DVD Release
Female Prisoner #701 – Scorpion (1972)
R1 / NTSC DVD
Tokyo Shock / 2003
Director: Shunya Ito
Writers: Fumio Konami, Hirô Matsuda
Cast: Meiko Kaji, Fumio Watanabe, Yayoi Watanabe, Isao Natsuyagi
Review by Vaughn Drake
We open with a daylight jailbreak in a women’s prison while the warden and the guards are celebrating the warden’s commendation for many years of service. It’s obvious right away that Nami Matsushima (Matsu to her fellow prisoners and Nami to her boyfriends) is not going to be in the wardens good books, after his commendation is nearly trampled into the dirt.
Matsu is quickly recaptured and we get the first glimpse of T&A, and in the most unusual of forms: guards ogling and leering at the women while moving through an odd obstacle course. Soon she’s placed in solitary where she’s tied up and abused. We see a very artsy flashback explaining how she ended up in her present situation, and without me saying too much, it involves a boyfriend, the Yakuza and rape.
Of course, this being a Women In Prison flick, we have to see a few women getting it on and more sadistic behavior between them, in addition to the shedding of the guards blood. Most of the action sequences are rather poorly acted and the prison lesbian scenes aren’t the hottest on celluloid, but the lead actress, Meiko Kaji, is very easy on the eyes, so it sort of all washes out.
Something I don’t normally notice when watching foreign films, especially WIP films, is the soundtrack, but in this case, it needs to be mentioned. The song used in the opening and near the end, is fantastic. As an added bonus to you, the viewer, Tokyo Shock has translated the lyrics. One line from the song “To be deceived is a woman’s crime”, speaks volumes on Matsu’s state of mind throughout her ordeal.
It’s too bad I don’t have a widescreen tv to have watched this on since the main menu was in widescreen as well as partially off the screen. (Plus, it didn’t work unless I used numerical entries, but at least the secondary menus did work.) The DVD itself is very barebones, and the extra trailers weren’t even in English. In additional to these two minor complaints, there needed to be better color correction. This was most noticeable during the sand digging scenes featuring Matsu.
Overall it’s highly recommended to those who insist upon quality when wanting an excuse to see lots of semi-naked women running around. It’s also highly recommended to those who need to see a WIP flick and lots of semi-naked Japanese women running around, but don’t mind the strange Japanese custom of not showing any pubic hair (you’ll be treated to many, many white panty crotch shots). Heck. It’s recommended for everyone!
While not as sleazy as most WIP flicks, it delivers on many other levels including high production values, an artistic flourish not normally found in type of movie, and of course its fair share of t&a. Some of the artsy shots are quite beautiful, and if you pay attention you can see several artistic variations of the Japanese flag used as centerpieces throughout. A lot of aspects from this movie were used three decades later in the Kill Bill movies.
