Upon graduation, Mika wrote, directed and two short films in Tokyo with sponsorship from Nikkatsu Studios.
Nikkatsu |
Alleycat Rock: Female Boss was designed by Nikkatsu to compete with Toei's Delinquent Boss series, which, in turn, had been inspired by Roger Corman's early outlaw biker film, The Wild Angels (1966).
Set during the Taishō period, it uses Nikkatsu's superior technical resources to create what Jasper Sharp calls a pink film-style "sumptuous festival of cruelty" portraying the artistic life of the photographer, writer and kinbakushi, Seiu Itō.
Both this film and the earlier (1956) version by Nikkatsu, Crazed Fruit, were based on a novel of the same name by Shintaro Ishihara.
Unusually, rather than making the best of the script afforded him, Suzuki actively encouraged Nikkatsu to purchase the rights to the novel by Takashi Suzuki.
When Akagi died in a go-karting accident, Nikkatsu needed a new action star, and Shishido was selected.
Asabuki studied French and English in college, and joined Nikkatsu to work in their Roman Porno films in 1982, while still attending university.
She had a role in the February 1985 mainstream comedy Capone Cries a Lot directed by Seijun Suzuki who had also started his career at Nikkatsu (but in the pre-Roman Porno era).
This film was made available in North America when Janus Films released a special set of Nikkatsu Noir films as part of the Criterion Collection, also including I Am Waiting, Rusty Knife, and A Colt Is My Passport.
Katori was still acting in supporting roles at Nikkatsu when she appeared in director Satoru Kobayashi's controversial 1962 film, Flesh Market.
Born in Hiroshima Prefecture, he began working at Nikkatsu's Kyoto studio in 1924 and eventually came to prominence for a series of realist, humanist films made at Nikkatsu's Tamagawa studio in the late 1930s such as Robō no ishi and Mud and Soldiers, both of which starred Isamu Kosugi.