Ike Reiko

Reiko Ike (池玲子) was still in her late teens when she was "discovered" by Japan's Toei Studios (stories of her "discovery" are inconsistent, ranging from being scouted in a nightclub to being spotted as a model). Along with Miki Sugimoto she was Toei's top sex star throughout the 1970's, and the focus of the "sukeban" or female girl boss phenomenon of 70's Japanese cinema. Beginning with Girl Boss Guerilla (Sukeban Gerira, 1972), Ike made 12 films, almost all in the Pinky Violence/Yakuza Girl genre. Despite real life trouble with the law, being arrested once for drugs and once for illegal gambling, she worked throughout the decade appearing in at least two of Kinji Fukasaku's "Battles Without Honor & Humanity" (Jinginaki Tatakai, 1973 - 1979) series. He last film before disappearing from the public eye was The Golden Dog (Ogon No Inu, 1979). The bulk of her work was for Toei in 1973, when she appeared in the films Sex & Fury (Furyo Anego De: Inoshika Ocho, 1973), Girl Boss (Sukeban, 1973), Terrifying Girls' High School: Lynch Law Classroom (Kyôfu joshikôkô: bôkô rinchi kyôshitsu, 1973), Criminal Woman: Killing Melody (Zenka onna: koroshi-bushi, 1973) and Sex & Fury's sequel Female Yakuza Tale: Inquisition and Torture (Yasagure anego den: sôkatsu rinchi,1973). This rush of films established her as a major sex icon in Japan and created a tabloid rivalry with follow Toei contact player Miki Sugimoto, who was her co-star in several films. The recent reissues of Sex & Fury and Female Yakuza Tale, along with the release of a Pinky Violence box set, collecting her films Terrifying Girls School, Criminal Woman, and Girl Boss Guerilla, as rekindled her cult following. This particular lady named Ike Reiko was only a mere 17 years of age when she recorded this record, and was already a star in the world of Japanese erotic movies. Yup in that age old tradition of lying about your age, Miss Reiko did it to slide her way into the seedy world of porn – not exactly buying a packet of fags and a 6 pack of Strongbow is it? Apparently these movies were somewhere in-between the girl-gang revenge movies of the Blaxploitation era and the Women in prison style savage eroticism and dubbed ‘Pink Violence’, with tooled up honeys wearing just little enough to bare their ample breasts while they laid waste to the enemy (men?). I can’t say I’ve managed to track down any of these movies but after reading about them I feel almost duty bound to observe them closer, I mean it’s my job as a reviewer surely to make sure I have as much background as possible is it not? Funnily enough then, with all the tough-gal image the music is pretty darn life-affirming, but don’t think for a second you’re getting an easy listening album here – this is about as sexual as music can get. Throw ‘French Kiss’ out of the window and kiss goodbye to your Serge Gainsbourg records goodbye, Ike Reiko is more sizzling than a branding iron as it makes it’s mark on the farmer’s herd. The sex is literally dripping from every note on this record – I’m told that the style is ‘Iroke Kayôkyoku’ or erotic kayôkyoku (kayôkyoku being a style of Japanese pop) but the sort of naïve jazz and pseudo spy theme movie music is all draped in a shroud of sexual shouts, screams and coos from the clearly excited Reiko. from http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=25408 and http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0407409/bio Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.