The Bamboo Gods Project: Onna Rambo (1991)

1991 - Onna Rambo/女ランボー (JVM [Japan Video Movie Co Ltd])

[Japanese production filmed entirely in the Philippines; English title on advertising material "Lady Ramboh: Kill You! In My Justice"]

Director Ippei Suzuki

Cast Mio Takaki (Miki/Lady Ramboh), Hiroyuki Okita (Nango), Harumi Kai (Shizuku), Tomu Saeba (Shima), Kenji Imai (Japanese Boss), Roosa Tanaka (Eiko), Anthony East (American Boss), Cristina Gonzales (Elena)

ACTION

Review by Paul John Blair (Our Man In Japan)

Japan Video Movie Co. Ltd (JVM) are a company that are known for producing and distributing mostly low-budget, straight-to-video action/yakuza films, porn, video games, and anime. They started off in 1984 as the VHS boom kicked off in Japan and some of the titles that they were involved in are rather impressive such as the cyberpunk classic Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) and the cult horror hybrid Evil Dead Trap (1988). However, with this one they would take the cameras to The Philippines for a shot-on-video actioner featuring a sexy Japanese drug enforcement agent who has bothered a few tips from the legendary Sylvester Stallone character Rambo.

Lady Ramboh: KILL YOU! IN MY JUSTICE. That’s the tagline at least.

Three Japanese drug enforcement agents Miki, Shima and Nango are working in Manila trying to catch a notorious narcotics and prostitution organization ran by an American (Anthony East) and a Japanese mobster (Kenji Imai). One of the agents Miki (Mio Takaki) is a rather sexy and long-legged woman who the organization wants to get rid of. When it is decided that killing her is a bad idea that will only bring the attention of the Japanese G-Men the gang starts an intimidation campaign using snakes in her hotel room bath and a severed pigs head with an image of her younger sister pinned to it as a warning.

The beautiful agent’s younger sister Shizuka (Harumi Kai) and her friend Eiko (Roosa Tanaka) come to visit her in Manila and we are treated to a tourist advertisement as they galivant around town taking photos and riding in taxis waving to people saying “Hi!” in English. It is not long before the gang kidnap Shizuka and Eiko which was the idea of the Japanese mobster but by the time the female agent gets to the poor girls they have already been tied to a mattress, drugged and raped. They even kill poor Shizuka in a slow-motion barrage of squibs.

You just know these tattooed rapist pricks will be hunted down.

You wonder why would the organization be so brutal but we see at the start of the film that Miki had interrupted one of their big drug deals going on bizarrely at an outdoor birthday party. The agent along with her male counterparts slaughter the partygoers in an impressive action sequence. Actually, you might notice that this film, despite being low budget and shot on video, does genuinely have some great action that is well-choreographed yet clichéd.

The opening of the film actually uses a montage of the action that is to come later in the story which has some serious fucking spoilers including Predator-style machine guns with rocket launchers attached and some very nice leather boots and skimpy tops. It plays out like a trailer that shows you all the best parts from a film leaving nothing to the imagination.

What is the fucking connection to Rambo?!

Our agent Miki becomes Lady Ramboh as she heads out to the jungle for an obligatory training scene and some sexy change of clothes. She will tool up and take on the entire organization who have at their disposal a reasonably sized paramilitary group out there in the sweaty wilderness. Armies aside, the organization has also hired their very own Filipina femme fatale Elena (Cristina Gonzales) to assassinate Lady Ramboh.

May the war of who has the sexiest outfit commence.

It is revealed that this hit woman for hire was once a squeeze of Lady Ramboh`s fellow agent Nango (Hiroyuki Okita) who ends up duking it out with knives with her in the jungle before she asks him to “don’t leave me like this” and he commits a mercy killing on her. She didn’t look that bad in shape but he executes her all the same.

Once this daft subplot is out the way the action kicks off big style. The film then forgets it is supposed to be aping Rambo but ends up an extended pyrotechnic Commando rip-off. This is another surprisingly well-filmed and choreographed action piece that’s lifts actual scenes and framing from the 1985 Arnold Schwarzenegger classic.

Did I mention that Lady Ramboh performs all this in a black headband, a leather studded bra, black knickers with a tasseled mini skirt, and thigh leather boots? She also has some impressive artillery as she destroys every single man in khakis.

For a shot-on-video 90s Japanese action film made by such a company as JVM it is pretty impressive stuff. They could have easily just made another erotic film with the talent on offer but they decided to actually put some effort into the action scenes to accommodate the stolen soundtrack that is from some1970s Italian cop film. Lady Ramboh has a little bit of everything and isn’t just a simple Rambo rip-off in the way that Bruno Mattei`s Strike Commando (1987) was. For that reason, its well worth your time if even for just the eye candy.

When the film was made The Philippines was basically a state of siege and was at the tail end of a bloody coup that caused almost 100 deaths including half of them civilians.

The film also sports an interesting cast:

Veteran character actor Kenji Imai must have been hard up for some cash as he appears as one of the main bad guys performing in heavily accented English as he engages with his non-Japanese co-stars. To list the Japanese cult films that he has featured in as a villain would be exhausting as he has over 120 titles under his obi.

When she was a model and singer aged 24 years old Lady Ramboh herself, Mio Takaki, actually appeared in an international production which was Liliana Cavini`s 1985 erotic drama The Berlin Affair. She was handpicked in Japan by the controversial female director because of her beauty. This was a largely forgotten film produced by Cannon Films when they went through their disastrous phase of trying to infiltrate the European arthouse scene.

Harumi Kai who plays the sister Shizuka is probably most well known for being the star of the 1990 shot-on-video superhero parody Big Boobs Buster which was actually given a north American DVD release back in the early 2000s. As well as having a short-lived singing career she was also an underwear model.

Roosa Tanaka who plays Eiko was a model who appeared in many swimwear and nude photo books but was also an AV actress. She would feature in another 1991 shot-on-video film called Female Teacher Under the Wet Piano which a home invasion roughie.

Hiroyuki Okita who played the hard drinking womanizing agent appeared in some far superior productions such the modern Ultraman and Gamera films but would sadly commit suicide in 1999 aged 36.

Anthony East who plays one of the drug kings was an American expat who featured in low-budget Filipino cinema.

Cristina Gonzales was a former beauty pageant and actress who actually became a politician and was Mayor of Tacloban. She can now be seen on her Instagram page aged 53 and still looking gorgeous.