Female Prisoner Scorpion Quadrilogy (1972-1973)

(WARNING: This review contains spoilers) I have recently been on a Japanese Cinema kick – it started after seeing Godzilla Minus One in the theatres and is still going strong two months later. I have watched The Gamera series; A bunch of Ishiro Honda films (The H-Man, Matango, Battle In Outer Space, Atragon), The Bloodthirsty trilogy (The Vampire Doll, Lake of Dracula, Evil of Dracula), The Ring series, Dark Water, Lady Snowblood, and the subject of today’s review, the Female Prisoner Scorpion Quadrilogy. Throughout the 70s (and even into the 80s), “women behind bars” was a popular subgenre of movies that was produced predominantly by B studios. These movies are a prime example of exploitation cinema (Japan has a specific name for this genre of film, Pink): they often featured lots of female nudity, violence, gratuitous sex scenes, and the occasional lesbian scene thrown in for good measure. It isn’t too surprising that Toei (Japan’s equivalent to American International Pictures) eventually got into the act. In 1972 and 1973, Toei produced the Female Prisoner Scorpion Quadrilogy; which follows the exploits of the unflappable convict Nami Matsushima (AKA: The Scorpion). These four movies basically follow the formula of your average “women behind bars” film, but what separates these four films from the rest is the often-surrealistic direction and the star of the series, Meiko Kaji.

 Nami Matsushima is the female counterpart to Clint Eastwood’s “The Man with No Name” character; they only speak when absolutely necessary (in the second entry, Jailhouse 41, Matsu has only two lines of dialogue). In Nami’s case, you always sense she is sizing up the people around her, trying to determine if they can be trusted, or looking for a potential weakness she can exploit. She patiently waits for the ideal moment to strike and when she does, it’s usually in a stealth-like manner. After she breaks out of prison, she stalks the streets of Tokyo in a black trench coat and black sunhat (looking like death incarnate) and picks off her unsuspecting prey one by one.

There are two notable differences between Nami and “The Man With No Name”: In the first movie, we are shown Nami’s backstory while “The Man with No Name” remains a completely mystery. Occasionally, Nami will let her mask slip and we see her more vulnerable side. She will occasionally cry (though usually when no one else is around, Nami would never give her enemies the satisfaction of seeing her tear up). In the fourth film, she becomes romantically involved with would be anarchist, Kudo. “The Man With No Name” is an asexual character; he is not the least bit interested in sex.

Nami, on the other hand, has no qualms about using sex for own benefit. In the first film, the sadistic warden puts Kito (an undercover cop) into solitary confinement with Nami to spy on her. Nami is immediately wise to this ruse but also senses that Kito is attracted to her and seduces the naïve Kito. She works up Kito to the point of arousal and then pulls away; this leaves Kito begging Matsu for more, but she is denied the pleasure. The next day when Kito is reporting to the warden, she keeps begging him to put her back in solitary confinement; the warden puts two and two together, strips down Kito, sees that her body is covered with lipstick, and promptly dismisses the hysterical officer. This scene has two functions: its main function, of course, is to titillate the audience – Kito is completely stripped naked by Nami, and the camera lingers on her nude body for quite some time. However, it also gives us an insight into Nami’s character – she discovers Kito’s weakness and uses it to discredit her. This scene also contributes to the movie’s surreal quality – the idea that Kito would have lipstick all her body is ludicrous. For starters, it is unlikely the prison would allow Nami to wear lipstick, especially if she was in solitary confinement. This is less about realism and more about visually depicting Kito's state of mind - she  is so obsessed with Nami that, instead of washing the lipstick off, she decides to leave it on her body as a memento of their short-lived fling. 

 Nami can often be reckless when it comes to her revenge, and it often results in collateral damage. In 701’s Grudge Song, Kudo and Nami break into the apartment of their common enemy, Detective Kodoma, and bound and gag his pregnant wife. They are hoping to ambush the detective, but when he fails to show up, they try to strong arm information out of her, and she ends up falling to her death as result of their carelessness.

In the second film, Jailhouse 41, Nami and six other inmates escape from prison and end up hijacking a bus full of sightseers. Nami holds the driver at knifepoint, while her fellow inmates start terrorizing the passengers on the bus. At first, their wrath is justified, as they are initially taunting three men who are responsible for rape and murder of Rose, the youngest member of the gang, but then they target two women on the bus (who had nothing to with Rose’s death) by stripping of their clothes and forcing them to dance. The most sadistic member of the gang, Oba, sticks her shotgun into an old man’s crotch and forces him to shout “Banzai!” It’s pretty evident that Nami is disgusted by their actions but also doesn’t want to get involved (mainly because she is outnumbered). Oba and the gang betray Nami when, after they come across a barricade, throw Nami off the bus to create a distraction. Later, the bus is cornered by law enforcement, and the warden sends Nami into to check out the scene. She exchanges a few words with Oba and then walks back to the warden. When he asks her how the hostages are doing, she lies and says they are all dead. The police open fire on the bus and end up killing the inmates (except Oba who is mortally wounded) but it’s also likely that a few of the passengers were killed as well. Nami is so hell bent on getting revenge on her betrayers (and making the police look foolish) that she is willing to risk the lives of innocent civilians. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. 

The best thing that Quadrilogy has going for it is Meiko Kaji in the title role. Kaji is an extremely interesting actress; she is striking beautiful, to be sure, but she has a total command of the screen. In comparison, I recently watched the B-movie, OneChanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad, and while the lead actress in that movie, Eri Otoguri, is also extremely attractive (she looks great in a bikini) she completely lacks the screen presence that Kaji displays here. Meiko Kaji is one of those rare actresses who can say a lot by doing very little: there is a moment in the fourth film, 701’s Grudge Song, where Kudo is talking to Nami and she flashes him a tiny smile; it is very subtle, but it speaks volumes about Nami’s state of mind – she is cautiously optimistic. She also brings a great deal of intensity to the role; when Nami dons the black trench coat and sunhat, you know she means business and no one is going to stand in her way.

In Beast Stable, we get a better look at Nami’s more sensitive side – there is a scene where she has an emotional breakdown and starts to cry (again, no one is around to witness it). Nami has been caught by the yakuza and is trapped in a cage with ravens. This isn’t what causes the breakdown rather, it’s the sight of the prostitute, Shinobu, who is lying on the floor next to Nami. Shinobu was six months pregnant and was forced to get an abortion by her madame, Katsu. Katsu indifferently tosses the distraught Shinobu in the same room as Nami. The sight of Shinobu crying out in pain while still covered in blood is too much for Nami and she can't hold back her tears. However, she quickly recovers and forms a plan to get out of her makeshift prison. 

 It would a be easy to dismiss Kaji as a one note actress (it was during this time she played a similar character in Lady Snowblood) but prior to Female Prisoner Scorpion series, she starred in the Stray Cat Rock series, and she often played characters who the polar opposite of Nima Matsushima; in Wild Jumbo, she plays the delinquent C-ko, and not only does her character say a lot, but she manages to inject humor into her performance. It is my opinion that Meiko Kaji could have been an international star if she had sought it out. I could totally see Meiko Kaji teaming up with Clint Eastwood in a western; two drifters who reluctantly team up to take out a common enemy. Oh well!!! Thankfully, Meiko Kaji has not been lost to history; she has become a cult actress, and The Female Prisoner Scorpion series and Lady Snowblood were two of the main inspirations for Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill movies. On top of being a great actress, she was also an accomplished singer (she sings the theme song in all four Female Prisoner Scorpion movies, as well as theme song to Lady Snowblood; both of which appears on the Kill Bill soundtrack). 

 The other thing that distinguishes the Female Prisoner Scorpion (at the least the first three films) is its surreal approach to the material. The first three movies were directed by Shunya Ito, and he definitely has an imaginative style. #701’s Grudge Song was directed by Yasuharu Hasebe and it’s the weakest out of the series because it is the most routine. 

 The first indication that this is not going to be your average “Woman behind Bars” movie is the flashback in the first movie. In a more conventional movie, the flashback would be signified with the use of a cloudy filter and distorted images, but director Ito opts for a more surrealistic approach – there is no clear transition between scenes but rather they seem to bleed into one another. For instance, the flashback begins with Nami and her then boyfriend, Detective Sugimi, making love in spacious, empty room. The camera then pans up to the back wall of the room and then silhouettes of people sitting at tables appear on the wall, then the lights go up and we are in a nightclub. Nami has been sent by Sugimi to spy on a drug smuggling ring, but her cover is blown, and she is raped by a several drug dealers. It’s only after she is raped that Sugimi arrives on the scene and makes the arrest; he gloats over his arrest while ignoring Nami’s current state. However, it turns out that this whole bust was just a pretext to obtain a bribe from the yakuza. He sold Nami out to a pack of wolves. We also get a rather clever transition from the nightclub to the office of the yakuza boss; Sugimi busts opens a safe that contains the drugs and then the back wall does a 360 spin and next thing know, Sugimi is standing next to the desk of the yakuza boss, counting his bribe money. Through the entirety of this scene, Nami is lying in the foreground of the shot.  

In the next scene, Nami tries to kill Sugimi outside police quarters, in broad daylight, she is still wearing the torn-up dress that she was raped in. Remember, this is a flashback told from Nami’s point of view, so it’s not an accurate telling of what happened, but rather represents Nami’s state of mind – after being raped, Nami feels exposed to the world. 

 Later, there is a fight scene between Nami and fellow inmate, Masaki. However, the lighting, staging and make up of this scene seems more fitting for a horror movie than an action film. The character of Masaki is made up like The Bride of Frankenstein and seems to glide across the room (it’s a scene that anticipates Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy). The scene ends when Masaki accidentally stabs the warden in eye with a shard of glasses (she is aiming for Nami, who ducks out of the way at the last second). This, naturally, enrages the warden and he strangles Masaki to death.

The second film, Jailhouse 41, has a scene where each of the inmates' backstory is explained to the audience, but it is done through song rather than dialogue. An offscreen voice, accompanied by a biwa, sings in detail how each woman wound up in prison. This scene begins with a long shot; the seven women are sitting middle of the frame, in front of black background, while an old woman appears to hover over them in the background. They are sitting in front of a fire - this scene has very mystical quality to it. It is also done in a minimalistic manner – when each individual woman's story being told, she is sitting in front of black background and the camera slowly zooms in on her. 

The third film, Beast Stable, has another scene that is straight out of a horror movie – at the beginning of the movie, Nami manages to escape a police officer who has handcuffed her by hacking off his arm. While she is free, she is still handcuffed to a severed arm. After the prostitute Yuki has finished with a client, she hears noises coming from the cemetery and noticed Nami crouched behind a headstone, biting on the severed arm to free herself from the handcuffs. It is a credit to the filmmakers and Meiko Kajis performance that Nami looks ghoulish in this scene – she could easily be an extra from Night of the Living Dead.

The closest thing we get to surrealism in the fourth movie is the final confrontation between Nami and Detective Kodoma; he has broken out of prison so he can hang her on his own makeshift galley. The set (intentionally) looks fake, with a fake sky filled with fake grey clouds. However, the climax to this scene is poorly staged – Detective Kodoma puts Nami’s neck in the noose and kicks the chair out from under her; she manages to jump and grab onto the top beam of the galley, freeing herself in the process, Kodama fires a few shots at her with his gun but somehow misses, he stumbles on the trap door, his neck goes through the noose in the process, and he accidentally hangs himself. This scene happens so fast, and is accomplished with rapid cuts, that it is hard to figure out what happened. It’s rather anti-climactic.

While I have many positive things to say about the Female Prisoner Scorpion trappings, it isn’t exempt from the sleazy trappings that frequently popped in exploitation movies. It suffers from the attitude that was prevalent in grindhouse films – there is no such thing as bad nudity. In #701’s Grudge Song, there is a rather gratuitous rape scene. Detective Kodoma and the female warden express concern that Prison Guard Daiman is too soft on the prisoners and have her raped by a few police officers to shape her up - Kodoma blackmails her into going along with his plan for revenge. The problem with this scene is that it comes immediately after Daiman is seen taunting Nami as she scrubs the steps on the galley; Nami’s treatment of prisoner Akiko has turned Daiman against Nami. It’s more than likely Daiman would have gone along with his scheme without the rape. It has no bearing on the plot; it’s just an excuse to show an attractive woman naked. Beast Stable is probably the sleaziest film in the bunch (yet is still more entertaining than #701’s Grudge Song); in it Nami forms a friendship with the prostitute Yuki, who is also in an incestuous relationship with her mentally challenged brother. We get multiple sex scenes between the two and they are, appropriately, creepy. Yuki willingly offers up her body to brother as way of keeping him in check, she gets no pleasure from it – she just lies on floor still while his brother has his way with her. It should also note that I watched Beast Stable on the same night as Shogun’s Joy of Torture; another Toei movie that features a story of incest. What the hell, Toei? It should also be pointed out that Yuki is played by Yayoi Watanabe, who appears in three of the Female Prison Scorpion movies (she plays a different role in each film).  As Yuki, she gives a very effective performance; in her hands, Yuki comes across as a tragic heroine than a lowly prostitute.  

 Another interesting theme that pops up throughout the series is that the female prisoners are often as cruel and sadistic as the prisoner guards; in the first film, Katagiri, at the request of Sugimi, agrees to kill Nami in exchange for her freedom. However, she isn't foolish enough to take Nami on by herself, instead she turns the entire prison against Nami (by implying she is working with the guards). The women gang up on Nami, tie her up, hanging her up on the ceiling, and take turns beating up on her. It's only after Katagiri attempts to burn them all alive that they realize they have duped and turn on Katagiri. In the sequel, the six prisoner who escape with Nami torment an entire bus of sightseers and then betray Nami by throwing her to the police.

 Yet, there often moments of humanity scattered throughout the series. In Jailhouse 41, the escapee Rose is urinating by a lake and is spotted by two young boys. The two boys, with their juvenile minds, find sight of woman urinating hilarious, and Rose, taking no offense to the boy's amusement, laughs along with them and then exchanges a few pleasant words with them. Sadly, it's after this pleasant encounter that she runs into three slimy businessmen who raped and murder her. In Beast Stable Nami develops a bond with the Yuki; she is appalled by Yuki's incestuous relationship her brother, but she senses a kindred spirit - they both have been hurt by the people they loved. Later, when Nami is on the run and hiding in the sewers, Yuki finds her and gives her food and clean water to drink.

 Other than the sleazy visuals, the writing is heavily flawed – too much of Nami’s success is predicated on her enemies making dumb decisions. Detective Kodama, not content with the State hanging Nami, breaks her out of prison so he can enact his own personal revenge. If he had allowed the State to do their job, he would still be alive. In the first film, Sugimi has Nami cornered in the elevator, but rather than kill her decides to kiss her; she takes advantage of this opportunity by biting deeply into his lower lip, which results in copious amounts of blood squirting out.

 In #701’s Grudge Song, the romance between Nami and Kudo is forced; it’s hard to believe that someone as levelheaded as Nami would fall for an unhinged lunatic like Kudo. Hell, even their love scene is passionless; it feels like the filmmakers just wanted to get it out of the way and rushed through it.

Though, there is a great payoff to this relationship: the police capture Kudo and after hours of torture, finally get him to break once they bring out his mother; she shames him into revealing Nami’s location. This is second time that she has been betrayed by a man she has loved and after she disposes of Kudoma she goes after Kudo. She confronts him at the strip club he works at (he is a lighting technician). He is happy to see her and gives her a hug; while she is in his embrace, she stabs him with a knife. However, Kudo doesn’t begrudge Nami for this; he was fully anticipating it and dies peacefully.

 The Female Prisoner Scorpion movies are by no means cinematic masterpieces, but they are worth seeing for their compelling lead actress, Meiko Kaji, and their often-surrealistic visuals. If you are a fan of exploitation cinema and surrealism, then these films are probably up your alley. If you are the type of person whose cup of tea is Maid in Manhattan or Titanic, then say clear away.

 Credits 

Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972) Cast: Meiko Kaji (Nami Matsushima/Scorpion), Rie Yokoyama (Katagiri), Yayoi Watanabe (Yukiko Kida), Yoko Mihara (Masaki), Akemi Negishi (Otsuka), Keiko Kuni (Nemoto), Yumiko Katayama (Kito), Emi Jo (Morikawa), Isao Natsuyagi (Tsugio Sugimi), Fumio Watanabe (Warden Goda). Director: Shunya Ito Writers: Fumio Konami, Hiro Matsuda Running Time: 87 minutes

 Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (1972) Cast: Meiko Kaji (Nami Matsushima/Scorpion), Fumio Watanabe (Warden Goda), Kayoko Shiraishi (Oba), Yukie Kagawa (Tomiko Yasuki), Eiko Yanami (Harue), Hiroko Isayama (Asaka Noda), Kuniko Ishii (Rose Miyako), Yuki Aresa (Kimiyo Oikawa), Hideo Murota (Okizaki), Fudeko Tanaka (The Old Woman). Director: Shunya Ito Writers: Shunya Ito, Fumio Konami, Hiro Matsuda. Running Time: 90 minutes 

 Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (1973) Cast: Meiko Kaji (Nami Matsushima/Scorpion), Yayoi Watanabe (Yuki), Mikio Narita (Detective Kondo), Reisen Lee (Katsu), Koji Nanbara (Sameshima), Takashi Fujika (Tanida), Tomoko Mayama (Shinobu). Director: Shunya Ito Writer: Hiro Matsuda Running Time: 87 minutes 

 Female Prisoner Scorpion: 701’s Grudge Song (1973) Cast: Meiko Kaji (Nami Matushima/ Scorpion), Masakazu Tamura (Teruo Kudo), Toshiyuki Hosokawa (Takeshia Kodoma), Yumi Kanei (Kinuyo Kodoma), Hiroshi Tsukata (Detective Hirose), Yayoi Watanabe (Midori), Sanae Nakahara (Akiko), Kaoru Kusuda (Prison director Nakasone), Akemi Negishi (Prison Guard Minamimura), Akiko Mori (Chief Guard Daimon), Junko Ando (Prison Guard Mazaki). Director: Yasuharu Hasebe Writers: Yasuharu Hasebe, Fumio Konami, Hiro Matsuda Running Time: 89 minutes.