This is an original Japanese B2 double-bill poster printed in 1970, pairing Stray Cat Rock: Machine Animal on the left with Hadaka de Dakko on the right. Issued at a peak moment for Japanese youth exploitation cinema, it brings together two films released in the same year but selling very different kinds of contemporary excitement: one a violent, psychedelic biker-gang thriller, the other a playful, sexy youth comedy built around glamour, ambition, and mischief. As a piece of period paper, it is a brilliant snapshot of how Japanese studios marketed youth, rebellion, sex appeal, and pop energy at the turn of the decade.
Film background
Both films were released in 1970, a high-water mark for Japanese “youth exploitation” cinema, but they operate in strikingly different registers.
Stray Cat Rock: Machine Animal (野良猫ロック マシンアニマル) is the fourth entry in Nikkatsu’s legendary five-film Stray Cat Rock series and one of the key titles in the cycle. Stylish, kinetic, and aggressively modern, it centres on counterculture drift and criminal desperation. The plot follows two drifters and a Vietnam War deserter named Charlie who are trying to flee Japan for Sweden. To finance their escape, they attempt to sell a stash of 500 LSD pills, drawing in a girl gang led by Maya, played by Meiko Kaji, and setting off a violent struggle involving a ruthless motorcycle gang known as the Dragons and a local drug-dealing bartender. The film has exactly the kind of charged early-1970s energy collectors love: motorcycle action, go-go culture, pop styling, and a memorable acid-trip atmosphere. It stars Meiko Kaji, one of the reigning queens of the genre, alongside Tatsuya Fuji.
Hadaka de Dakko (裸でだっこ), often associated with the English title Be Naked or Naked Hug, comes from a different but equally period-specific part of Japanese commercial cinema. Produced as a vehicle for Mari Atsumi, one of Daiei’s best-known “sexy comedy” stars, it follows Yumi, a snack-bar employee who dreams of escaping everyday life with her friends. Together they come up with a plan to raise 3 million yen so they can buy a yacht and sail away. The film mixes lighthearted comedy with pinky-era sexploitation, using Yumi’s beauty and sexual image as part of the story’s various money-making schemes, from beauty-shop promotion to nude modelling. Where Machine Animal is violent and psychedelic, Hadaka de Dakko is cheekier, lighter, and more knowingly playful.
Poster design
What makes this poster so desirable is the way it compresses those two worlds into one exuberant split design. The left half is pure Stray Cat Rock: pop-art yellow, explosive typography, knife-brandishing menace, motorcycle imagery, and the unmistakable cool of Meiko Kaji in white with black hat, staring straight out at the viewer. The right half pivots completely, using a glamorous reclining female image, bold red title lettering, and a smaller full-body fashion pose to sell the flirtier, sexier tone of Hadaka de Dakko. The result is visually fantastic: loud, stylish, chaotic, sexy, and unmistakably Japanese. It is not only a poster for two films, but a compact statement of what made 1970 studio-era exploitation paper so exciting.
Condition
Very Good / Excellent. Please review the photos—they show the exact poster for sale.
It is over 54 years old!
It is not a reproduction or a reprint.
Certificate of Authenticity included.
