Joshuu sasori: Dai-41 zakkyo-bô, a.k.a. Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41

Directed by Shunya Ito

Starring: Meiko Kaji, Yukie Kagawa, Fumio Watanabe, Shinzo Hotta, Hideo Murota

This is not only the best Women In Prison Film ever made, it is one of the best exploitation films I have ever seen. The beautiful Meiko Kaji reprises her role as Matsu the Scorpion. A character very similar to Clint Eastwood's "man with no name". The film opens with Matsu sharpening a spoon she is holding in her teeth against a stone wall while chained in the prison basement. After a year in the hole, her will still hasn't been broken by the vengeful Warden whose eye she gouged out in the first film. When a visiting official comes to inspect the camp, Matsu is brought to the yard in chains. He feels sympathy for this poor woman who is to weak to stand on her own. This gives Matsu a window of opportunity to gouge out the Warden's other eye. This unsuccessful attempt at optical carnage brings about a Warden ordered gang rape at the rock quarry to humiliate her in front of the other inmates.On the ride back to the prison a group of inmates who are growing tired of Matsu's ghost like persona beat her until they think she is dead. The guards stop the truck to check on her condition, and a break out ensues. The prisoners head into the mountains, and hold up in a cabin where they meet and old lady who might be a ghost. Here we learn of the treacherous crimes the women have committed.

I have to stop right here on churning out plot points.It would be criminal on my behalf to reveal anything else that may take away from your enjoyment of this production. With the exception of two plot twist Female Convict Scorpion follows your standard WIP breakout revenge story line. What sets this film apart is how masterfully it is constructed. The lighting schemes are an incredible experiment in using unnatural light sources and color to focus on the various moods of each inmate. Over saturated blues and reds often spring up out of nowhere within a scene. It recalls the best of Dario Argento's lighting from his three mothers (witches) series of the mid 70's. The camera is constantly moving and displaying numerous skewed angles that would put a smile on Orson Welles' face, and enhance the films comicbook art direction. The structure of the film is chaotic at times, changing to live Kabuki theater, cutting to dream sequences that reveal back story, a tilt that leads to an out of focus zoom played over three times during a rape sequence, shots that hold on a still frame, and one shot that has the film being sliced by the knife wielding heroine! None of this artsy experimentation distracts from the film, director Shunya Ito nicely blends it all together for full exploitive effect.

The experimentation appears to be influenced in some way by Godard's later work like Weekend or Suzuki's Branded to Kill, and may remind viewers of the style seen in Jodowrsky's El Topo or Stone's Natural Born Killers. The locations and set pieces are like something from a Fellini film, parts of this production were shot in an abandoned town after a volcanic eruption, and another sequence takes place in a massive garbage dump. These photogenic and oppressive locations add nicely to the themes of alienation, and the nihilistic tone this film carries. The most normal looking location (a tourist spot) leads to some of the films brutal moments as the women try to merge back into society. The gore crowd will be pleased because the blood literally flows in this film. It's that cool bright crimson 70's blood from films like Tombs of the Blind Dead. You know, the cool spaghetti western thick stuff.

There isn't much nudity, but at times Scorpion Female Prisoner covers some pretty sleazy ground. Lesbian gropinngs by fire light as the elderly lady clutches her knife. What really makes this film rise to the top of the exploitation crop is the performance by Meiko Kaji. She only utters two sentences in this film (my favorite sequence), but her stone cold determination manages to leave a lasting impression on the viewer. When her revenge is completed, and a glimpse of scorpion's emotions are finally seen, it is truly frightening. Image Entertainment does a great job with the transfer on the DVD. The subtitles are white, but easy to read amongst the rich blacks that fill the movie. This is the best film to successfully incorporate art and exploitation. Reaching the level that Luis Bunuel was starting to approach in his later films. If you like watching moving images, you must see it. I know I'll be trying very hard to track down the rest of this series.