Female Prisoner #701 Scorpion: Beast Stable (1973)

The third Female Prisoner Scorpion film was Shunya Itō’s last. Again he brought something completely new to the table; none of the entries so far are a simple rehash. The use of sound is as exciting as before, but by taking fewer avant-garde risks visually it lost its edge a little. It more closely resembles a straightforward escaped convict/detective drama, albeit one with incest, scalpel murders and a violent prostitution ring.
There’s a deep melancholy infused in both the environment and the Sasori character; she seems lost when she has no one to outwardly hate.

3 useful prison skills out of 5

Female Prisoner #701 Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (1972)

In most cases a sequel capitalises on whatever it was that specifically made the original stand out by turning it up to suffocating proportions, but not so with the second Sasori film. Shunya Itō relocates it and then throws in a hefty dollop of ghostly theatrics and experimentalism. The result is a film that’s as surreal as it is violent. Matsu doesn't say very much throughout but her steely gaze reveals more than words could.
The camera doesn't just capture the action, it narrates and participates. Itō proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that in the right hands exploitation cinema can be a genuine art form.

4 bus rides out of 5

Female Prisoner #701 Scorpion (1972)

Shunya Itō's début as director was the first in a series of Sasori (Scorpion) films. It has all the elements you’d expect to see in a pinku eiga WIP (Women in Prison) feature, nudity, bondage, sadism, etc, but it has much more to offer than just that: Itō's stylistic framing, symbolism, inventiveness, transitions and sheer disregard for convention is highly entertaining. The brutality of the women toward each other is sometimes hard to watch, but the strength and determination of the Scorpion (Meiko Kaji) needs that kind of struggle in order to be fully explored.

4 grudge melodies out of 5