Rica Triology [DVD] [1973] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

If you enjoy watching 70s Black-sploitation films like Coffy, Foxy Brown, and Cleopatra Jones, that featured tough vigilante women, then you'll love the RICA TRILOGY. These were filmed in the early 70s and is part of a genre now known as "pinky violence" films and starred Rika Aoki. She portrays a tough half-White, half-Japanese girl who basically becomes a vigilante to fight against corrupt police and the Yakuza (Japanese mafia). I'm not sure if Aoki really is of mixed ethnicity, but she looks exotic enough to pull it off. And she's not fashion-model-pretty; but like her American counterpart, Pam Grier, Aoki has that interesting look that grows on you.

This DVD set collects all three "Rica" movies: "Rica: The Half-Blood Girl," "Rica 2: Lonely Wanderer," and "Rica 3: Juvenile's Lullaby." Each movie is on its own DVD and comes with menu, scene selection, trailers, English sub-titles and English credits, and stills gallery.

My first encounter with Rika was in a movie theater in Los Angeles, CA, in the 70s. I was a very young child and there was this one movie theater that showed Japanese films called the Kokusai Theater on Crenshaw Blvd. and my mother took me there to see "Half-Blood Rica (aka The Half-Blood Girl)" -- I don't think my mom knew what the movie was about, LOL, or she didn't care since it was from her native Japan, but that movie stayed with me all the way into adulthood. Somehow I always thought the title was "Bloody Rica," but either way I'm glad I found this set.

There's plenty of action in these films, even though the fight scenes aren't as realistic as they could be, but lots of cat-fights and Aoki gets to beat up plenty of bad guys, too! And her outfits are really cool with matching short-shorts, shirt and cape. Of course there's some T & A, but for the most part these films are so out there that they're actually good. I'm sure these were the type of films that inspired Quentin Tarantino.

I think that the first two films are the best, both directed by Ko Nakahira. The third one seems too campy and more comedic than the others and was directed by Kozaburo Yoshimura.

***** DVD 1 - RICA: THE HALF-BLOOD GIRL ****** scene selection, English sub-titles, Stills, Rica Trailers, Trailers - all DVDS
The first film provides a history of who Rica is and how she's from a mixed-race background, although the child they used as little Rica was way too European looking. Anyway, while she's locked away in juvenile hall, Rica's gang is kidnapped by the Yakuza and about to be sold into the sex-slave trade business and shipped off to Vietnam. Rica escapes and has to raise money to get them out. After she gets the money from another mob guy, she gets double-crossed and suddenly she has to work with her nemesis from another girl gang before they all get shipped to Vietnam!

Picture quality is pretty decent and there's lots of action.

***** DVD 2 - RICA 2: LONELY WANDERER ******
Rica goes in search of her friend Hanako, who is Black and Japanese, that she met in the first film, and finds a cover-up going on after a ship that Hanako was on blows up. Everyone she investigates ends up dead and the police are doing nothing to find out what's going on, so it's up to Rica to find out what's going on before she ends up dead, too.

In this film, Aoki gets a love interest, which shows her vulnerable side, and there's a drag queen thrown in the mix, too. Some fight scenes near the end are too dark to see what's going on, but that's my only gripe.

****** DVD 3 - RICA 3: JUVENILE'S LULLABY ****** the English credits on DVD 3 don't list character names, only the actor's names are given.
In this film, Aoki returns and this time with a new hairstyle -- I missed the long pony tail, but she looks better in this film -- and she's still back at reform school. This time she meets a younger girl, with a black mother (although she looks like an Okinawan or a Japanese in really dark makeup) and I believe a Japanese father (we never see him). The girl is kidnapped by a gang, who has a leader that hates Americans and mixed race/half breed Japanese like Rica, and they sell her to a guy who makes porn films.

This film was campier than the others. Not so much with the Rica character, but the gang that kidnaps the girl was more like the keystone cops than a menacing bunch of street thugs. Aoki looks really nice in this movie sporting a shorter, curlier hair-do, and also has another love interest. There's, of course, the rival girl gang and they have to band together in order to get the bad guys. They look great when they escape from a mental asylum in their matching motorcycle outfits (which are supposed to be uniforms) as they steal the cops' motorcycles and speed away.

Anyway, if you're expecting CITIZEN KANE you'll be disappointed but if you're looking for the perfect "B" movie with good acting and lots of action pick-up the RICA TRILOGY set. I don't know why Amazon has the one-movie DVDs on sale individually, but if you bought each one it'll cost you more than three times as much as just buying this set.

We don't get too many Pinky Violence movies here in the states, but these are worth picking up. Really crazy fun action, outlandsish stories, nice picture quality, and of course, sexy naked japanese women!!