Ohyaku: The Female Demon (1968) + Quick-draw Okatsu (1969) + Okatsu The Fugitive (1969)

Toei’s late-sixties 'Legends of the Poisonous Seductress' trilogy was in the vanguard of the pinky violence movement. Although not as sexually explicit as later films in the genre, they did boast a more intense eroticism than Japanese audiences were used to, along with head-turning doses of ultra-gory violence. And while most pinky violence films were set in contemporary Japan, the Poisonous Seductress trilogy unfolds during the Sengoku, or warring states period (between the 15th to 17th centuries), familiar to viewers of such Kurosawa epics as Seven Samurai. The period setting, with its political context of intrigue and upheaval, contributes to the films’ unique atmosphere and provides a down-to-earth contrast to their over-the-top visual aesthetic.

This particular trilogy is also unusual in that the films are not linked sequentially and that in each outing star Junko Miyazono plays a different character. Each of the film’s narratives, however, set Miyazono off on a violent revenge quest after being forced to watch loved ones tortured to death while undergoing sexual violation by a depraved, power-hungry magistrate. The rape scenes, while disturbing, are invariably filmed with restraint. The torture sequences, however, are gleefully depicted in full horrific detail.

The films are all take place in the feudal period, so there’s also plenty of swordplay on show. The blade-on-blade action is expertly choreographed, and Miyazono slices and dices her way through dozens of bad guys with considerable panache. Miyazono was a gifted if underrated actress, and is a big reason for the films’ success. In addition to her commanding onscreen presence, she conveys a fundamental humanity no matter how bloody her vengeance trail becomes.





In Female Demon Ohyaku (1968), the series’ first film, Miyazono plays a somewhat disreputable tightrope artist who supplements her income by posing as a prostitute to separate fools from their money. Such a charmed life can’t last forever, however, and things quickly go downhill when she falls for a dashing thief and helps him hijack a government gold shipment. Personal betrayal leads to Ohyaku’s capture by a corrupt political official, followed in short order by torture, rape and banishment to the evocatively named Sado Island penal colony. Ohyaku somehow repels the advances of the depraved inmates while using her sexual wiles to manipulate various warders into helping her escape. Once free, she sets out to stick it to The Man in her inimitable bloodthirsty style. Filmed in stark black and white, Female Demon Ohyaku is arguably the strongest entry in the series, with bravura performances from Miyazono and the supporting cast, brilliantly staged swordplay, and an unsettling Grand Guignol atmosphere.












Quick Draw Okatsu (1969) serves up much more of the same in richly saturated color (the better to enjoy the unrestrained bloodletting) and with an enhanced revenge quotient. This time around Miyazono plays Okatsu, the beautiful, sword-savvy daughter of a fencing-school master. When Shiozaki, the local political jackal, comes sniffing around to ask for hand in marriage, Okatsu’s father bluntly refuses him. Shiozaki, who’s otherwise engaged in fleecing the local farmers, promptly connives to saddle Okatsu’s brother with a massive gambling debt so her father will be forced to sanction the unholy union. When he still won’t play ball, Shiozaki consigns him to a harrowing fate while taking his pleasure from a reluctant Okatsu. She later escapes with the aid of Rui, an enigmatic female drifter who’s equally skilled with a sword—and who runs around in a period-defying mini-skirt! Having escaped the frying pan, Okatsu is dropped into the fire, being drugged and sold into prostitution by the sleazeball couple that murdered her brother. It’s now way past time for some Big Payback, so Okatsu and Rui begin carving their way through Shiozaki’s lackeys until Okatsu finally corners the craven coward and serves him his just deserts.












Miyazono again plays a character named Okatsu in the final installment, Okatsu the Fugitive (1969), as the devoted daughter of parents who are put to death for refusing to release a document that could send a venal merchant to prison. Okatsu’s father undergoes a diabolical water torture (one that resonates with uncomfortable currency) before going to meet his maker. Her mother is also maltreated and dispatched to the afterlife. Okatsu suffers numerous trials of her own as her vendetta plunges her into a criminal netherworld where treachery is the only constant. She eventually enlists the aid of a virtuous and virtuoso young samurai to set things right. Once again, there’s enough hack-and-slash action to satisfy even the most jaded swordplay fan. And while the presence of a group of calculatedly cute orphans threatens to inject an unwelcome note of sentimentality, the climactic showdown above a bottomless drowning pool, in which Okatsu pushes her demon of revenge persona to its furthest limits, ends the film on a most satisfying and blood-curdling note.

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