Sex and Fury
Only twelve minutes intoSex & Fury, our badass heroine Ocho (Reiko Ike) duels a dozen men in the snow with a samurai sword--stark naked! You can bet Quentin Tarentino watched a lot of "Pinky Violence" flicks as he was working onKill Bill. Ocho--gambler, pickpocket, and all-around babe--wants to avenge the murder of her father. She picks up their trail after helping a would-be anarchist assassin escape from the law, only to become embroiled in political machinations with a Western badass gambler/secret agent of dubious loyalty (Christina Lindberg,Thriller:  A Cruel Picture, a.k.a.They Call Her One-Eye). You'd expect a movie like this to have a lot of lurid sequences but no plot to speak of; the particular glory ofSex & Furyis that lurid sequences abound--rape of a virgin, girl-on-girl action, garish spurting blood, a squad of switch-blade-wielding nuns (!)--andit has a coherent (if utterly preposterous) story. Ike, star of similar movies likeFemale Yakuza Tale: Inquisition and Tortureand theGirl Bossseries (all exemplary of the Japanese "Pinky Violence" subgenre), is by turns vulnerable and tough as nails. Her powerful presence liftsSex & Furyabove mere sadistic kicks and gives it an actual emotional core, underscored with psychedelic guitar.--Bret Fetzer