Stray Cat Rock: Wild Jumbo was the second of Nikkatsu’s five Stray Cat Rock pinky violence movies. It was released in 1970.
It should be explained that this was not a franchise in the sense that we understand the term today. These were five totally separate movies with the only real connection being that all deal with juvenile delinquents. Meiko Kaji appears in all five movies but playing a different character each time.
The Pelicans are a youth gang of four boys and a girl, the girl being C-Ko (Meiko Kaji). Their deadly rivals are the Seibukai gang. The Pelicans might be juvenile delinquents but they’re pretty good-natured. They’re a bit wild but really they’re just kids looking for some fun.
They do kidnap a girl, but it’s not exactly a kidnapping. They know that one of the Pelican gang members, Taki, has developed a major crush on rich girl Asako (Bunjaku Han). Taki is a bit scared of girls and the other gang members intended the kidnapping as just a way of bringing these two together. They never intended to hurt Asako, and they don’t. In fact Asako is amused rather than scared. And the plan works. Asako and Taki fall for each other, and Asako is soon an unofficial member of the Pelicans.
At this stage Wild Jumbo is almost as lighthearted as an early 60s Annette Funicello beach party movie.
One of the Pelicans is behaving very strangely. He spends every night digging up the grounds of the local high school, much to the bemusement of the other Pelicans. Maybe he’s digging for buried treasure? That is exactly what he is doing, but the treasure he is after (and which he finds) is a cache of very old machine-guns. This is the first hint that the movie might eventually take a slightly darker turn.
Another such hint is the fact that Asako is the mistress of the leader of the Seikyo Society. They’re a kind of quasi-religious quasi-political group and they’re very rich and very powerful. And very dangerous if you get on the wrong side of them. Playing around with the mistress of the top guy could certainly land you in trouble.
Asako has been cooking up a plan that will make the Pelicans very rich. It isn’t legal but she thinks it’s foolproof and Taki agrees. They persuade the other Pelicans to agree as well.
This has now become a heist movie. It seems like it’s going to be a very lighthearted heist movie but in the third act it takes a very much darker turn.
It’s a movie that certainly springs some surprises on the viewer, with not just plot twists but major tonal shifts.
Of course the heist doesn’t go the way the Pelicans had hoped.
Meiko Kaji was not yet a major star but she was on her way. It was during the course of the Stray Cat Rock that her star quality started to become evident. In Wild Jumbo she’s just one of the six principal players. She would go on to play some very dark rôles so it’s interesting to see her here in a much lighter rôle, and handling it well. C-Ko is a nice fun-loving girl.
There is some violence in this movie but it’s not the slightest bit graphic. The shock value of the violence comes from its unexpectedness. There’s absolutely no sex and no nudity. This movie came very early in the pinky violence cycle. Later movies in that cycle would ramp up the violence, sex and nudity rather spectacularly.
In fact Wild Jumbo is so tame in those areas that some might question whether it really qualifies as a pinky violence film.
Arrow have released all five Stray Cat Rock movies in a Blu-Ray set. It’s a very welcome set. Prior to this very few pinky violence movies were available on DVD or Blu-Ray in English-friendly versions. Wild Jumbo gets a very nice anamorphic transfer.
The five Stray Cat Rock movies are all different and Wild Jumbo has quite a different feel compared to the first movie, Delinquent Girl Boss.
Stray Cat Rock: Wild Jumbo isn’t one of the great pinky violence movies but it has a certain quirky quality which I found rather appealing. Recommended.
If you’re new to the pinky violence genre you’re better off starting with something more typical, such as Girl Boss Revenge (1973).
