FEMALE PRISONER SCORPION: #701

“Shunya Itô’s psychedelic, offbeat direction makes his FEMALE PRISONER films much more than politically aware exploitation movies, positioning them somewhere closer to arthouse cinema than to some of the genre’s crass, demeaning counterparts.”
-- Sarah Cronin, ELECTRIC SHEEP MAGAZINE

The four-film Female Prisoner Scorpion cycle charts the vengeance of Nami Matsushima (Meiko Kaji, LADY SNOWBLOOD), who becomes an avatar of survival and an unlikely symbol of female resistance in a male-dominated world. Spiritually akin to MS. 45, COFFY, and THE BRIDE WORE BLACK, FEMALE PRISONER SCORPION: #701 (the first film in the cycle) introduces Nami — a gullible, unjustly imprisoned woman who must find a way to escape and exact revenge upon the man who betrayed her. Featuring stunning pop-art compositions and ultra-violent outbursts, it’s easy to see why this movie was a direct inspiration for Uma Thurman’s character of “The Bride” in Quentin Tarantino’s KILL BILL.