Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972)
First in a series of four Japanese 'women in prison' (WIP) films that starred Meiko Kaji as Nami Matsushima (AKA 'Scorpion'), a gullible woman incarcerated after being betrayed by her corrupt police detective lover. The plot follows the the classic WIP formula; woman is sent unfairly to prison, woman suffers sadistic abuse from both guards and inmates, woman determines to get revenge on those who sent her there. Along the way we get all the expected tropes - humiliating strip-searches, naked shower fights, brutal punishments, and sex between inmates; as far as the narrative goes there's nothing new here. What sets the film apart is the 'arthouse' style in which some of it is filmed. Director Shunya Itō (his debut - he went on to direct the next two in the series) and cinematographer Hanjiro Nakazawa make spectacular use of colour, with open skies transforming from grey, through orange, red and purple as tensions in the prison below increase, boil over, and erupt into riot, as well as lighting changes creating surreal effects on faces in some scenes. I feel if Mario Bava had made a 'women in prison' film it would look something like this.
The performance of lead actress Meiko Kaji as 'Scorpion' is terrific. Compared to her, Clint Eastwood's 'Man with No Name' is positively talkative - but she says so much with her eyes. And when she's enduring treatment that would (and does) have others falling to their knees and begging for mercy, she just keeps on going; battered, bruised, bloody - but never broken. You know she's just waiting for her time. And when it comes, God help whoever's in her sights. Rie Yokoyama's performance as Katagiri, another inmate, also stands out. The rest of the cast are good (you have to bear in mind it's a Japanese film, made in the early 1970s - there's a certain style to some of the acting).
Gratuitous nudity, gore, and violence - I'm looking forwards to the next one. 7.5/10