Girl Assassins A Go-Go: Black Tight Killers (1966)

No Borders, No Limits by Mark Schilling is a brisk and informative book about the action films that came out of Japan's Nikkatsu studio primarily during the 1960's. I read this book a few months back and got a kick out of it. You can read my full thoughts on the book here. Anyway, when I was reading this book I came across a film by the name of Black Tight Killers. Now, this is a pretty cool name for a movie period, but what really caught my attention was that the film was described as involving "...candy-coloured, go-go, James Bondish action..." and a group of female assassins who shoot guns loaded with bullets made of bubblegum. I thought it sounded like the type of pic that was just too eccentric, campy, and cool to pass up and promptly decided I'd have to track it down and give it a watch.

Skip forward a bit to the present. I'm sitting in front of my laptop, totally in love with the epic pop spectacle that is Black Tight Killers! From start to finish, the movie is tons of fun and the visuals and soundtrack are soaked in campy retro sixties cool.

The movie's central character is a photographer played by Akira Kobayashi who, according to Schlling's book was a big name idol for Nikkatsu back in the day. He's playing the roguish and charming pretty boy part here, but he plays it well and has definite charisma. The true stars here, though, are the Black Tight Killers themselves. They're a group of deadly female ninjas that employ a wide-range of eccentric weaponry, from bubblegum projectiles to throwing stars that look like vinyl records! Though the plot that connects the protagonist to the girl assassins is thin and uninspired, it's never present enough to distract from or dilute the utter coolness of the premise.

Black Tight Killers is cotton candy for your eyeballs. Seriously, this movie is dripping with splashy pop art style. It's not going to be everybody's thing, but if you've got a sense of humor and a taste for the offbeat you owe it to yourself to check this one out. It's got a little bit of sexiness/innuendo, a little bit of violence (complete with some excellent garish red blood!), and a whole heaping pile of tongue-in-cheek humor. Really, what more could you want?