Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (1973)

The two punch combo of director Shunya Itō and star Meiko Kaji had roared onto Japanese screens with Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (alias Joshū Nana-maru-ichi Gō / Sasori, 1972), and its immediate sequel, Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (alias, Joshū Sasori – Dai 41 Zakkyobō 1972), delivered more of the same. 

Thus, Toei, the studio behind them, at first reluctant, now openly embraced this new breed of film, which explains why Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (alias Joshū Sasori - Kemono Beya, 1973) was also put on the fast track.

This third entry in the Sasori / Scorpion saga begins rather gruesomely as our fugitive heroine Matsu (Meiko), still on the loose after the successful bloody conclusion of the last chapter, narrowly escapes the long-arm of the law when her new arch-nemesis, Detective Kondo (Narita), tries to nab her on a subway train, only to literally lose an arm.

Seems he managed to cuff himself to Matsu, so she just chopped off the tethered appendage to make her escape. (The scene as she flees the subway and into the light, the dismembered hand still tethered to her wrist, leading to a near total white-out, is another win to notch on the innovative director's belt.)

Hiding out in a cemetery, Matsu is taken in by a prostitute, who cares for but also has a disturbing mutually beneficial incestuous relationship with her hapless, sex-addicted and brain-damaged brother. Recognizing her from all the wanted for murder posters, a miserable Yuki (Watanabe) is now pregnant and hoping Matsu will help out and just put her brother out of his / her misery.

Meanwhile, Yuki is also having problems with a local brothel -- more specifically Madam Katsu (Ri) and her goon squad, who don't take kindly to independent sex-workers horning onto their turf.

Having once served time with the notorious Scorpion, Katsu recognizes Matsu and knows she has the wanted fugitive over a barrel. With plans to add Matsu to her stable, this unwilling recruit is drugged and left in a giant birdcage (-- just roll with this, trust me), where Matsu watches one of the other prostitutes, forced into having a botched back-alley abortion, bleed out and die.

Of course this once again lights a raging fire of vengeance in Matsu; for it's bad enough when men exploit women like this but it’s even worse when women do it to themselves. And after hemorrhaging out all of her henchmen, Katsu actually turns herself in to the authorities and willingly goes to prison, hoping this will somehow save her from the wrath of the Scorpion.

But nowhere is safe from the deadly eyes of the blade-slinging Matsu. And after a not-so-brief interlude where she's trapped in a sewer maze / rat trap by a psychotically determined Kondo -- determined to see her dead, that is, which he thinks he has accomplished with some induced help from Yuki, a thousand gallons of gas, and a tossed match.

Thus, with Matsu presumed dead and cremated, that leaves her free to get thrown in prison anonymously on a frivolous charge -- the same prison where Katsu is hiding out. Well, make that she was hiding out, as Matsu's machinations soon has all of her enemy threads tied up and knotted off in a neat little (and very dead) bow.

 Shunya Itō and Meiko Kaji.

By now, Itō and Meiko were fairly comfortable with each other; and having felt they'd played out the prison angle the majority of Beast Stable takes place on the outside looking in with Itō's usual brazen visual flare and camera tricks; and the film wears its anti-establishment message on its sleeve – well, actually a clenched fist hidden inside that sleeve.

Mention should also be made of the fantastic score provided by Shunsuke Kikuchi and the mournful ballads that serve as sort of an ersatz Greek chorus throughout the whole series -- and it should be noted that this balladeer was Meiko Kaji herself, who sings her “Song of Vengeance” just as well as she kicks ass.

Apparently Toei had envisioned at least a ten film run for their Female Prisoner Scorpion series. Alas, even though the films had lost no momentum at the box-office, and a guarantee that he could do anything he wanted, Itō felt he had told all the "fiction within a fiction" tales he cared to tell.

However, the studio was able to convince Meiko to come back for at least one more go with Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701’s Grudge Song. Stay tuned!

Originally posted on on July 31, 2016, at Micro-Brewed Reviews.

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (1973) Toei Company / P: Kineo Yoshimine / D: Shun'ya Itô / W: Hirô Matsuda, Tooru Shinohara (manga) / C: Masao Shimizu / E: Osamu Tanaka / M: Shunsuke Kikuchi / S: Meiko Kaji, Mikio Narita, Reisen Ri, Yayoi Watanabe, Kôji Nanbara, Seiya Satô