Rika 2: Lonely Wanderer (1973)

Just perfect...

A lot of fun.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This film begins with Rica (Rika Aoki) breaking out of reform school with the help of a friend. While she is in hiding a young woman named "Midori" (Michiko Murato) comes to her and tells her that her another friend named "Hanako" (Masami Souda) is in great danger and needs her help. Upon attempting to obtain more information Midori is shot and killed. This leads to a chase where Rica pursues the assassin and when she finally overtakes him a fight ensues which results in the man killing himself before she can force any information out of him. Knowing only that Hanako is in Misawa, she takes the first train there but along the way several attempts are made upon her life by the Shimamura Gang of the Yakuza. However, as it so happens all of them are unsuccessful partly because of a mysterious stranger who appears at the most convenient times. But once she gets to Misawa she discovers that there is more to the mysterious disappearance of her friend Hanako than meets the eye—and she has now become a target as well. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that--despite the obvious anti-Americanism featured--this film turned out to be fairly interesting due in large part because of the continuous action and the in-depth plot. On the other hand, there were a couple of scenes involving an unarmed Rica defeating her opponent in a gun battle which seemed a bit too unrealistic. But that's Hollywood for you…or at least the Japanese equivalent of it. In any case, although it wasn't a great film by any means, I still enjoyed it and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

I was wrong, I am not through yet with this director, the one who made the film I comment now, and the same who gave me the movie commented one hour ago. Japanese crap at its worst. OK there is no real boredom here, no length, only action, bloody violence, but all this doesn't fill up this feature destined for silly audiences, idiots. I ordered these films only because I did not know this film maker, but now it's done. No more, I promise. Here you have females involved with gangs, macho gangs, with all that means in terms of violence and he men attitudes. Plenty of gratuitous violence, the same you have in Italian seventies crime flicks, but here no emotion at all. That changes from everything I saw from Japan all over the years.