13 Steps of Maki: The Young Aristocrats (1975) | Region-Free (Blu-Ray) | English Subtitles

Title: 13 Steps of Maki: The Young Aristocrats (1975)

Genre: Action, Crime, Drama

Alternate Title: Maki: The 13 Steps

Plot Synopsis:

Maki Hyuga, the fearless leader of an all-girl gang known as the Wildcats, gets entangled in a brutal conflict with yakuza-affiliated elites. After standing up for a victimized woman, she is framed and sent to a sadistic women’s prison where inmates suffer under cruel control. There, Maki must fight to survive, protect her gang’s honor, and prepare for revenge with a powerful display of martial arts fury.

Cast and Crew:

• Director: Makoto Naitô

• Writers: Ikki Kajiwara, Takeo Kaneko

• Cast:

  • Etsuko Shihomi as Maki Hyuga

  • Misa Ohara as Takako Ebihara

  • Hiroshi Nawa as Ryunosuke Daimon

  • Hiroshi Kondô as Warden Fujimoto

  • Meika Seri as Prison Inmate Reiko

IMDb Link: 13 Steps of Maki: The Young Aristocrats (1975) 

Reviews from Letterboxd

1. mikehgillespie – ★★★½
   “Entertaining mix of sukeban and women in prison film, not unlike the Stray Cat Rock and Sister Street Fighter films. Essentially a series of set pieces stitched together with a thin but enjoyably wacky plot. Etsuko Shihomi is a terrific lead.”

2. Daniel GoodDay – ★★★
   “Great karate action.”

3. QPorcupine – ★★★
   “This starts out as a fun action movie as a relatively minor slight leads to a feud between Maki and Takako… then about the halfway mark the story takes a turn and things get a lot darker in a sleazy 70s exploitation sort of way… wrap things up with a big fun action scene. It’s tonal mismatch that keeps the film from being as good (or as fun) as it could have been.”

4. A Merrit – ★★★★
   “Etsuko Shihomi does a girl gang/female prisoner #701 style movie, but still makes it very much her own. It’s pulpy and absurd, but so filled with style and sleaze that it’s hard not to enjoy. Her wearing the number 13 and picking fights with absolutely everyone is fun…”

5. trillietitan – ★★★★
   “It’s a really grimy piece of exploitation cinema that constantly shifts between various subgenres, ultimately ending up somewhere between films like Female Prisoner Scorpion, Switchblade Sisters, and the Stray Cat Rock series… The violence in the film is always very satisfying… even when this film isn’t quite as explicit… yet the implications are almost always pretty disturbing.”

Meta Description:
13 Steps of Maki: The Young Aristocrats (1975) is a brutal Japanese girl-gang exploitation film starring Etsuko Shihomi as a fearless leader framed and imprisoned. Martial arts action, prison violence, and yakuza revenge drive this stylish cult gem.