Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs

Toei looked at the avenging-woman boom it was already printing and pinned a badge on it. Miki Sugimoto plays Rei, the sole operative of a secret police division that cleans up the cases too dirty for arrests, sent out in a blood-red coat to commit the murders the state can pretend it never ordered. Yukio Noda keeps it lean and cruel, and Sugimoto plays the whole thing behind the unblinking stare the cycle ran on. It shares a decade and a temperament with Female Prisoner Scorpion and Lady Snowblood, and it is put together with the same unfussy skill. The red coat became an icon for a reason.