Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss (1970) (2025)

Popular reviews

• Review by Lexzilla ★★★ 4

  Seventies psychedelic girl gangs Japan style. Featuring amazing outfits on everyone, knife fights, chases, motorbike rides and musical numbers. I’m not sure how else to explain it, but this film is cooler than it is interesting. Like, the camera work is stylish, the two main women, Akiko Wada and especially Meiko Kaji, both put out strong charisma vibes, the music is hopping and hanging out with the gang seems like it would be a blast. The plot, no so much of one though. That’s a bit tepid. Something about fighting some yakuzas and a boxing much. But it feels intentionally glossed over, as what the movie is really interested in is just hanging out with these women from place to place. And, honestly, I can’t blame them for that.

  
  A Blizzard of Wintery Trash 2024/2025 53. Watch a bikersploitation flick.

• Review by esther ★★★★

  me big gay

• Review by Slig001 ★★★ 1

  First entry in the Stray Cat Rock series. Think violent gangland Neon-lit hang out musical and you wouldn't be too far off. The convoluted plot focuses on a dispute between a girl gang and some Yakuza types over a botched fixed boxing match. The story is never really the focus - the focus is always on swift camera work, slick action and jazzy musical score. It works well on a surface level, though with no depth to the proceedings; it does fall a little flat. Meiko Kaji is always worth watching and she is joined by Japanese pop star Akiko Wada who stars as a tough girl biker chick. There's some good action scenes - knife fights, torture etc, and…

• Review by Realkinoshit ★★★

  While Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss might not be hailed as a cinematic masterpiece, it undeniably radiates a cool, retro vibe that captures the essence of 70s Japanese cinema. Directed by Yasuharu Hasebe, the film’s strengths lie in its music, action, and, of course, the magnetic presence of Meiko Kaji.

  The film’s soundtrack is a standout feature, resonating with the hip and groovy tunes of the 70s. The music not only complements the narrative but becomes an integral part of the film’s identity, contributing to its overall cool and rebellious atmosphere.

  The action sequences, though they may not boast the sophistication of modern choreography, exude a certain style and flair that align with the era’s cinematic trends. There’s a…

• Review by sakana1 ★★★½ 18

  The fact that masculinity has nothing to do with gender is something that's becoming increasingly accepted today, but to see it so central to a movie from 1970 is something else entirely. And yet, Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss is built around Ako (played by statuesque, Korea-born singer Akiko Wada), a badass female biker who is increasingly shown — with great admiration — to embody more traditional masculinity than most of the men in the movie.*

  In her first few scenes, Ako first faces down a dozen men on motorcycles, then plays the role of male protector to a girl gang with which she finds herself connected. Whereas their rivals are supported by an immensely powerful, all-male gang, Ako's…

• Review by Gregor Kreyca ★★★½ 2

  No less than five Stray Cat Rock movies hit theater in Japan between 1970 and 1971. They can be seen as predecessors to the juvenile delinquent and Girl Boss movies that became popular in the following years and are all (more or less) part of the Pinky Violence genre. They also introduced Japan audiences to Meiko Kaji who would soon become a star and icon with the “Female Prisoner Scorpion” movies and Lady Snowblood.

  The Stray Cat Rock movies, as far as I can tell, are not narratively connected and even returning actors like Meiki Kaji and Tatsuya Fuji play different characters. Kaji also plays a supporting part here. The main character is played by Akiko Wada who does a…

• Review by Sean Gilman ★★★★

  Lots of movies have this premise: a lone hero rides into town, gets involved in a fight, takes down the bad guys, then rides off into the sunset. But I don’t know that I’ve ever seen one where every death is basically the fault of the hero. Like, if she hadn’t gotten involved (egging that fighter on, for example), pretty much everyone would have been better off. Sure, that gang fight in the beginning might have gone poorly, but at least Meiko Kaji would probably still be alive. Credit to Akiko Wada for looking supercool while being an unintentional Yojimbo, dooming all the delinquent girls with her calls for motorcycle freedom.

• Review by Bryan Espitia ★★★½

  Meiko Kaji with her cool glasses looking cool. Love the vibes.

• Review by AD917 ★★★★ 4

  It’s been my experience that American bikesploitation movies are never quite as cool as you expect them to be. You go in hoping for outlaw bikers getting into wild brawls and sticking it to the man. And you end up with shaggy hippies getting high and having the lamest orgies ever. But where the Americans fail, the Japanese thrive.

  The first film in Nikkatsu’s Stray Cat Rock series is youthful and rebellious in all the ways that its American counterparts are. And it’s vibrant and exciting in all the ways that those movies generally aren’t.

  Delinquent Girl Boss wastes no time getting the engines revving, the rubber burning, and the gangs rumbling. You’re never more than a few minutes away…

• Review by Gentry ★★★

  “Let’s see who cries first!”

  Nikkatsu Films dipping a toe in the delinquent biker waters. Pop singer Akiko Wada is positioned as the star, but Meiko Kaji outshines her. Ako (Wada) the tall, butch, badass ingratiates herself into a group of girls just as they are having a gang knife battle in a grassy lot between two housing units (which everybody knows is the best place for a pitched battle between two warring adolescent factions).

  Mei (Kaji) is the cool, calm chick with a lame boyfriend that flirts with joining a fascist, death-worshipping paramilitary cult. You can see why all the subsequent films focused on her—Mei oozes flower girl swagger with a bit of mystery underneath her tinted sunglasses. You…

• Review by 👽 Zara 👽 ★★★★½

  if you look up the definition of dyke on a bike in the dictionary you’ll see a picture of akiko wada’s character alongside the words “*borat voice* my wife”

• Review by matt lynch ★★★★

  "You can't take away our freedom or control us with your power!"

  U.S. GO HOME.