Starring the iconic and beautiful Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood, Stray Cat Rock) in a role that came to define her career, the four-film Female Prisoner Scorpion series charts the vengeance of Nami Matsushima, who assumes the mantle of “Scorpion,” becoming an avatar of vengeance and survival, and an unlikely symbol of female resistance in a male-dominated world. Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion introduces Nami, a gullible young woman unjustly imprisoned, who must find a way to escape in order to exact revenge upon the man who betrayed her. The visually avant-garde Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 sees director Shunya Ito and star Meiko Kaji re-unite as Nami and six other female convicts escape prison once more.

The Gothic horror-inspired Beast Stable finds Nami branded public enemy #1 and on the run. She soon finds refuge with a sympathetic prostitute, but runs afoul of a local gang. The final film in the series, #701’s Grudge Song (from director Yasuharu Hasebe, Retaliation, Massacre Gun), shows a gentler side of Nami as she falls in with Kudo, an ex-radical suffering from physical and psychological trauma caused by police torture. Spiritual kin to Ms. 45, Coffy and The Bride Wore Black, Female Prisoner Scorpion is the pinnacle of early 1970s exploitation cinema from Japanese grindhouse studio Toei, and one of the greatest female revenge sagas ever told.

Special Features

• Brand new 2K restorations of all four films in the series presented on High Definition Blu-ray (1080p)
• Reversible sleeves for all films featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ian MacEwan
• Newly filmed appreciation by filmmaker Gareth Evans (The Raid)
• Shunya Ito: Birth of an Outlaw, an archive interview with the director
• Scorpion Old and New, a new interview with assistant director Yutaka Kohira
• Theatrical Trailers for all four films in the series
• Newly filmed appreciation by critic Kier-La Janisse
• Japanese cinema critic Jasper Sharp examines the career of Shunya Ito
• Designing Scorpion, a new interview with production designer Tadayuki Kuwana
• Original Theatrical Trailer and Teaser
• Newly filmed appreciation by critic Kat Ellinger
• Shunya Ito: Directing Meiko Kaji, an archive interview with the director
• Unchained Melody, a new visual essay by Tom Mes on the career of Meiko Kaji
• Original Theatrical Trailer and Teaser
• Newly filmed appreciation by filmmaker Kazuyoshi Kumakiri (Kichiku: Banquet of the Beasts)
• Yasuharu Hasebe: Finishing the Series, an archive interview with the director
• Japanese cinema critic Jasper Sharp examines the career of Yasuharu Hasebe
• They Call Her Scorpion, a new visual essay by Tom Mes on the film series

Specifications

• Number of Discs: 4
• Runtime: 353
• Audio: Original uncompressed PCM mono audio
• Subtitles: Optional English subtitles

Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion (1972)

Director: Shunya Itō
Cast: Meiko Kaji, Isao Natsuyagi, Fumio Watanabe, Hiroko Ogi

Meiko Kaji plays Nami Matsushima, a woman who is sent to prison after being betrayed by her detective lover, against whom she seeks revenge. Matsushima is used as a spy by her boyfriend, a police detective named Sugimi, to investigate a drug smuggling ring. However, her role is discovered and she is raped by several drug dealers. It emerges that Sugimi was simply using Matsushima as a pretext to obtain a bribe from the yakuza. Seeking revenge, Matsushima makes a failed attempt to stab Sugimi on the steps of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police headquarters. She is sentenced to do hard time in a women’s prison, where she is given the number 701.

Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (1972)

Director: Shunya Itō
Cast: Meiko Kaji, Fumio Watanabe

After spending a year in solitary confinement, Matsu escapes from prison with six more convicts, followed by the guards led by a vengeful warden named Goda, who wants her dead at all costs.

Female Convict Scorpion: Beast Stable (1973)

Director: Shunya Itō
Cast: Meiko Kaji, Mikio Narita, Koji Nanbara, Reisen Lee

Matsushima is outside the prison and on the run from the police, wanted for breaking out of prison and murder. On her trail is detective Kondo. She takes refuge with a woman who has a brother with a mental disability. After the brother attempts to sexually assault Matsushima, she cuts him with a knife as a warning. The woman ultimately reveals her brother frequently takes advantage of her. Both the police and an ex-prison mate of Matsushima’s pursue her.

Female Prisoner Scorpion: 701’s Grudge Song (1973)

Director: Yasuharu Hasebe
Cast: Meiko Kaji, Masakazu Tamura

Nami Matsushima is found in a wedding chapel by police led by detective Hirose. They handcuff her, but she is able to escape. Kudo, a worker in a sex show club, rescues her. He is a radical with a history of problems with the police. One of the women from the sex show, who had unsuccessfully tried to seduce Kudo, finds Nami’s handcuffs in Kudo’s things, and informs the police. The police arrest and beat Kudo and then release and tail him back to Nami’s hiding place.

Nami is captured and sentenced to death. Just before her execution, Nami is allowed to escape by a warden who cooperating with the police to set up Nami. Nami is taken to a gallows outside the prison where Hirose plans to hang her. She beats Hirose and he ends up hanged instead of her, before Nami kills Kudo.