Wandering Ginza Butterfly

Meiko Kaji plays a Ginza bar hostess with a criminal past, trying to right the wrongs of her previous life while staying out of trouble with the yakuza. There's plenty of melodrama, a lengthy game of billiards, plus a few wonderful moments of the usually stern Kaji doing light humor, but this flick is disappointingly short on action. The final reel is dominated by a bloody sword massacre, but you've got to wait a long time to get to it.

Was expecting an exploitation flick actually, but turns out I was mistaken. Anyway, it's a pretty straightforward story of revenge. It has some nice stuff going on though. First of all, it shows Meiko Kaji (of "Lady Snowblood" and "Female Convict: Scorpion") in a more human, animated light. Also, there's a pretty good pool scene. There's some solid performance from the main casts. Violence is pretty minimal, and the pace is quite slow in the beginning. But overall, pretty good.

This felt quite old fashioned after the Stray Cat Rock series. It's directed in a traditional style and lacks the visuality or energy of other Kaji films like Lady Snowblood or Sasori. It has a low budget feel and never rises to the same level as those films. It's surprisingly tame considering the subject matter which makes the few minutes of bloody mayhem towards the end really stand out. Still worth a watch for fans of Kaji as she gets to display her acting range. Plus points for pool scene.