You won’t find more lurid style on a dozen vintage pulp paperback covers than you will in this oddball Japanese gang war tale. Hyperactive director Teruo Ishii loves the middle of the frame and all four of its corners, as well as its background and foreground. He loves to compose it filled with an actor’s face and he loves to split it up into complex war zones of mirrors and doorways. In blood-red ink, Ishii helps write the book on classic 70s grindhouse cool here. There are directors today who still chase after this style. Ishii’s secret weapon is that he handles this crime story like a horror director. He was clearly eating the same forbidden fruit as the Italians at the time, as Ishii’s post-mortem scenes are pure giallo. His corpses are works of art, bizarre, carefully composed and perfectly lit. Further adding to the offbeat feel is that its pivotal characters are all women. Three gangs are at each others’ throats here, but the most intriguing one is lead by the iconic Meiko Kaji (later of Lady Snowblood). Her arch enemy is a blind assassin (Hoki Tokuda, real-life wife of Henry Miller!) who’s so cool that she lowers the temperature of your room about five degrees when she’s on screen. She’s stone-faced, flawless with a blade and determined to cut Kaji to shreds over an old grudge. Even the hardest gangsters here are afraid of her.