Horror Movie Reviews
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Title: Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs (2005) |
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Review of Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs
- Agent Zero (Miki Sugimoto) is a cop that uses her own methods for dealing with criminals. After she unlawfully kills a rapist in a violent fashion, she is sent to prison and stripped of her badge. But very soon after, a rich politician's daughter is kidnapped by a ruthless gang. Agent Zero is let out of prison with the mission of going undercover to find the politician's daughter and return her safely. Using her deadly red handcuffs, she disposes of the criminals one by one. Fast paced and highly entertaining, Zero Woman Red Handcuffs is a 70's exploitation masterpiece.
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Comments for Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs
- Posted on 2008-02-27
This Week Special Includes: 1970's Japanese Blax...no..no..no... Exploitation.
I read that there is a series to this that can never be beat, well I can believe that because originals are hard to surpass. After watching this it blew me away. So much gritty 70s cool and twisted violence, you'll swear that Quentin Tarantino is sitting next to you massaging your thigh. It's full of sex and violence! This isn't sexy or soft-core but a brutal movie not for the delicate. I love vengeance flick and a 70's Exploitation such as this from Japan I just had to see it.
The plot of Zero Woman was resurrected twenty years later for Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita: wildcat is saved from the gallows and forced to become an agent for the top secret Division Zero of the Tokyo police department. Armed with a gun, a badge and a pair of handcuffs that are all as nail polish-red as her skin-tight leather outfit (when she wears it), she is sent to investigate the kidnapping of a politician's daughter by a gang of psychopathic thugs. After infiltrating the gang, she stoically endures several rapes by its members to win their trust and then begins to imaginatively eradicate them one after another in her search for the missing girl.
Zero Woman is cold and calculating and kills without mercy. But there's no chance for you to feel sympathy for the brutal vermin that she exterminates. Though some have referred to this film as feminist, it's more a case of having your cake and eating it too. This results in a generous and a satisfy helping of a seriously stylish sleaze. I can't imagine viewers watching this without subtitles but for years, English speaking fans have had to put up with non-translated versions of this Japanese exploitation classic. Now, thanks to the gang at Discotek, old fans and new are supplied with subtitles so they can read along with the adventure Agent Zero slices, dices, shoots, burns and strangles with her handy red handcuffs, that magically open just wide enough to clamp around a person's neck, anyone she deems worthy enough of some swift justice. Plenty of over-the-top violence and naked bodies to please the hardest core of exploitation junkies.
Score: 4
- Posted on 2007-08-11
A Little Pinky Violence Anyone?
"Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs" is ludicrious in some places, brutal in others. It's always entertaining, though, and it has spawned a flood of "sequels" that in no way match the quality of the original.
You already know the story (or should if you're reading the review), and I must say that the plot is handled fairly well. It may not be the most believable of movies (witness Zero's tossing of handcuffs), but it's got style and a great sense of justice. Zero has a job to do, and she does it. She doesn't cry about it, she makes no apologies. She has to get the girl and kill the victim's kidnappers. We know she does it, but there are enough twists to keep it interesting, and more than enough action to keep even the most attention-span deprived adult riveted to the screen.
The only negative on this film is the price. You don't get any extras worth mentioning, and it should be about $19.00. Since it's a cult classic, however, the price can be jacked up and people will pay it. If you must have it at any price, then by all means purchase this. Otherwise, Amazon has about the best deal I've seen on it lately.
Score: 4 - Posted on 2007-04-06
Leaves an impression Zero Woman rocks!!!
Miki Sugimoto is absolutely gorgeous and strong as Rei, Zero Woman, a different brand of cop that will do anything to put away scum. After she murders, the first secretary of the Embassy whose really a rapist lowlife, she gets put in prison. The President's daughter gets kidnapped and the cops desperate to get her back bring back Rei to do the job they can't do.
Amazingly over the top exploitation mixed with decent acting, a nice soundtrack and special effects. Rei has her moments as well rubbing it to people who really deserve it. She's without pity and compassion and when you see what happens to her you realize why. This is a great guilty pleasure that really needs to be seen. Only five reviews so far? Anybody whose reading this review who hasn't seen it needs to go out and buy it.
Score: 5
- Posted on 2006-07-21
Forget the recent Zero Woman films!
This is THE original and the best Zero Woman. Sugimoto Miki is stunningly gorgeous and right on the mark for some tough girl, raunchy action with sex and madness spliced right in. This is also one of the wildest Yoko Mihara performances. If you like beautiful Asian women(which I love), raunchy sex, arterial spray and action then "Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs" is right up your alley. Buy this along with "The Pinky Violence Collection" and "Sex & Fury" to take a wild ride on Japanese cinema of the 70's. Don't forget her partner-in-crime Ike Reiko(also absolutely gorgeous). If you are not aware, also buy the "Female Prisoner Scorpion" and "Lady Snowblood" films; as Kaji Meiko is ever so captivating. They are not too many films made like this anymore, especially in the U.S., except for maybe "Kill Bill", "Sin City" and "Fight Club". "Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs" is a MUST BUY!!!
Score: 5 - Posted on 2006-02-26
Did anyone notice?
This is a fairly decent release, but the image quality is a bit washed out, and, with little in the way of extras, it suffers in comparison to Panik House's great (and great looking) Pinky Violence releases.
Did anyone notice numerous echoes of Umberto Lenzi's EXCELLENT "Almost Human" ("Milano odia: la polizia non pu? sparare" which translates roughly Milan Hatred: The Police Can't Shoot)? Both films are from '74. IMDb gives "Zero Woman" as being relased in Japan three months before Lenzi's film was released in Italy, but I could swear that the Japanese producers saw the Italian film. The abduction scene here is almost exactly the same scene, right down to the kidnappers mashing thier faces on the windshield - better executed in "Almost Human." Then there is a home invasion, with naked victims strung up in a way that seems to recall the Lenzi picture. (This scene seems a sleazy afterthought in "Zero Woman", but it's a masterful stomach churner in "Almost Human") And the death-in-the-garbage finale: Lenzi uses just enough trash to make his point, but Yukio Noda stages his climactic massacre in a stylistically impressive landscape of debris. Add to that the way both films make much of the fact that the cops aren't allowed to just blow away bad guys. ("Dirty Harry" came out in '71.) While "Zero Woman" is enjoyably sleazy camp fun (albiet with a definite nasty streak), "Almost Human" is a truly disturbing and effective picture with perhaps Tomas Milian's best ever performance as an odious lowlife scumbag with just enough personal charm to be scary. Check it out.
Miki Sugimoto smoulders admirably here in a performance that might remind you of Meiko Kaji's Scorpion - short on talk, long on a$$ kikin'. However, Sugimoto's Zero is even more economical - preferring to remain stationary while most of the characters kill each other off, then springing into action after the cast has been whittled down to practically nothing.
More pervy, bloody babe-a-licious fun from Toei.
Score: 3