Battle Girls Versus Yakuza (2010)

 This is one of those films that has several titles, just so you know. Over here, it's known as 'Battle Girls Versus Yakuza', which is perhaps a misleading title, as 'Yakuza Hunters' makes more sense. Or maybe they should have changed it to singular, because that is what it is. 

Asami is left for dead after a former rival takes over a Yakuza clan, and now she is back for revenge. It all comes to a head when the daughter of a friend is raped and murdered, and then all bets are off. 

Yes, that is the entire film, and to be fair: my description sounds a lot more exciting than the final product. 

Is this a good film? No. But is it fun? Well, that depends.

See, everything about this 'no budget' flick screams an ode to 70s exploitation and grindhouse. The setup of rival girl gangs and two former friends becoming each other's worst enemy, well, that fits. The story itself is pretty perfunctory, as it just works up to a couple of scenes of violence and brutality, even though they are not as spectacular as you would want them to be. Again, thanks to the non-existence of a budget. And yet it all has that certain charm. Sure, the acting between everyone can be enormously uneven, there's not a lot that makes sense and the villain (Junko) overacts beyond belief, whereas our lead Asami barely reacts at all. But there's something here if you like grindhouse stuff. 

Yes, that was hardly a seal of quality, but there are still plenty of grindhouse films that are just fun to watch, as long as you don't expect masterpieces. 

Some of the fight choreography is actually pretty decent. It feels as though especially Asami has had some martial arts training in the past, because she pulls off some moves that look really good. And seeing as they all had to do their own fighting and stunts, you know it's the actors themselves. Some of the fodder characters also take some falls that look pretty bloody painful.

The music is the icing on the cake, because if that doesn't scream 60s-70s, I don't know what does. It sets the tone and in spite of some very slow moments, inconsistencies and scenes that make no sense whatsoever, I can't help but enjoy this little piece of grime. 

It's no masterpiece. Heck, in all fairness: it's not even a good film. But it can be a lot of fun if you go for this sort of thing.