Thursday, March 29, 2012

Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion

Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion




Women in prison week continues with this super groovy film from the land of the rising sun Japan. Our heroine Niami Matsushima is set up by her police detective lover , but to top it all off she is brutally raped by drug dealers that are on the cops take. Feeling scorned she savagely attacks her now ex-boyfriend with a knife on the steps of the Police Headquarters and did i mention all while totally naked! She is thrown in jail and must survive a slew of cruel wardens and nasty inmates all while still under the thumb of her ex lover who still has plans for her. While I did enjoy the last film Bare Behind Bars, this is much much better.  The story line is allot more polished and well crafted, and the main character will really have you rooting for her. It`s no surprise that some of Kill Bill was borrowed from FP.


Niami is such a cool heroine and she just kicks so much ass and we as an audience really wants to see her succeed in her quest for revenge. Shes not your typical victim, shes a strong female role model which was almost unheard of at the time. Move over Pam Grier, there's another bad-ass momma in town.  The visuals the director provides makes this leaps and bounds better then most in this sub genre, every shot has some thought behind it. It`s also a very interesting choice to use hand held cameras at times, and the use of a theater like staging during the flashback sequence. His use of color and weird experimental camera use makes it like an LSD trip. The overall feel is like watching a outrageous live action comic book.
 Like any good WIP movie there is nudity aplenty and this is no exception. While not being nearly as graphic as the previous film (Bare Behind Bars) it does have its moments,which brings me to the gore. There are some very cool graphic kill scenes and one eye trauma scene that would make Lucio Fulci proud. The FX are well done and don`t look nearly as cheesy as some films of this time period. While this is a well thought out stylish movie not to fear its also a very filthy scummy movie like all good women in prison movies should be. Its not hard to see how this film was so popular it spawned sequels and remakes.

No comments:

Post a Comment