Known primarily for her roles in the “Lady Snowblood”, “Stray Cat Rock” and “Female Prisoner” series of films, Meiko Kaji has played her share of reclusive, intense and dangerous women. Stunningly beautiful, but typically with a single purpose in mind – vengeance. The two Wandering Ginza Butterfly films she did in the early 1970s follow a somewhat similar template: Kaji’s character Nami the Red Cherry Blossom won’t stand for injustice and follows through with righting it, but she does it this time with a little less violence and blood splattering. Until she really, really needs to that is.
As a fan of the lovely Ms. Kaji, I have to admit a great deal of bias up front for her presence in any film. It’s particularly hard to be objective during much of Kazuhiko Yamaguchi’s 1971 film (called simply Wandering Ginza Butterfly), because Kaji turns on the charm and – this may surprise devotees of the previously mentioned films – she smiles. Her cheekbones get some decent screen time while she is given more room to actually act and respond somewhat naturally to the other characters. The first sequence of the film shows us a kinder and gentler Kaji as a new inmate gets tossed into a women’s prison cell and immediately demands to be given preferential treatment. Nami steps in and defuses the entire situation with a simple welcoming gesture and gains the upper hand. She introduces herself as a wanderer and we gradually begin to discover her history.
