Films about women in the yakuza world are many but real female gangsters are few, including women who inherit gang leadership from a husband or male relative.
In Shinji Somai's 1981 film "Sailor Suit and Machine Gun" ("Sera-fuku to Kikanju"), this rare scenario entered the realm of pure fantasy. Based on Jiro Akagawa's 1978 novel of the same name, the film stars pop idol Hiroko Yakushimaru as a high school girl who finds herself in charge of a four-man gang after the death of her gang-boss father. The scene of her spraying rival hoods with a machine gun and drawling "Kaikan" ("This feels so good") became notorious and helped make the film a big hit.
More than three decades later, we now have Koji Maeda's "Sailor Suit and Machine Gun: Graduation" ("Sera-fuku to Ki-kanju: Sotsugyo)," an odd concoction of coming-of-age teen drama and blood-spattered gang actioner that shares little with the original beyond its premise.