mmushrm Just watched Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion 39years after it came out and it is still a good movie.This is the 1st of the Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion series (I had actually watched it backwards from 4 to 1), and it shows how the "Scorpion" ended up in prison and how hard she is. The Scorpion is HARD.The movie has all the prison exploitation themes, sadistic guards, naked prisoners, mean prisoners, torture etc. But it also has the Scorpion; imagine Cool Hand Luke but who does not talk, with no humour, a willingness and readiness to kill/injure/maim her tormentors and a single mindedness quest for vengeance. Meiko Kaji (actress) is more widely known for her Lady Snowblood character and movies but IMO her Scorpion Character is way more awesome.I recommend this movie just so you have a lead up to the second movie Female Convict Scorpion Jailhouse 41 which is a MUST watch.

Atavisten This first installment in the Sasori (scorpion) series featuring Kaji Meiko and is much more of a exploitation movie than the follow up. That means girls running around naked in punishment for whatever lack of discipline and getting raped by idiot prison guards.Showing the making of Matsu the vengeful prisoner, we understand her motives quite well and it turns out to be a dense action movie. In the end though this is more or less a display of sadistic torture in both a campy way and a more artistic way. As such it is not quite my cup of tea.Kaji Meiko is not as developed as an actress as in her later movies here, but still puts up a good show, and a brilliant antihero although inferior to the more psychedelic Jailhouse #41 follow up.

BA_Harrison Not quite as hallucinogenic and surreal as Female Convict Scorpion Jailhouse 41, (the sequel, which I mistakenly watched first), but still more art-house than your average 'Women In Prison' flick, Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion is a cool exploitation classic that is a must for anyone who digs cult Japanese cinema, violence, and busty nekkid oriental chicks.Meiko Kaji plays Nami Matsushima, a beautiful woman who is viciously gang-raped after her lover, Sugimi, a corrupt cop, convinces her to go undercover to help him bust a gang of drug dealers. When it becomes clear to Nami that she was merely a pawn in Sugumi's plan to help the Yakuza (by ridding them of their competition), she seeks revenge and unsuccessfully attacks her loathsome lover—an act that ends her up in prison, where she becomes the target of both a sadistic warden and a female prisoner turned assassin.Just like any self-respecting Western W.I.P. flick, Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion contains plenty of nudity, sadistic guards, equally sadistic inmates, and the obligatory lesbian sex scene (when Matsushima seduces a policewoman posing as a fellow prisoner). This being a Japanese movie from the 70s, however, the result is far more pleasing aesthetically, catering not only for drooling sleaze-hounds, but also for those with an eye for a well framed image. The film's cinematography is superb, with several moments being quite beautiful to behold—in particular, a post-riot sunset which turns the whole screen blood red (quite apt, seeing as the scene immediately prior to this features the film's bloodiest moment: a guard gets his head split open with a spade resulting in a geyser of blood spraying into the air).Towards the end, when an escaped Matsushima eventually hunts down the men who raped her and once again tries to kill Sugimi, the film does tend to drag a little (I wanted revenge to come a little swifter than it actually did), but this is a minor quibble with what is a very well crafted piece of exploitation.7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

JoeKarlosi I'm still a novice when it comes to Asian cinema like this, but here is a solid Japanese "women in prison" film which, I'm told, was the first in a long-running series. What immediately struck me as a bonus was how well-directed this was by Shunya Ito, in his first feature film. It really felt ahead of its time and I would have believed it was a brand new movie. Slow motion effects are not always my cup of tea but they were strategically strong here and many other sequences were rendered with a flair for the surreal. It's a violent and sometimes bloody affair which I've encountered before as another wronged, disgruntled, and tough-to-crack pretty heroine (Meiko Kaji) is put into an all-woman prison and abused by its sadistic staff, who try everything they can think of to break her. It's easy to see, especially at the climax, that this movie was probably the 'inspiration' for THRILLER: A CRUEL PICTURE (1974). Its theme song was also borrowed by Quentin Tarantino thirty years later for inclusion in his KILL BILL epic. *** out of ****