decent storyline. This entry is a lot more straight-forward than some of the others (which will be a plus to some - I personally dig the more "intricate" story lines...) and will definitely be of interest to any pinky fans out there.Maki's dad was killed by the local Oba yakuza clan. Maki took revenge by trying to kill the leader but only ended up stabbing a henchman. She's sent to jail, and on her release still has plans for vengeance against the Oba leader. Hooking up with some of her old "girl-gang" pals, she hatches a plan to pit Oba's crew with another local yakuza clan for her own ends...KILLING MELODY has all the requisite things that pinky fans crave. Tons of hot nekkid Asian women and a good bit of violence. Again, the storyline was a little to simple for my taste, but the film is still enjoyable as a whole. If you've dug the other entries in the box-set or are a pinky fan in general, you'll wanna peep this one too...7.5/10

christopher-underwood Fine all action, sex and violence Japanese style with real style. Simple yet effective this is, for once, a fairly straight forward tale of revenge with the super women to the fore. Big cat fight at the start is matched by a rematch at the end and everything in between is just pure fun. Bits of nasty violence, the cigarette stub and threat of chainsaw were surprises but mainly fast moving with decent mix of s&v. Nice sequence to illustrate our heroine having to go on the game to earn the dosh to set up the action. Instead of any boring build up with sad undertones we get a quick montage of humps and payments from US soldiers uniform pockets.

division1656-1 I managed to see an advance of this film, as a part of Panik Houses' "Pinky Violence" box set, and of the four films included this is by far the best. Watching Reiko Ike and her crew ruthlessly pit Yakuza gangs against each other and the gangs' blindness to the idea that a crew of women could be behind their destruction is amazing.The basic setup is that Reiko Ike is a vengeance seeking ex-con, who originally was sent up for trying to murder the Yakuza boss who drove her father to ruin and death, and had her gang-raped. While in prison she befriends a crew of three other women, put away for crimes ranging from prostitution to motorcycle theft, and upon her release gets back to the serious business of vendetta. This involves her whoring out to American soldiers and using her new "business" connections and money to buy a lot of guns and grenades. She and her crew then begin to align the two local Yakuza clans (Oba and the formerly dominate Hamayasu) against one another, trying to instigate a full-scale gang war in which the gangs kill each other off. Serving as arms dealers and instigators to both sides Reiko and her crew ratchet up the violence, preying on the gangs' arrogance and paranoia. There's a great turn from Takeo Chii as Tetsu "Mad Dog" Hamayasu, the son of the aging Hamayasu boss, who swigs from a full bottle of saki while playing pool, shooting people, and setting fire to carloads of gangsters.Eventually a snag arises when the Oba boss's girlfriend (Miki Sugimoto) recognizes Reiko and her gang from back in prison and realizes what they're up to. She's torn between her loyalty to the gang and, inexplicably, a desire to help her former prison-mates. She tries to warn them off of their vendetta, but ultimately helps set up her lover and his crew. The gang war itself is amazing, particularly the set piece at Hamayasu's offices, where Oba and his mob storm the building with machine guns, while old Boss Hamayasu himself, dressed in traditional robes, fights them with nothing but a Samurai sword. It's one of those old school Yakuza scenes that hearkens back to, well, pretty much every Samurai movie ever made. Boss Hamayasu is killed, naturally, but goes out with a lot of the Oba clan's foot soldiers cut to ribbons.Naturally the whole film ends with a massive shootout where everyone that's not female dies.One unexpected aspect to the film is it's circular path. It opens with a knife fight between Reiko Ike and Miki Sugimoto in jail and ends with a recreation of the same fight after the death of Miki's lover, Boss Oba. The circular nature of the tale is fairly subtle, but it's easy to see how it can be a meditation on the way that vengeance simple begets more vengeance.Oh, and there's this bit where Reiko almost gets her breasts cut off with a chainsaw, but gets a cigarette put out on her nipple instead. That's gnarly. Which is probably what you want from a Sukeban exploitation film. You won't be disappointed.