Summary:
After being betrayed by detective she had fallen in love with, a young woman is sent to a prison full of violent prisoners and guards.
My Thoughts:
Heck. Freaking. Yes.
This movie is absolutely amazing.
Over the past few years, I feel like I’ve really been gravitating towards 60s through 80s genre and exploitation films like “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!”, “Deep Red”, and “The Toxic Avenger” because I think that films like that are just an absolute blast. Sure, sometimes the actual quality in terms of filmmaking for these types of films might be a little subpar, but in my opinion, that’s also part of the allure. Films like this pushed boundaries; they weren’t afraid to try new things and upset audiences, and most of the time, they really did have some kind of artistic merit buried beneath the layers of sleaze and gore.
These types of films wont ever appeal to everybody, they were always meant to have a small audience (with twisted minds, perhaps). At the same time, I think nowadays that audience range might have expanded because of filmmakers who have pushed artistic exploitation (or at least artistic violence) into more mainstream cinema like Tarantino (“Kill Bill Vol. I”), Harmony Korine (“Spring Breakers”), or Ari Aster (“Hereditary”). I am a huge fan of this kind of filmmaking, and over the past few years I’ve seen quite a few; I have no reservations saying that this film is one of the most entertaining exploitation films I’ve seen. I actually loved this movie so much that I immediately bought the Arrow Box set with all of it’s sequels, so get ready kids: Matsu the Scorpion (Meiko Kaji, “Lady Snowblood”) is about to take over TMM.
“To be deceived is a woman’s crime.”
After being seduced and used by a corrupt detective named Sugimi (Natsuyagi Isao), Nami Matsushima (Meiko Kaji) is sent to prison where she comes face to face with horrible guards and abusive inmates. Instead of testifying against Sugimi, however, Matsushima stays quiet, and Sugimi realizes he has to take action before she changes her mind and flips on him. Sugimi talks his mob connections into sending assassins in he prison to kill Matsushima, but little does he know Matsushima is hatching a plot of revenge.
So, this is a very simple revenge story: girl is wrong and imprisoned, girl is attacked by those she’s imprisoned with, girl strikes back. A plot as simple as that is great for exploitation movies because it allows the action and the exploitation to be the centerpieces of the film, and most of the first half of this movie is just a setting up of evil characters so that Matsu can cut them down in the third act. The set up of these horrible characters are pretty great, though again, it’s pure exploitation in those set ups, to the point where it’s obvious how in the right Matsu is and how in the wrong her opponents are. The guards are all portrayed as sex-crazed perverts that force the girls to walk around naked, or undergo harsh punishments like being tied up and tossed into isolation. The fellow inmates are also vicious; pouring hot soup on Matsu when she’s tied up, attack her in the shower, or string her up like a piñata and beat her. By the time Matsu’s time for vengeance comes, we’re rooting for her to tear apart her enemies without any holds barred… and she does… and it’s glorious.
I think one of the reasons I loved this film so much was that, though on the surface this film is very exploitative to women, it actually feels incredibly feminist in it’s themes. Much like the female characters in the exploitation classic Russ Meyer’s “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!”, the female characters in “Female Prisoner” are often smarter, better at fighting, and easily the coolest of the characters put to screen. We’re rooting for our strong female protagonist to win, so, in my opinion, when the actions committed against her are horrible, it makes her overcoming those obstacles even more triumphant.
Verdict:
Though I really enjoyed this movie, I certainly don’t expect it to appeal to everyone. This film is an absolute blast for those who are willing to work past the sleazy elements and see it for what it is: an ultra-violent, ultra-stylized revenge flick with a female protagonist just as badass as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Bride (from Kill Bill), or Ripley (“Alien”).
End Note: Tarantino is actually such a big fan of this series that he used Matsu’s theme in the first “Kill Bill” movie, and Lucy Liu’s character is based partially on Matsu the Scorpion and partially on “Lady Snowblood”, a character also played by Meiko Kaji. “Lady Snowblood” is pretty awesome too, and that film is actually a bit classier than this one.
If you liked this movie, be sure to check out our reviews for its sequels: “FPS: Jailhouse 41”, “FPS: Beast Stable”, and “FPS: 701’s Grudge Song”.
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