Girl Boss Blues: Queen Bee's Counter Attack/Review

Review of Girl Boss Blues: Queen Bee's Counter Attack

Toei’s girl gang evolution continues. The easy going but enormously entertaining Delinquent Girl Boss series came to its end in early 1971. Norifumi Suzuki picks up and takes the genre to the next, or should I say lower, level in Girl Boss Blues: Queen Bee’s Counter Attack. The Sukeban series ran a total of seven instalments between 1971 and 1974, with the first four being helmed by Suzuki. The remaining three went to Sadao Nakajima (5) and Ikuo Sekimoto (6 and 7).

Reiko Ike, who made her silver screen debut earlier in 1971 under Suzuki’s direction in Hot Springs Mimizu Geisha, stars as novice girl boss who gained her position when the previous leader (Yukie Kagawa) was caught by the officials. She now has set her own rules, and when the old boss is returns, a conflict is unavoidable. At the same time the local yakuza (with Toru Abe as the main evil) is causing problems. Also caught in the mix is a reckless motorcycle gang whose leader (Shinsuke Taki) developes warm feelings for the girls.

Suzuki’s talent in combining action, humour and lightweight drama is clearly visible here. Queen Bee’s Counter Attack is hardly a serious film, but it does have its more dramatic moments (often related to Shigeru Amachi’s retired hitman character). By no means does the director consider these elements as important as, say, Reiko Ike’s blue bikini top, but they are there to bring some minor substance to the mix, do it succesfully enough.

For the most part, however, the tongue is more or less in the cheek. When Midori Yamada opens her mouth to sing a farewell song, not does only her voice drastically change but an invisible orchestra accompanies her singing. A classic scene is the infamous sex on motorcycle – first one to come loses race. Action scenes include the usual knife fights as well as some boat action and a couple of car chases toward the end of the film.

As expected, more or less every girl in the film gets nude at some point, if not otherwise then in middle of a fight. Still, despite this obvious attempt to please the male audience it wouldn’t be completely fair to consider Suzuki’s direction sovinistic. In the end, it’s always the male characters that are the real dubasses. They get fucked over back and forth by the girls because of their incapability to think of anything but sex. At worst, it leads to their untimely death.

Reviewed by HungFist 10/22/08