Female Prisoner Scorpion

Biography

Female Prisoner Scorpion is a 1970s Japanese exploitation "pinky violence" film series directed by Shunya Ito and Yasuharu Hasebe, starring Meiko Kaji as the titular character Nami Matsushira aka Scorpion. The franchise takes place in an all-women prison, the countryside of Japan, and in an urban landscape. The film's "pinky violence" genre is in reference to a period of time in studio Toei's catalog where they produced films from the year 1968 to 1975 that specialized in action, raunchy humor, and sleaze. For further reading on pain in film: Pain in Film.

Cultural impact

The film franchise has gone on to serve as inspiration to directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Nicolas Winding Refn as Tarantino uses the stylings from the films as well as Lady Snowblood in his Kill Bill films. The theme song for the franchise Urami Bushi is played in the Kill Bill films as well.

Summary

Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972)

Nami Matsushima is an inmate in an all-women prison. Her attempt to escape with fellow inmate Yukiko Kida is foiled and she's taken to solitary confinement. Nami Matsushima, referred to as Scorpion, thinks back on her romance that got her in prison with the dirty detective that sold her out to the yakuza and arrested her when she attempted to murder him. After a few run-ins with other convicts, the detective puts a hit on Scorpion and uses a convict named Katagiri to assassinate her. Scorpion manages to evade death and escapes during a riot before getting her revenge on the yakuza and the detective. She is then captured and sent back into prison.

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (1972)

Scorpion gets the prisoners in trouble after she embarrasses an inspector and causes another riot in the jailhouse. After their punishment, Scorpion and a group of other inmates take control of their transport vehicle and escape into the Japanese countryside. They encounter police, nature, their own history, and other vile forces that wish to punish them for being wronged by men. The women take control of a tour bus after witnessing the murder of one of their comrades and get into a standoff in the city led by the warden. Scorpion gets away with the help of Oba before she succumbs to her wounds and Scorpion seeks out the warden for revenge, ending the film with the prisoners running through the city together.

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (1973)

Scorpion evades police in the city and winds up living with a prostitute friend named Yuki. After a woman is told of a potential affair her boyfriend is having with Scorpion, she attempts to throw scalding hot water onto her but hits him instead. Scorpion is dragged in by a prostitution ring and punished for her part in the man's death. Scorpion bares witness to the suffering that the ring puts women through and escapes in order to become an angel of vengeance. The ring leader surrenders herself to the police while the police try to take out Scorpion in the sewers. In prison, Scorpion is brought in under counts of arson and the ring leader tries to kill her while in solitary confinement but ends up killing a detective instead. Scorpion is released a few months later and is never heard from again.

Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701's Grudge Song (1973)

Scorpion is found by police and she's taken in by an old classmate of her's who suffered under the hands of the police. They begin to have a relationship together until he's tortured by the police into giving up Scorpion. After she's taken into prison, they plan to execute her but she manages to get a guard on her side who helps her escape. She returns to her classmate and kills him for betraying her.

Aesthetic strategies

Throughout the franchise, each of these movies have their own distinct style incorporated to make them stand out visually. The first two films employ a theatrical style with revolving and, in general, elaborate set-pieces and stylistic lighting in order to tell the story. The third film, Beast Stable exchanges the theatrical stylings for a grimy, gritty telling of the underbelly of city life. These films optimize the usage of abject as they attempt to make the audience as uncomfortable as the characters are in their given circumstances.

Live theatre inspirations

During the film, the sets will move around as a method of showing a change in setting which is a tactic often using in live theatre. A good portion of the lighting stems from Kabuki theatre color theory as well as outfits and hair stylings. Meiko Kaji uses an understated type of performance known as subtle acting as she chooses when would be best to show emotions. This allows her performances to register stronger with audiences.

Kabuki Performer

Color theory

The Female Prisoner Scorpion franchise is well known for the theatric styling incorporated within the first film #701: Scorpion and the second film Jailhouse 41. Both films utilize colors as a method of expressionism, displaying the feelings and emotions of the characters on the scenery or into the lighting itself. As with the live theatre inspirations, the colors hold different meanings depending on the situation in which they are operated within.

Red

In #701: Scorpion, red is typically accentuated with rage or a desire for justice. In Japan, red is a color seen with importance of scaring away demonic presences. The color is often used in plays as a symbol of justice which aligns with the intent of the film's message. The color red is Scorpion's desire for revenge and retribution for the wrongs that were done to her and to the people around her. In other parts of the movie, red is associated with sexual situations as it appears on a sheet when Scorpion is together with the detective or after the assault from the yakuza. Pairing that meaning of red with the meaning of justice, the film is making a point about red as a motif for sexual violence and revenge for damage inflicted.

In Jailhouse 41, red takes on a slightly different meaning. In a scene to introduce the crimes of the inmates, all of them are doused in red lighting. This is to discuss the idea that red takes on the meaning of passion. In the context here, the passion is born from someone wronging them and their retaliation, thus creating a crime of passion. They end up stained in the red of that crime and that becomes their definition despite the true placement belonging on the men who wronged them in the first place.

Blue

Blue is used in this film series as a means of distinguishing nighttime from daytime. A lot of the time, the inky blue is on everything to be a cold and distant styling. The biggest change is when a fight scene erupts in #701: Scorpion as an inmate becomes enraged and attempts to kill Scorpion in the showers. Her demeanor changes and the background becomes lit by blue. Her hair changes to a wilder style and her face has blue markings on it in reference to Kabuki theatre where evil characters are marked with blue to show the audience their place in the story's morality alignment.

Purple

Purple is only used during one sequence with importance during Jailhouse 41. The convicts find a shack to stay in overnight but discover an old woman holding a knife, promising to curse people. Once the red sequence (listed above) begins, the old woman is lit in purple. This is used as a way of denoting wisdom and spirituality. This woman understands these convicts and their plight on a spiritual level as she begins to sing of their histories and what led them to where they are now. In Japanese culture, this color also represents nobility. She is only lit in purple when she passes away as Scorpion gives her an audience as she passes on to the afterlife, passing the torch of vengeance to Scorpion.

Green

Green is not used very often during this franchise. The most that green is used is as an accent color to the blues but in Beast Stable green begins a life of its own. As the film transfers the series from the jail and countryside into the urban landscape, it begins to adopt a greener color scheme. Traditionally, green represents eternity, vitality, and good luck in Japanese society; but, in Beast Stable the color is used as a mean perversion of that which is promised with the color green. Instead of being a situation of what Scorpion is wanting, the green becomes a hostile and grimy promise of a life of misery. The life away from the prison is not what she was hoping it to be.

Music

Throughout the franchise, music plays an important role as a motif. Each time the theme song Urami Bushi plays in the movie, the song starts in a different verse. This is meant to be a point of reference of the plot's progression with Scorpion's changing situations as she progresses toward her goal. The song plays on themes of a woman's tears that drowns the dishonest men, a heavy-handed approach of discussing the story elements.

During Jailhouse 41, the convicts discover an elderly woman who they bring back to their hideout for safety. As the night progresses, the scenery changes and she begins to sing of the women as their crimes that brought them to where they are. This is used as a method of exposition in a stylistic manner, employing the techniques of Kabuki theatre to show an intersection of older Japanese theatrics with contemporary Japanese cinema.

Themes

Patriarchy - the franchise establishes the patriarchy as suppression and oppression over women in society as the men that run the prison degrade the prisoners and gawk at them for their own person pleasure. The series makes a point to return the pain suffered back at the oppressors, whether they are men or women who perpetuate the effects of patriarchy on other women.

Revenge - revenge is the main thematic element of the franchise as every film surrounds Scorpion and her desire to obtain revenge against those who commit acts of violence against her and her companions.

Prison - whether it's a physical prison or a metaphysical prison, the women are constantly locked in a prison that keeps them suffering. In the first two films, it's a physical representation of restriction but in Beast Stable, the theme becomes more of a metaphorical prison of the soul as Scorpion begins life in the city.

Female rage - a term that's become popular in recent years, female rage is referred to the specific emotion experienced by women that is tied in here with the desire for revenge. In this series, Scorpion's rage cannot be quelled ever since she got burned and the reasoning for why is because the actions taken against women are constant. Her vengeance transcends her own needs and becomes the song for all women that are pained by others.

Critical reception

The films are not the best received and have only recently achieved a cult status. The films are accused of being devoid of substance as they appear to utilize the style that Shunya Ito named for himself starting in #701: Scorpion. Additional arguments about the film franchise argue that the films don't utilize feminism in a proper way and just accentuate the female suffering before leading to revenge.