Wandering Ginza Butterfly (1971)

This is an interesting movie about a woman named Kami.  When we first meet her she is in prison and we see that she is stunned when a woman comes to ask for leniency on her sentence.  She gets out after 3 years and heads back to her old neighborhood.  After getting a job as a hostess at a local bar she begins secretly giving money to an ill woman, who is the same person that got her sentence reduced.  Later we find out she is the wife of the man that Kami was in prison for killing.  Also Kami befriends the owner of the club where she works and makes friends with a couple of friendly hustlers.  When the local Yakuza try to take the woman’s club and kill one of her new friends she is forced to return to her violent ways to deal with them. 

I know that this movie has a mixed reputation with fans of Meiko Kaji, who plays Nami and was also in a ton of other great movies (Lady Snowblood series comes to mind).  Unlike many of those other movies Wandering Ginza Butterfly isn’t filled with fight sequences or lots of action.  But what it does have going for it are a lot of interesting characters, including that of Nami, which drive the story.  The idea here is that Nami is trying to change her ways and does everything possible to avoid violence.  The character has guilt over the man she killed, who had a family that has shown her kindness.  For me that is the whole point of the movie and I really got a kick out of it.  She even tries to settle the dispute with the Yakuza gang over a game of pool, which is a great sequence.  It is only after they refuse to honor the bet and kill her friend that she finally snaps and goes back to her violent ways.  There is even a great scene with her visiting the man’s family one more time before she heads off to deal with the Yakuza. 

Now the last 10 minutes of the Wandering Ginza Butterfly is what most of the fans were expecting.  You get an extended fight scene where limbs are flying and the arterial spray is covering the walls.  The guilty parties get what is coming to them and Nami sees to it that her friends will be okay.  The fight is choreographed very well and incorporates both the traditional swords as well as firearms.  It isn’t the best fight that I’ve seen in a Samurai or Yakuza movie, but it does work well as the payoff to the movie. 

I found this to be a very interesting movie with the traditional themes that I’m familiar with from Samurai films.  But the “modern” setting of the early 70s is combined nicely with the things that I’m used to.  Just seeing the groovy clothes and music next to the more traditional Japanese stuff was a trip.  In the end I just dug the setting and was interested in the characters and story enough that I really didn’t miss the constant sword and gunplay that dominates most Yakuza or Samurai movies.  I liked Wandering Ginza Butterfly and recommend it.  For more information check out the Synapse website at http://www.synapse-films.com/

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2009 John Shatzer