Black Angel Vol. 1 (Kuro no tenshi Vol. 1) is a 1997 Japanese film directed by Takashi Ishii. The film stars Riona Hazuki and Reiko Takashima.
Ikko, the six year old daughter of a yakuza gang boss witnesses the brutal slaying of her parents and is only saved from sharing their fate by an underground hitwoman who goes by the nom-de-guerre of "Black Angel." Years after escaping to America, Ikko returns to Tokyo as a young woman. She adopts the name "Black Angel" and is out for revenge.
Tropes:
- Abandoned Hospital: After capturing Ikko, Nogi holds her prisoner in a hospital that is undergoing refurbishment.
- Age Cut: The six year old Ikko disappears down the escalator at the airport. A 'SIXTEEN YEARS LATER' caption appears on the screen and the now adult Ikko appears coming up the escalator.
- The Alcoholic: Mayo really hits the skids during the 14 year Time Skip. When he turns up to hire her, Nogi comments that she got herself off the drugs but had become an alcoholic in the process. At her lowest, she angrily flings a glass of booze away from her, but then, realising what she had done, starts licking the liquor off the barroom floor.
- Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: While Zill is beating up one of Nogi's thugs, the man's partner arrives and pulls a gun on him. As it looks he is about shoot Zill, there is a gunshot. The camera pulls out to reveal that Ikko has arrived and just the guy on the floor, cowing the one with the gun into dropping it.
- Batter Up!: Zill is beaten up by a gang of Nogi's thugs wearing backwards baseball caps and wielding baseball bats. He subsequently dies from his injuries.
- Bulletproof Vest: Onda sets up Ikko by telling her where Nogi is going to be. Ikko turns up and shoots Nogi, but he survives because he wearing a bulletproof vest. After she is captured, she accuses him of being a coward for wearing one. In response, he takes the vest off, puts it on her, and shoots her several times in the chest.
- Bullet Sparks: Appear any time someone shoots. When Nogi's men are herding Ikko towards him, their bullets even strike sparks off the wooden stairs.
- Camping a Crapper: When Ikko is being held prisoner the Abandoned Hospital, Mayo waits till one of her guards goes to take a leak and garrotes him with a length of electrical cable.
- Child by Rape: Ikko was conceived when Chiaki was raped as a teenager. Chiaki's father took the baby away at birth, telling Chiaki that the child had died, and gave Ikko to his mistress to raise. Hence, Chiaki and Ikko grew up believeing they were half-sisters.
- Coitus Uninterruptus: Chiaki has a telephone conversation with Nogi while the senator is performing cunnilingus on her.
- Dirty Cop: Shinichi Onda is in the pocket of the yakuza. At the time of the original massacre, he is a patrolman who helps to cover it up. By the time Ikko returns to begin her Roaring Rampage of Revenge, he is a detective. It is eventually revealed that he has ambitions to become head of the yakuza.
- Elevator Action Sequence: When Ikko is fighting her way into the penthouse where Chiaki is holed up, a gang of yakuza thugs who have being trying to stop her fall back into the lift. They breathe a sigh of relief as the doors start to close, thinking they have escaped her, only to realize as the doors finish closing that she is in there with them. Cut to the outside of the lift and the sound of gunfire.
- Every Car Is a Pinto: To prevent the hit team from catching him after he has handed Ikko to Mayo, Yatsuda drives his car into two parked cars at a moderate speed and all three explode.
- Family Relationship Switcheroo: Chiaki and Ikko believe they are half-sisters. In fact, they are mother and daughter. Ikko was Chiaki's Child by Rape. Chiaki's father removed the baby at birth, and told her that the baby had died. He gave the Ikko to his mistress, and she was raised beliving that she was their natural child.
- Funny Background Event: When Nogi is on the phone to Chiaki, through the window his car his henchmen can be seen struggling to bury the body of the underling he just executed.
- Groin Attack: When is Ikko is knocked to floor while trying to kill Kosugi, one of Kosugi's guards tries to stomp her. As he is raising his leg, Ikko grabs a fallen gun and shoots him in the groin at point blank range.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Ikko discovers fairly late that Chiaki, the woman she is trying to kill is, is not her half-sister but actually her mother. In this case, neither woman knew this initially because Ikko was a Child by Rape and Chiaki's father removed the child at birth, telling Chiaki the child had died, and gave it to his mistress to raise.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Ikko returns to Japan after fourteen years determined to kill everyone involved in the murder of her family.
- Show Some Leg: One of the two female assassins who knocks on Don Amaoka door is wearing a very short skirt. The bodyguard who answers the door is so distracted by her legs that he opens the door to them despite their dodgy story about blowing a fuse in their apartment.
- Taking the Bullet: During the final shootout, Mayo jumps in front of Ikko when Chiaki shoots at her: taking the bullet intended for Ikko.
- Time Skip: The film starts with the newborn Ikko being abducted from the hospital, then jumps ahead six years to Ikko witnessing the massacre of her family and being smuggled out of the country by her father's agents. It then jumps ahead fourteen years to the 20 year-old Ikko returning to Tokyo to start her Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
- Tragic Keepsake: When Mayo puts Ikko on the plane to America after her family is massacred, she clips a keychain with a fuzzy mascot on it to her coat as a good luck charm. Ikko is still wearing it when she returns 14 years later to start her Roaring Rampage of Revenge. It is only when Mayo sees it dropped on the ground after she has ambushed her that she realizes who the girl she just handed over to Nogi is.
