The fifth and final Stray Cat Rock film finds Toshiya Fujita (who also directed the second installment, Wild Jumbo, but is most famous for making the Lady Snowblood movies) behind the camera. Like Wild Jumbo, Beat '71 isn't about girl gangs. No, here Meiko Kaji and Tatsuya Fuji are members of a hippie commune living in Tokyo. Kaji isn't even in this one all that much, though she's a central character. She spends much of the movie imprisoned with the other hippies attempting to save her. Kaji's boyfriend has been kidnapped by his politician father, who wants to save him from hippiedom, and frames Kaji for murder. She escapes and goes after the boyfriend, but is then captured and imprisoned in the politician's mansion. Eiji Go once again plays the villain, the leader of a gang hired by the politician to keep the hippies away. This is probably my third favorite of the series. Lots of fun stuff here, lots of great music. There is an annoying little kid, an adopted son of one of the hippies, but he isn't too bad, even though he probably has more screen time than Meiko Kaji.
Review of Stray Cat Rock: Beat '71
