She Cat (1983)

Studio: Impulse

Theatrical Release: December 23rd, 1983

DVD Release: May 7th, 2013

Rating: UnRated

Directed by Shingo Yamashiro

Review by Craig Sorensen

OK, now this is more like it.  Finally we’re getting back into the loony plot territory that Nikkatsu does so well.  While not as visually crazy as the studio’s ‘70s output, She Cat is still damned entertaining.

 The film starts promisingly with a transexual showing up at the OB/GYN office of Mineko Kagami (Ai Saotome).  She needs help in convincing her new boyfriend that he’s gotten her pregnant.  Of course the girls at the office happily oblige.  Everyone later goes to a party at a local bar.  While there Mineko is visited by a mysterious woman who tries to talk to her before a group of thugs open fire in the bar, killing Tommy the transexual.  At this point, we’re off and running.  There’s no point in trying to explain this plot any further, we’d be here all day.  Besides, it’d ruin the surprise.  This thing is filled with twists (to a fault almost) and I guarantee you won’t see them coming.

 After a couple of dour films in the Nikkatsu series it’s nice to finally get to watch something fun again.  Not that the film doesn’t have some more serious ideas floating about.  The film does have pretty liberal ideas about sexual identity.  Mineko is bi-sexual in the film (not that that’s all that surprising in a sex film), her lesbian lover betrays her for a man who are almost completely despicable.  The only male characters that really come out of this looking like decent people are the homosexuals.  I mean, they’re pretty broad caricatures, but they’re fun and they treat the female characters like human beings.

As usual for this series, She Cat looks great on Impulse’s DVD.  Color feels very natural and detail is good for DVD.  The film is in it’s original Japanese mono with optional English subtitles.  The only extra on the disc is a theatrical trailer.  You also get the standard liner notes.  Usually liner notes are the kind of thing that I ignore but for the Nikkatsu series they’re indispensable.

[Rating: 4 Stars]