Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (1973)

Matsu is sheltered by an incestuous prostitute on her run from the police, her ex-prison mate and a cop whose arm she hacked off.

Director:

Shun'ya Itô

Writers:

Hirô Matsuda (screenplay), Tooru Shinohara (manga)

Stars:

Meiko Kaji, Mikio Narita, Reisen Ri

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Meiko Kaji	...	Nami Matsushima (Sasori)
Mikio Narita	...	Detective Kondo
Reisen Ri	...	Katsu Samejima
Yayoi Watanabe	...	Yuki Nakagawa
Kôji Nanbara	...	Sameshima
Seiya Satô	...	Takahashi
Takashi Fujiki	...	Tanida
Tomoko Mayama	...	Yasue
Mitsuru Mori	...	Shinobu
Chie Kobayashi	...	Woman in Nude Studio
Kôji Fujiyama	...	Yamazaki
Kôji Sekiyama	...	Yamashita
Nobuo Yana	...	Adachi
Toshiyuki Tsuchiyama	...	Yagi
Hiroshi Date	...	Sameshima's Henchman

Storyline

Sasori is outside the prison and on the run from the police, wanted for breaking out of prison and murder. She takes refuge with a woman who has a brother with a learning disability. The woman and her brother are also involved in an incestuous relationship. Both the police and an ex-prison mate of Sasori's pursue her.

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Plot Keywords:

thought dead | police | incestuous relationship | prostitute | murder | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

References ghost stories of old Japan on demon folklore; the story of Tsuna Watanabe battling a demon and severing his arm, and the story of a brother and sister from a forgotten village committing incest as a means of supporting each other. This is the cinematic world Shunya Ito wanted to create for this installment of the Scorpion series.

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Connections

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

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Soundtracks

Kuruwase tai no
(uncredited)
Performed by Linda Yamamoto
Can be heard playing on Tanida's portable radio

User Reviews

Great capper to an excellent trilogy

I have been looking forward to the release of this DVD (and it's follow-up {Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701's Grudge Song}) for some time. I very much enjoyed the first two movies of this series. After just watching this film, I would have to say that this is probably my favorite of the three.

All three of these movies were directed by Shunya Ito. What is great about them, though, is that, even though they all feature the same lead character (wonderfully played by Meiko Kaji), they are each vastly different from the others.

The first movie (Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion) is more or less a typical Women In Prison movie. But the character of Scorpion is very intriguing - very reminiscent of the anti-heroes of many spaghetti westerns. And the director often used some very interesting and unusual visual approaches to the material.

The second movie (Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41) is a real tour-de-force. Not so much a WIP movie as the bulk of the film has Scorpion and six other escaped inmates on the lam.

This movie (Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable) is the third in the series and the last one directed by Shunya Ito. This one plays out as much more of a crime drama. Once again, our heroine is on the run. But this time out, she has managed to maintain a certain amount of normalcy in her life (relatively speaking anyway). She gets a job, she finds a place to live, she makes a friend on the outside. But, of course, everything has to unravel eventually. FPS: Beast Stable has a more straight-forward story that is told at a more leisurely pace than its predecessors. But I found it to be engaging from beginning to end. And don't worry: there is still plenty of depravity to go around in this movie! But I think these movies transcend most exploitation films because the more disturbing elements are played in a straighter tone rather than being used exclusively for in-your-face shock value. Yes, there were definitely moments in this movie where I cringed mightily. But I didn't feel that they detracted from the value of the story (well, maybe a time or two). One thing I have greatly enjoyed about these films is the continued build-up of Scorpion's mythos. With this entry character development is used much more extensively than in the previous two. We get to see that she is much more than just a stone-hearted vengeful badass!

As I mentioned earlier in this review, a fourth movie followed. It also features Meiko Kaji as Scorpion but had a different director. Without giving anything away I want to mention that FPS: Beast Stable ends in such a way as to make a sequel completely unnecessary. The fourth film is still quite good but it seems to play as a superfluous footnote to a mind-blowing trilogy.

I would highly recommend this movie to anyone interested in out-of-the-ordinary films. FPS: Beast Stable can be enjoyed as a stand-alone piece (as can the first two movies) but I would also recommend watching the others first if you have not already done so.

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

29 July 1973 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable

Company Credits

Production Co:

Toei Company

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1