Nora-neko rokku: Mashin animaru or Stray Cat Rock: Machine Animal (1970) is the fourth film in the Stray Cat Rock series. This time out, Maya (Meiko Kaji) and her gang join forces with a trio of men, one an army deserter fleeing Vietnam, to sell enough LSD to secure their passage to Sweden. Maya and her gang must contend with MPs and the Dragon Gang to realize this venture before it’s too late and ship sails without their new friends.
Mashin animaru is, in many respects, the tamest film of the franchise in terms of content, but the most sophisticated in terms of moral and political views. It’s a teeny-bopper caper film with a nasty nihilist streak. Yasuharu Hasebe’s direction is unabashedly modern and chic; at times the film feels almost avant-garde. Hasebe, a master of the Pink film, curbs that genre’s more typical impulses and instead crafts a film about inevitability. Up until the climax, Mashin animaru is relatively light and very fun; a sort of Frankie and Anette in the underworld vibe permeates the film. Hasebe doesn’t shy away from camp either, especially moments like the chase scene that begins with Maya exclaiming “Shit! We need Hondas!”. The Stray Cat Rock films were initially envisioned as “youth pictures” so it’s no surprise that the objective of the film is simply to have fun. However, In the last act of Mashin animaru everything comes undone and Maya is powerless to stop it.
Meiko Kaji is at her most glamorous in these films, and Mashin animaru is no exception. Kaji’s status as both a fashion and feminist icon is relatively easy to appreciate with this series even if the films themselves aren’t particularly feminist. The fact that Kaji headed up two franchises about female camaraderie in traditionally masculine genres is where feminism enters into the discourse surrounding her celebrity. The Stray Cat Rock and Female Prisoner Scorpion films are heteronormative male fantasies. There’s a flexibility to interpreting these films because of how they subvert certain gender norms. These films also outline a number of narrative mechanics and plot devices that were reappropriated by actual feminist filmmakers. Kaji is a signpost for a more progressive direction for cinema to take.
Mashin animaru is probably my favorite film in the Stray Cat Rock series, and after revisiting this gem I took a glance at the user reviews on Letterboxd. One glowing review off handedly compared Mashin animaru to Monte Hellman’s masterful Two-Lane Blacktop (1971), which I thought was kind of genius. Mashin animaru and Two-Lane Blacktop stymie narrative progression at every turn and embrace a fatalistic nihilism. Stylistically these films couldn’t be more different, yet their similarities speak to a global attitude to both the Vietnam War and authority in general. Might be worth checking these two films out as a double feature sometime.
