This is it, the last of four chapters for this amazing series starring Meiko Kaji as the title character. I conclude this small tribute on this very day, as star Meiko turns 61! Was this installment very necessary, considering how the previous episode ended? Well, no, to tell the truth. Sasori is still on the lam but will eventually find help with a technician that works in a strip joint. This guy has been crippled in the past by police brutality and is delighted to help someone who’s considered a fugitive of the law. Will Sasori find it in her bruised heart to trust a man? And is she really getting some? And how many movie screen characters how you seen kill an enemy using a flower? Watch out for these female prison guards, with awesome uniforms and boots giving us memories Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS! And they don’t seem to mind watching prime beefcake in magazines, either!

With a new director, this movie has a couple of typical astonishing scenes with awesome color effects, but Yasuharu Hasebe is no Shunya Ito. I was also a bit disappointed that Sasori is involved in the needless and not so accidental death of a minor character, which is contrary to her character’s motivations. Still, she utters one of her longest monologue in the series (like, four or five consecutive sentences!).

Besides some reservation in the way the series was being treated (script, budget), this is still heads ahead of the majority of WiP offered worldwide, an unexpected haunting experience. The series would continue with different actresses beginning in 1976 with New Female Prisoner Scorpion 701, but with limited success.

Let’s admit right away that this third chapter in the Female Scorpion saga doesn’t contain that many prison scenes. Still, Sasori’s story is still compelling and you have a perfect preview of it in the first segment, when our heroine runs around a busy street with a severed policeman arm handcuffed to her wrist! She soon befriends a prostitute who’s pregnant by her cretin brother and some more juicy revenge will be on the menu.

Returning director Shunya Ito still got many visual tricks in his bag and screen goddess Meiko Kaji remains the ultimate anti-heroine… she even smiles in this episode! This film closes in a way that was not very hopeful for fans anticipating another sequel at the time… but a fourth film there was, Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701’s Grudge Song, with a new director in the person of Yasuharu Hasebe. That production will of course be our next subject.

This is the second episode (considered to be the best) in this excellent series, maybe the best ever example of a Women in Prison motion picture. Once again, Meiko Kaji is back as Sasori, this time focusing her revenge on the corrupt and abusive prison administrator and guards, the action taking place roughly one year after the events of the first film. After numerous and punishing mistreatments, her heroine escapes with some other female inmates, the latter not very trusting of her at first. Can their bid for freedom remain a realistic goal?

The script is sometimes an excuse for the staging of elaborate and colorful surreal moments, particularly some flashback sequences focusing on the fugitives’ guilty past. Note that Sasori has only three lines of dialogue, but Meiko principally acts with her eyes in the most uncanny manner, conveying diverse emotions in a way that borders on the supernatural. In the finale, when clothed with her wide hat and long black coat, she looks like the ultimate angel of death. Beware her retribution! She even makes a simple spoon a deadly weapon…

Here are some key images of the film, that can’t be recommended enough:

Next in line will be Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable.

As I stated before, the Female Prisoner Scorpion series is the ultimate in Women in Prison entertainment, mixing exploitation elements (gratuitous violence and sleazy sex) with stylish direction and convincing performances. This remains Meiko Kaji’s signature role, the seemingly impassive and almost mute Nami Matsushima, AKA Sasori.

But before going into further specific details, you must be attentive to the following (very) brief course in Japanese film history, mainly its erotic motion pictures. Yes, there are things to be learned here, so pay attention! You don’t want to flunk the quiz, do you?

If you have to understand one thing, just remember that since time immemorial no genital parts were allowed to be shown in any movie in Japan. Oh and this means, neither male or female, needless to say. Of course, you didn’t glimpse much genitals in world cinema in these times, but all these rules were specifically written in the Japanese Criminal Code! A 1962 film named Flesh Market remains the first production to include a naked breast. Two years later, Gates of Flesh displayed a full female nude body, without showing the private parts, of course. And that in full color! Remember that in Europe in the late fifties, nudity had finally started to be allowed in motion pictures, sometimes coming from world-acclaimed directors like Louis Malle or even Ingmar Bergman (we have mainly the wide popularity of Brigitte Bardot to be grateful for, as example). But the Japanese authorities had in their hands a censorship code that was very severe. So, no full frontal cutie honey action. Oddly, they didn’t put much restrain in graphic display of violence…

If we now go to the major studios (mainly Nikkatsu), we must understand that they shifted their agenda around 1971 or so to produce more spicy projects. Roman porn (romantic pornography) or pinku eiga (pink movies) are the most traditional terms to describe that special kind of erotic stories. The reason of that redirection: bankruptcy and/or other kind of hard financial distress, mainly box-office receipts. Many popular studios followed up on this trend, like Toho, Daiei and others.

In 1971, Meiko Kaji was mainly known for her participation in a rebellious female youth series, the Stray Cat Rock films. She was the perfect candidate to play a revengeful young woman capable of enduring severe physical and psychological torments, being kept alive with an unending thirst of vengeance. First time director Shunya Ito convinced her to become Nami Matsushima, an heroine that at first saw birth in a popular manga (comic book). Meiko suggested that the character become an almost mute presence and not the foul-mouthed heroine of the printed page. With the worldwide success of the spaghetti western, this approach was a wise decision, as viewers were already accustomed to mystical heroes of few words.

So Nami is wrongfully utilized by a supposed cop boyfriend in a fixed drug bust and is send to a brutal jail. After a failed attempt to escape, she’s day after day punished by the prison’s authorities, the typical bunch of screaming animal thugs. Not only that, but the other female inmates also torment her for her supposed stuck-up attitude. Can she realy hope to at last sate her thirst for vengeance?

Contrary to the many lurid WiP movies becoming popular at the time around the world, this first entry in the series was carefully shot in an imaginative visual style, mixing surrealistic color palettes and unexpected camera angle choices, putting this way ahead of subject-wise sleazy motion pictures coming out of the Philippines, the USA and others. Even witnessing the incredible violent scenes here, there’s an atmosphere of art-house production worthy of high-brow international critics.

Yes, this is an out of this world ballet of vengeance, with slow-motion sequences, quasi-oniric staging of flashbacks and a performance from the central actress that borders on the astonishing. To give you an idea of her character’s state of mind throughout, here are my two favorite quotes from Nami:

“To be deceived is a woman’s crime.”
“I cannot die until I fulfill my fate.”

Brutal beyond measure but still satisfying entertainment, Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion spawned three sequels again starring Meiko Kaji, who became one of the most fascinating heroine in motion picture history. Here are some screen grabs that I hope can give you an idea of the impact of this unique universe:

During this time, Meiko began shooting another worthwhile series, the Lady Snowblood films, also where her singing voice can be heard for the main musical theme. With these works, she’s now considered one of the main female action movie stars of all time.
Next on our discussion on WiP will be the sequel, Female Convict Scorpion Jailhouse 41.

What, I’ve started a Cult Sirens blog and haven’t yet talked about a Women in Prison (WiP) movie? Outrageous! All these shower scenes! This genre is almost as old as the art of motion pictures itself, dating back to the Silents. The condemned innocent, the sadistic prison guard, the corrupted facility administrator, the butch cellblock queen and many others are all beloved stereotypes of these productions. Universally produced, these movies were at the pinnacle of success in the seventies, with reigning divas Pam Grier and Meiko Kaji being typecast in many memorable titles. In fact, Meiko could be responsible for the ultimate product in this genre, the Female Prisoner Scorpion series, which will probably be our first subject for this feature, why not start with the best?

So I’ve been quite tempted to begin a series on this strange corner of film mythology, revisiting key productions and giving some historical background. I’ll try to supply endless chronological lists of titles, because as movie fans we can’t get enough of LISTS! MOVIE LISTS, YES!!! So get out your orange prison fatigues out of the closet right now and be ready to be plunged into movie madness soon. And of course don’t drop the soap!