Onoda Yoshiki’s Cave Queens (Onna Gankutsu-o) is a standard action thriller, but with a distinctly sexy vibe, supplied by Mihara Yoko and Banri Masayo. They play Rumi (Mihara) Emi (Banri), sisters who dance nightly at the Blue Moon cabaret, which happens be the headquarters of a drug ring.
Offstage, Rumi captivates the gang boss, Iwahara (Emi Shutaro); while Emi attracts the portly club manager, Yajima (Sawai Saburo). Meanwhile their older brother Shinichi (Kuromaru Ryo), a seaman, is unwittingly assisting Iwahara with his drug running.
When Shinichi’s ship is sea-jacked by another drug gang, an outraged Iwahara suspects him of treachery and has him beaten and confined in a dungeon-like basement. Rumi and Emi try to free him, but a gang hitman discovers them - and their attempt ends in failure. Now under suspicion themselves, the girls try to escape, but luck goes against them and they are taken to an island where Iwahara and his crew plan to ambush the rival gang.
In the ensuing dust up, the girls escape to a cave - but are trapped by a cave-in. Given up for dead, they discover a treasure hidden for hundreds of years. But what good will this new wealth do them if they die of thirst and starvation? Frantically, they begin to dig.
As was often the case when Mihara and Banri were on the screen, action takes second place to eros, especially in the opening and closing dance numbers. In the former, Mihara and Banri teasingly perform for admiring males, but in the latter they relentlessly torment one who once had power over them, like she-devils toying with a fallen sinner.
At a time when Hara Setsuko was playing the eternal virgin in the films of Ozu, this sort of sexual power, overtly displayed, carried a charge that made Cave Queens a stand-out, taking the Shintoho brand of eros to a new height of audacity.
Mark Schilling