New Hotwax titles announced!

Hello my fellow fans of Japanese Cinema and TV music!

I just saw on the Ultra.net site that there are 3 new Hotwax "Composer Series" titles to be released on Feb 23! Although I didn't recognize the films on two of the discs, all three feature the music of of Kaburagi So, including another (?!) Stray Cat Rock Sex Hunter disc! Let's hope this time they have the complete score with maybe the missing cues that were absent from the bonus disc that came with the "Queens of Japanese Cinema" book!

Since we're on the subject of "Sex Hunter", I recently got a copy of the brand new "Sengoku Rock: Woman Warriors" DVD from Japan, and I noticed while watching the film that a few background cues were lifted from the score of "Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter"! For those that have never heard of the film, it is a 1974 Nikkatsu "Roman Porno" film that mixed Samurai period piece with the tradmark of mid-70's Nikkatsu films: softcore porn (actually not any more pornographic than the "pinky violence" films of the same era). According to "The Japanese Cinema Essential Handbook" by Thomas Weisser, the "Naked Seven" (the US title of the film) "...in Japan was appreciated as a double parody: 1) Of course as a cockeyed homage to...the Seven Samurai; and also 2) as a loosely based sequel to director Hasebe's Stray Cat Rock series that followed the exploits of a female gang." Unfortunately, this current release of the film does not have English subtitles. Right now, I'm currently looking for the title song, and I hope that maybe in the future it will be on a Hotwax compilation!

- Eric Yee

yeesus, January 29, 2008; 3:34 PM