Wednesday, January 30, 2008

野良猫ロック・マシン・アニマル/ Stray Cat Rock: Machine Animal

(Movie Review)

And onto the 4th movie in the "Stray Cat Rock" series. (I've decided I made it this far, I might as well work my way through the whole project. 4 down, 1 to go).

Meiko Kaji and her girl gang are back in another installment. (Although once again there's no continuity between these films. They're just similar themed movies made by the same company).
This time around the girls run into a trio of drug dealers. They initially harass and attempt to steal from the dealers, but the girls become more sympathetic once they realize the drug dealers are really soldiers who are trying to escape from the Vietnam War.
This is slightly confusing because two out of the trio of drug dealers are obviously Japanese, and Japan didn't send any soldiers to Vietnam. I think they're supposed to be playing Japanese Americans, but I'm going to have to admit that because there are no English subtitles on this DVD, my limited Japanese sometimes causes me to miss some of the plot points.
(The 3rd soldier, although constantly referred to by the rest as White or a foreigner, looks to my eyes almost Japanese. The character only speaks in English the whole movie, although the actor who plays him apparently has a limited command of the language).

Things get into trouble when the rival male motorcycle gang tries to steal the LSD. Then begins a series of double crosses, kidnapping, hostage exchanges, and (of course) motorcycle chases.

I hope I'm not giving anything away by saying it has a bit of a tragic end, but of all these Stray Cat movies there hasn't been one with a happy ending yet. If you've made it this far in the series, you're not really expecting much in the way of happy endings.

The music for this movie is great. Although the whole series is famous for it's music, (and for characters breaking into song spontaneously, in a delightfully cheesy way) this movie seems even more crammed with music than the rest of them. There's plenty of great bubble gum psychedelic pop songs mixed throughout.

Link of the Day
Alternative Reporting on Bush's State of the Union

Stray Cat Rock: Machine Animal: Movie Review (Scripted)

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