female prisoner scorpion

Women-in-Prison movies occupy a particularly seedy corner of the exploitation universe, seemingly serving no other purpose than to titillate, torture and shock. From perverse Nazi prison camps to sweaty Filipino cages, the settings may change but the ingredients are largely the same: rape, beatings, showers and lesbian sex. Even for cult film aficionados, WIP movies are a hard genre to justify let alone openly enjoy. But the Female Prisoner Scorpion series is one of the genre's rare stabs at respectability.

Based on a popular manga, the first film - Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion - introduces Nami Matsushima (Meiko Kaji) who winds up behind bars after being seduced and double-crossed by her lover, a dirty cop with Yakuza ties. Vowing revenge, Nami suffers through the worst punishments the sadistic guards can dish out while her reputation and fame make her a target for other prisoners. She avoids one attack in the shower (blinding the warden in one eye in the process), scalds another rival with hot soup and seduces a female cop sent in to gather information. All without speaking a single line of dialogue.

Directed by Shunya Ito, the film doesn't shy away from all the expected nudity and violence, but it does work them into the plot with a little more finesse. And Ito's visual exclamation points - including waves of colored gels, theatrical sets and manga-inspired action sequences - elevate the material. As does the casting of Meiko Kaji, whose cold eyes framed by twin waterfalls of black hair make her wordless anti-heroic performance almost as legendary as Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name.

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41, the first sequel, is arguably the best of the series, and certainly the most visually creative. Opening with a long series of dissolves as Nami sharpens a spoon into a shiv with nothing but her teeth, the film hits the road with nine other inmates on a prison break. While the inmates attempt to avoid re-capture, they suffer even more injustice at the hands of the outside world, including a tour group gone horribly wrong.

Here the theme of evil, abuse and deception suffered by women at the hands Men shifts into overdrive, kicked off by the tragic and catchy theme song. Emboldened by the first film's success, Ito lets loose a colorful barrage of experimental set-ups that dig into the minds of its female characters. Yet in the end, it all falls upon Nami restore order and balance between the species, finally settling the score with the one-eyed warden and avenging her comrades.

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable finds Nami on the run after hacking off the arm of a detective to escape a pair of handcuffs. His pursuit eventually leads him to a prostitution ring where Nami has befriended a young hooker pregnant with her brain-damaged brother's baby (pretty out there even for a WIP movie). Spotted by an ex-con with a grudge, Nami attempts to avoid them both but winds up cornered in the sewers as the authorities close in.

Beast Stable spends the least amount of time inside prison walls of any film in the series. But it's generally a positive change, with Nami's struggle to survive in the new landscape breaking up the monotony that was beginning to set in. It also introduces an impressive costume change, draping Nami in a floppy fedora and black coat like an avenging vision of death...and features the most satisfying double-whammy finale to date!

A change in the director's chair (Yasuharu Hasebe) gives the final entry - Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701's Grudge Song - a bit of a different feel. Split into to distinct halves, the first focuses on Nami's relationship with a crippled ex-revolutionary, Kudo, who earns her trust. But when they accidently kill the pregnant wife of a police officer, Kudo's information leads to Nami's arrest and transfer to death row. Meanwhile, the now widowed cop wants to prolong Nami's punishment, hoping for a more personal revenge than the hanging planned by the State.

Grudge Song is the most conventionally plotted film in the group with an episodic feel not so far removed from a weekly TV show (one with plenty of boobs and blood...so more like HBO). And as surprising as it is to see a human side to Nami's character, it erases some of her mystique and comic book invulnerability. By this point, the Scorpion films were just running low on ideas. And for a series with such a nihilistic worldview, going out with a whimper seems somehow appropriate.

No bones about it, Arrow Video's Female Scorpion: The Complete Collection is going to garner a lot of attention, especially as the Blu-ray set is limited to 3000 copies. But not all of the attention will be good. There's already much debate about the transfers themselves, which differ from those used in the past, removing some color tinting in flashback sequences and emphasizing a different color palate in others. There's also a large amount of grain washing over every film, sometimes to the point of distraction.

If this is a big issue for buyers (and for many it will be), I recommend checkout out some screencaps. Arrow has explained most of the changes and these are new 2K restorations. But for those with no previous copies under the belt The Complete Collection will be a godsend, gathering all four films and an obscene amount of extras in one gorgeous package highlighted by a pair of visual essays from Tom Mes that break down the series' evolution and modern influence.