The Vintagent Classics: Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss

STRAY CAT ROCK: DELINQUENT GIRL BOSS (1970)

Run Time: 1:20:00
Producer: Hori Production, Nikkatsu
Director: Yasuharu Hasebe
Writer: Hideichi Nagahara
Key Cast: Akiko Wada, Meiko Kaji, Kôji Wada

FILM MAKERS

Stray Cat Rock: Female Boss (女番長野良猫ロック, Onna banchō nora-neko rokku) aka Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss, is a 1970 Japanese outlaw “Bōsōzoku” biker film. It is the first entry in the five-film Stray Cat Rock (aka Alleycat Rock) series and was followed by Stray Cat Rock: Wild Jumbo, Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter, Stray Cat Rock: Machine Animal and Alleycat Rock: Crazy Riders ’71.

The Stray cat Rock series was conceived  by Nikkatsu to compete with Toei’s Delinquent Boss series, which, in turn, had been inspired by Roger Corman’s early outlaw biker film, The Wild Angels (1966). Nikkatsu also meant the film to showcase the popular singer Akiko Wada, and to appeal to her young audience. Co-star Meiko Kaji, however, attracted the most audience attention, and she became the star of the remaining episodes in the Stray Cat Rock series. Nikkatsu regarded Stray Cat Rock: Female Boss as a prototype for a new direction for the studio and its success ensured the studio’s move towards youth-oriented action films.

Director Hasebe and cult screenwriter-director Atsushi Yamatoya wrote the script to Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss. Because of the film’s low budget, the studio gave Hasebe and Yamatoya more creative freedom than was generally the case for Nikkatsu’s staff at this time. Of the distinctive look of the film, Hasebe recalled, “I tried to infuse those movies with the culture of the time. I spent a lot of time visiting places where people hung out. At the time, protest songs were popular, so I included them in the soundtrack. I remember, one day I noticed a big fuss near the west entrance of Shinjuku station. Activists were gathering and protesting against the US-Japanese Security Treaty. These people were like the hippies in the States. I found them interesting. Cinematic. I wanted my film to be this modern.”