From The Deuce
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Stray Cat Rock: Machine Animal poster
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Also Known As
- Nora neko rokku: Machine Animal
Main Details
- Released in 1970
- Colour
- 82 min
- 2.35:1
- Nikkatsu
Cast and Crew
- Directed by Yasuharu Hasebe
- Assistant Director: Noboru Tanaka
- Art Direction by Akiyoshi Satani
- Written by Ryuzo Nanishi
- Music by Akihiko Takashima
- Edited by Mutsuo Tanji
- Cinematography by Yoshiro Yamazaki
- Still Photography by Yuji Meguro
- Produced by Masami Kuzu and Hiroshi Hujinami
- Starring Meiko Kaji, Tatsuya Fuji, Jiro Okazaki, Eiji Go, Yuka Osashi, Sari Takama, Noriko Kurosawa, Mako Ichikawa, Bunjaku Han, Toshiya Yamano, Masami Maki
Comments
Meiko Kaji and the alleycats try to help two US army deserters to flee to Sweden in yet another entertaining if not quite excellent Stray Cat Rock film. Director Hasebe has taken a brighter approach (despite dealing with subjects like LSD) after the grim and dark third film. Music and club scenes are firmly included, and Kaji also gets to sing a little bit. By now she had firmly established her position as the star of the series. Nevertheless, here her role is not quite as strong here as last time, perhaps because the main plot doesn’t directly concern her character. The most interesting actor in the film is actually Tatsuya Fuji, the male lead of all Stray Cat Rock films. After his ultra vicious racist performance in
Sex Hunter he appears almost unrecognizable in the opening scene of Machine Animal as a bullied average man. The villain is played by the ever reliable future Toei bad guy Eiji Go. Han Bunjaku returns to the series after one film break as Go’s girlfriend. Unfortunately her small role in not much to get excited about. The closing scene is quite unexpected, not entirely satisfying but refreshingly different.
-Hung Fist
