Female Prisoner Scorpion: The Complete Collection (Blu-ray/DVD)
Starring Meiko Kaji
Directed by Shunya Ito, Yasuharu Hasebe
Distributed by Arrow Video
Japanese cinema saw a boom in the women-in-prison (WIP) subgenre a few years after the release of Ohyaku: The Female Demon (1968), a black-and-white drama brimming with hallmarks of Pinky Violence – graphic torture, fighting, sexual deviance, revenge. The WIP/Pinky Violence scene really exploded in the early ‘70s when first-time director Shunyo Ito helmed Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972) for Toei Company Studios. Long considered to be among the greatest Japanese WIP films, the series would go on to spawn three sequels and influence countless imitators both from within the country and without – this series, and star Meiko Kaji’s infamously bloody Lady Snowblood (1973-1974) films, are clearly referenced in Tarantino’s Kill Bill (2003-2004). The movement ended almost as soon as it began, with features trickling out sporadically by the mid-‘70s. Between 1971 and 1973, however, it was an onslaught. Any aficionado of Japanese cinema knows the studios could crank these pictures out like there was no tomorrow, too, which is why the series saw four entries in just two years. This isn’t a case where the first is the best and the rest are easily forgotten; every film maintains a level of quality including the final entry helmed by another director.
Fans have had a hard time completing their Scorpion collection on home video, with different companies releasing different entries on DVD, some of which went OOP long ago and commanded top dollar. Arrow Video has brought all four films together in one incredibly sexy package, complete with tons of bonus features, a hardcover booklet, reversible key art, a double-sided foldout poster… and controversial color timing on every film that could be a deal breaker for some.
Our first introduction to the character of Nami “Scorpion” Matsushima (Meiko Kaji) – and her catchy theme song “Urami Bushi” (also sung by Kaji) – comes in Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion. When Scorpion is set up by her crooked cop boyfriend, Sugimi (Isao Natsuyagi), to win favor with the Yakuza she winds up beaten and raped. Hungry for revenge, she attacks Sugimi on the steps of the police station and is promptly arrested for attempted murder. Prison is even less kind than her shady ex – the guards are merciless, the inmates are vicious, and Scorpion spends most of her time either being intimidated, beaten, or in solitary confinement. But she’s tough and stoic, taking it all in stride and never once allowing anyone see her display weakness. Sugimi sends a female assassin to kill Matsu and instead of going for the kill she winds up getting seduced, begging to be returned to Matsu’s cell “for another chance”. Yea, right… When the guards try to break her (and the rest of the prisoners in the process) it sets the table for a revolt that leaves the prison in shambles, giving Matsu a window to escape and fulfill her vengeance.
Has there ever been a WIP film with a novel plot? Women get sent to some hellhole where sadism, rape, torture, lesbian sex, fist fighting, and cruelty are on the daily menu. What sets the Female Scorpion series apart from the rest is an easy answer: Meiko Kaji. There have been strong women in cinema before and after Scorpion, but few could hope to be as tough and resilient. Matsu speaks infrequently, preferring to let her actions do all the talking. She never once gets into a verbal sparring match with inmates or officers, choosing to instead strike at an opportune moment so that not only does her wannabe aggressor suffer, but everyone else within view knows a similar fate awaits them, too, should they get in her way. Kaji plays the role with such a controlled sense of ferocity; she’s like a coiled cobra, ready to strike at any moment. She says so much with her round, emotive eyes; eyes that belie the wild beast beneath the surface. Nobody can match her skills, and she knows it, but like Bruce Lee she holds back right up until the very moment when it is no longer time to hold back.
Matsu returns again for Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (1972), a half jailhouse/half convict road trip film that maintains the same tone as the first entry with some plot differences to keep things fresh. Matsu is back in prison, kept chained up in a dank solitary basement. The warden is hoping this inhumane treatment can break her will. Instead, as soon as Matsu is temporarily released from her shackles she takes that opportunity to try gouging out the warden’s other eye; the one she missed in the last film. She fails. The warden, who is pretty fed up with Matsu at this point, figures the best way to break her is by using an age old favorite, rape. So, he sends four guards to rape her. In broad daylight. In front of all the other prisoners. And you know what? Matsu grits her teeth, deals with it, and then gets back on with her quest for vengeance. Seriously, nothing fazes her, ever.
While the prisoners are being driven back to the jail they decide to stage a revolt, killing the guards and heading off on the lam. Matsu stays with the group, which is ostensibly headed by Oba (Kayoko Shiraishi), a big mouth who does her damnedest to get Matsu to fall in line with the rest. Spoiler: she doesn’t. The girls hide in an abandoned village, where they spend some time bonding by a fire and discussing their crimes and dreams. An old woman appears, armed with a strange magic dagger, and a surreal sequence follows in which each of the women’s crimes are explained. Then the woman turns to leaves and vanishes, but not before gifting her dagger to Matsu. The women then set out to continue their journey for freedom, but the cops are on their tail and it’s only a matter of time before Matsu is back in a familiar position.
Jailhouse 41 takes Matsu out of the prison – for a bit – and puts her on the road with the only people she hates slightly less than the police: other inmates. Matsu doesn’t have much of a mission in her life, aside from getting revenge on whoever happens to be wronging her at the time. She’s presented as an absolute in this series. Other than the fleeting glimpses of her deal-gone-wrong with Sugimi back in the first film, nothing of her life is known. Word of her revenge antics spreads quickly because by this second film she is already something of a mythical figure, lauded by women everywhere for her toughness and ability to always “get” her man.
Things get weird for Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (1973), with Matsu back on the run after escaping a police sting by chopping off the arm of the arresting officer. And here he thought handcuffing Matsu to himself would be a foolproof plan. Scorpion escapes to a graveyard, with the arm still attached to her cuff, where she meets a prostitute who offers to take her in and provide shelter. The woman lives with her mentally handicapped brother, who it is implied may or may not be faking his ailment in order to get nightly sex with his sister. He cries, she gives it up. Not long after Matsu arrival, sis learns she’s pregnant with her brother’s baby; even weirder, she wants to keep it. “Too bad”, says her gangster pimpstress boss, who forces sis to a backroom doctor where a very painful abortion is unwillingly carried out. Good thing Matsu is around to mete out justice, which she does with extreme prejudice as usual. The one-armed cop, meanwhile, is still on her trail, closing in with each day. For a guy who had his limb hacked off he is remarkably dogged in his sleuthing. He eventually finds the town where Matsu is hiding and, although she puts up a good fight, he manages to secure Scorpion and return her to prison. But as fans should know by now, no prison can hold her for very long.
This would be Ito’s last foray into the world of Scorpion and it is also his most psychedelic effort, possibly even the most violent, too. Visually, the film displays more of the trippy, bright colors and wild style associated with many Pinky Violence features. In terms of violence, the series has been home to so much cruelty that topping previous entries seems like a tough task – and it is. But when you add in graphic limb detachment, unwanted abortion, and a man getting killed by a raven suddenly it seems like Ito’s desire for his final Scorpion film was to go out with a bloody bang.
Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701’s Grudge Song (1973) caps off the series with another entry that is just as deplorably satisfying as the rest. Shunya Ito is out, with new helmer Yasuharu Hasabe sitting in the director’s chair, not that anyone would ever notice. After some stylish opening credits we once again meet up with Matsu, out in the wild, when she is surrounded and nearly captured by the cops. She escapes but is wounded in the process. Kudo (Masakazu Tamura) finds her and tends to her, with the two making a connection that is the closest Matsu has come to love since Sugimi all those years before. Kudo also hates cops because they tortured him, too, and he promises to stay with Matsu and keep her safe however he can. Unfortunately, the cops get back on Matsu’s trail when a lady at Kudo’s sleazy nightclub job rats on them. Kudo is arrested and the cops come up with a very convincing way to make him talk, which he does. Now, the one man Matsu has trusted in ages has broken his vow and, yep, you guessed it, she’s back on the warpath with vengeance in her eyes.
Grudge Song presents some interesting challenges for Matsu, such as her learning to love a man again for the only time since the first film’s opening moments. Every male in Matsu’s life throughout the series – cops, wardens, gangsters – has been manipulative and violent. Kudo comes around and suddenly she’s face to face with a sympathetic figure that is just like her, only not as strong. She lets her guard down and, for a moment, lives like a normal person once again. Hasabe allows the veneer of tough justice to crack ever so slightly, revealing a woman beneath who likely wishes her life had gone differently. After all, very few people would willingly choose a life of constant retribution.
Another key difference from the Ito pictures is that this one sees a decrease in the rampant sex & violence that permeated previous films. That isn’t to say those elements gone because they definitely are not, but Hasabe spends more time building Scorpion as a character than constantly trying to break her down and yield under pressure. It’s nice to see another side of a woman who is presented as little more than a silent warrior; a reminder that she is still human and capable of feeling something other than hate.
Meiko Kaji has no less than three Pinky Violence series to her name, but it is the Female Scorpion Prisoner films that will be her legacy. Kaji is absolutely ravishing in her signature role, as beautiful as she is deadly. There have been a few notable women to lead Pinky Violence films, such as the gorgeous Reiko Ike, but nobody else has the ability to appear both demure and ferocious with a single look from one eye like Kaji. Scorpion is less a regular woman pushed to the brink and more a superhero, fighting to even the score in a world dominated by cruel men. Give the climate of our current culture, her vengeance would seem more fitting than ever.
As a mentioned earlier, there has been some controversy regarding the video quality for all four films in this set. Arrow has provided the following information in the included booklet:
”The films of the Female Prisoner Scorpion Collection have been exclusively restored in 2K resolution for this release by Arrow Films and are presented in their original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with mono sound.
A set of low-contrast 35mm prints struck from the original 35mm film elements were supplied by Toei Company, Ltd. These prints were scanned in 2K resolution on a pin-registered 4K Northlight Scanner. Picture grading was completed on a DaVinci Resolve and thousands of instances of dirt, debris and light scratches were removed using PFClean software. Overall image stability and instances of density fluctuation were also improved. All restoration work was completed at Pinewood Studios.
The images on all four Female Prisoner Scorpion films favor a noticeably cyan/blue look throughout. This look was inherent in the film materials supplied and relates to how these lab materials were created, as well as how the original elements have faded over time. With these restorations, we have aimed to present the films as close to their intended original style and appearance as possible.”
Keeping all of that in mind, and trusting that Arrow has done the best they can with the materials provided, the picture quality across the board is, unfortunately, quite problematic. Colors do hew toward a cyan/blue palette, with most other primaries left looking desaturated and weak. Fans of Japanese cinema from this era are likely expecting bold, flashy bursts of color – as it appeared in SD on the DVDs – but what we get instead are muted tones, murky contrast, and washed-out images. The picture often looks soft, with very few moments of strong clarity that would indicate you are watching HD video. Film grain is variable, with consistency nonexistent from scene to scene. Black levels often look washed out or closer to a gray/purple haze than dark and inky. No one film stands out from the rest, though Beast Stable does have the dubious honor of looking the worst.
On a personal note, I try not to get caught up in the online geek furor in regard to video transfers. Some people out there will grab screenshots and examine the frames under more intense scrutiny than they would receive on a TV screen. But I do have to agree the video quality here is severely lacking and is absolutely not what fans may have been hoping to see when this set was announced. I trust Arrow did the best they could with whatever Toei provided but had they seen what the results would be, maybe it might’ve been better to wait it out and search for superior materials.
The audio is uniformly consistent across all four features, with a Japanese LPCM 1.0 mono track accompanying each release. Aside from the hissing sound that comes with every character’s use of the letter “s” the quality here is perfectly fine. Dialogue tracks sound clean – although 99% of you will be watching with the subs on so that isn’t of paramount importance. Sound effects lack the kind of weight needed to give them a sense of realism. The real standout for each film is the score; the first three done by Shunsuke Kikuchi, while the final picture was composed by Hajime Kaburagi. Expect to hear plenty of fuzzy guitar riffs, ethereal electronics, electric guitar twang, and funky grooves. Subtitles are available in English on all four films.
Bonus features are a little light, though considering the vintage of the films and the frequent lack of additional materials produced by the Japanese studios it’s no wonder there isn’t any vintage material. Each film contains an appreciation by a filmmaker or critic who has a deep love for the series, interviews (both new & old) with surviving cast or crew members, and the usual teasers & trailers. All four films are housed in a sturdy chipboard slipcase, each case within containing a Blu-ray and DVD of the feature film along with reversible cover art. A hardcover booklet features essays, a book excerpt, photographs, and technical information regarding the a/v presentation. There is also a double-sided poster featuring original key art for two of the features in there, too.
Special Features:
LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
- Limited Edition Blu-ray collection (3000 copies)
- Brand new 2K restorations of all four films in the series presented on High Definition)
- Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD)
- Original mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-rays) for all films)
- Optional English subtitles for all films)
- Double-sided fold out poster of two original artwork)
- Reversible sleeves for all films featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ian MacEwan)
- Booklet featuring an extract from Unchained Melody: The Films of Meiko Kaji, an upcoming book on the star by critic and author Tom Mes, an archive interview with Meiko Kaji, and a brand new interview with Toru Shinohara, creator of the original Female Prisoner Scorpion manga)
FEMALE PRISONER #701: SCORPION
- Newly filmed appreciation by filmmaker Gareth Evans (The Raid) )
- Archive interview with director Shunya Ito)
- New interview with assistant director Yutaka Kohira)
- Theatrical Trailers for all films in the series)
FEMALE PRISONER SCORPION: JAILHOUSE 41
- Newly filmed appreciation by critic Kier-La Janisse)
- Japanese cinema critic Jasper Sharp looks over the career of Shunya Ito)
- New interview with production designer Tadayuki Kuwana)
- Original Theatrical Trailer)
FEMALE PRISONER SCORPION: BEAST STABLE
- Newly filmed appreciation by critic Kat Ellinger)
- Archive interview with director Shunya Ito)
- New visual essay on the career of star and icon Meiko Kaji by critic Tom Mes)
- Original Theatrical Trailer)
FEMALE PRISONER SCORPION: #701’s GRUDGE SONG
- Newly filmed appreciation by filmmaker Kazuyoshi Kumakiri (Kichiku: Banquet of the Beasts) )
- Archive interview with director Yasuharu Hasebe)
- Japanese cinema critic Jasper Sharp looks over the career of Yasuharu Hasebe)
- Visual essay on the Scorpion series by critic Tom Mes)
- Original Theatrical Trailer)
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Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion
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Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41
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Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable
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Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701’s Grudge Song
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Special Features
Categorized:Reviews
