Playgirl: EP 203 “Girl Boss vs. Playgirl” (Feb. 19, 1973)
I think most people here are aware of Toei’s classic sexy action drama
Playgirl (1969-1974), and particularly episode 203 “Girl Boss vs. Playgirl” (女番長対プレイガール), which guest stars
Miki Sugimoto as a sukeban leader. Toei released a best-of DVD selection about 15 years ago, but this episode was unfortunately not included. Thankfully it aired on Toei Channel.
The episode begins with a delinquent girl gunned down while running for her life (topless, I may add). The playgirls, a group of butt-kicking ladies specializing in spy missions, then go undercover as delinquent girls to catch the male crooks responsible. Enter Miki Sugimoto and
Yukie Kagawa as two rival girl bosses, and lone wolf Shingo Yamashiro who’s got his own hidden objectives.
There’s some good fun to be had with this episode, which is both embracing and poking fun of the girl boss genre, something that much of the regular cast (e.g.
Yumiko Katayama, Yayoi Watanabe, Junko Miyazono) were more than familiar with. That being said, this episode is not really any holy grail of girl boss entertainment, just a fun, low-key, addition to the genre.
I shall refrain from writing too much about the series, since I’ve only seen a few dozen episodes. Basically, the series follows the standard Japanese detective show formula ala
Key Hunter with the cast taking turns starring in different episodes, only all female and with an added brief nudity. The show ran 287 episodes on TV Tokyo at 21:00 every Monday night. The start was pretty tame, but a brief topless nudity was already seen in EP 6 which aired May 12, 1969 (I’ve not seen episodes 2, 3 or 5 to compare) and such scenes would become a regular treat as the show went on.
The heroines all held positions as Secret International Insurance Inspectors (as opposed to Secret Int. Police like Key Hunter) though the (lethal) insurance scam inspections soon became secondary and the girls were getting involved in outlandish yakuza plots and even kaidan ghost stories (many episodes were directed by Nobuo Kanagawa) on their own.
The series had quite a few cast changes over the years, but always retained major star power, especially if you were a Pinky Violence or Toei genre cinema fan.
Mako Midori (EP 1-26) and
Bunjaku Han (EP 6-63) were part of the original cast,
Reiko Oshida joined for EP 51-85, Yumiko Katayama from EP 75, Yayoi Watanabe from EP 162, Junko Miyazono for EP 171-259 and
Yuriko Hishimi from 217.
Tamaki Sawa played the leader throughout the series’ run.
Tatsuo Umemiya did the episode preview narration for the first 26 episodes, after that the girls would take turns doing the (often awesome!) narration.
The guest list included Miki Sugimoto, Tetsuro Tamba, Joe Shishido, Yukie Kagawa and lots of other Toei regulars like Toru Yuri, Toru Abe, Yoko Mihara and Teruo Yoshida. Maki Carrousel and Peter appeared several times too, often together! I might also mention that while
Reiko Ike did not appear in the original show, she did a guest appearance in the follow-up series Playgirl Q (1974-1976) in EP 14.
One more thing must be mentioned: the awesome, outrageous episode titles! 全裸の美女は朝狙え! (“Aim at the All-Nude Beauty in the Morning”), 女は裸になって強くなる, (“Women Get Strong Naked”) and 女子高校生・番長殺人事件 (“High School Girl Boss Murder Case”) are just a few examples.
Miki Sugimoto and Shingo Yamashiro
Yumiko Katayama
Yukie Kagawa
