Stray Cat Rock: Wild Jumbo (1970)

Directed by
A slice of the times
Reviewed by Simon on 2024-12-22

A group of largely aimless delinquents who call themselves The Pelican Club hang about having fun and being kind of stupid, until a mysterious and wealthy woman seduces one of them and proposes a plan.

Wild Jumbo is the second film in the Stray Cat Rock series, but it is not strongly connected to the first. Meiko Kaji and Bunjaku han return as new characters, whilst Akiko Wada gets a "guest appearance" credit but only appears in recycled footage from Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss.

The film seems as lacking in purpose as the characters it depicts for much of the runtime, drifting between a series of random vignettes and escapades which see the gang being more or less harmless but happy, despite occasional scuffles with a rival gang. It is well past the half way mark when the "plot" is finally introduced, and the previous escapades turn out not to be entirely random in hindsight.

The third act is pretty fatalistic, showing that once the gang are given a purpose and a goal their carefree enjoyment of life evaporates and they are propelled down a path that is doomed to end in tragedy.

No doubt there is social commentary here, reflecting the disollution of the free-spirited hedonism of the 1960's post-Woodstock. This little collective are badly prepared for their encounters with the wider world, their naivety and hope providing little protection against the harsh realities of modern life. It is not a point strongly made though.

Meiko Kaji's character is a bit peripheral to events, and it seems odd that none of the group show any acknowledgement of the fact she is the gang's only female member - I wonder if the character was originally written as male, and only loosely adapted when she was cast and the film became a Stray Cat Rock "sequel"?

As a little document of the era, Wild Jumbo is fine... the characters are likeable enough for hanging out with them for 84 minutes to be pleasant, and the ending creates some sense that there was a point to the experience. It's not particularly essential - but it does have Meiko Kaji in a bikini, and I suspect that for many that will be enough.