Japanese Title: Kyofu Joshi Koko – Boryoku Kyoshitsu
Director: Norifumi Suzuki

The first installment of the Terrifying Girls High School series, Women’s Violent Classroom, is the weakest, a relentlessly mean-spirited yarn with little of director Norifumi Suzuki’s trademark outlandishness on display until late in the narrative. Even usually supercharged Miki Sugimoto as the thoroughly nasty delinquent boss fails to register much on the jolt meter. But Reiko Ike’s charismatic portrayal of a super-intelligent teen orphaned by the murder/suicide of her parents is an astonishingly matter-of-fact performance that truly embodies the essence of cool without flashy emotional pyrotechnics. Her character is schizophrenically divided between playing classical piano and acting-out as a yakuza lone wolf. Her refusal to knuckle under to her lecherous guardian (Hiroshi Nawa, who is also a head school official) or her bullying rival, Sugimoto, raises the film up out of its programmer status.

©2006 - Chris D.