Product Details

• Actors: Meiko Kaji
• Directors: Yasuharu Hasebe
• Format: Color, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: Japanese
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Tokyo Shock
• DVD Release Date: April 25, 2006
• Run Time: 92 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000C3L28E
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #110,176 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The series that inspired "KILL BILL" the last Female Prisoner Scorpion picture starring Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood). The film opens with Nami Matsushima (a.k.a. Matsu, a.k.a. Scorpion) once again on the lam. The police track her down at a wedding, but she manages to escape. Badly injured, she is saved by a man who works in a strip joint and holds a grudge against the police for torturing him. Can the Scorpion trust a man again? Should she?

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701's Grudge Song, May 5, 2006

By	Steven Gilliem (Reynoldsburg, OH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have been looking forward to the release of this DVD (and it's predecessor {Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable}) for some time as I very much enjoyed the first two movies of this series.

The first three movies were directed by Shunya Ito. What is great about them 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.

The third movie (Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable)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 is my favorite movie in this series.

This film (FPS: #701's Grudge Song) was directed by Yasuhara Hasebe. While the previous three movies were directed in a deliriously surreal manner, this one is often much more of a paint-by-numbers action/crime thriller. I still found it enjoyable to watch throughout. I didn't care as much for the middle portion but the first and final thirds of the film had a lot of really fine moments! The last act was especially entertaining!

While this movie probably wouldn't appeal to most, I definitely think it is worth watching for fans of the previous movies. For me, a large part of the joy in this series is watching the character of Scorpion become more and more mythic. This film absolutely does not disappoint on that count!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars sasori saikou!, November 9, 2006

By	Angelina Chin - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

To me, the most attractive part about this episode is the starring of of my all-time favorite actor, Tamura Masakazu. Trust me, his old movies and dramas are hard to find! (And he didn't have the dandy style yet!) He's still very young, probably in his late 20s or early 30s. He once said that he doesn't want to appear with guns on screen. But here, you see him shooting throughout the movie. Moreover, he's a young activist in the 1960s social moements. If you're a Tamura fan, you would definitely drool watching him tortured by the police! Sasori is cool as usual, and it's the first time I see her falling for a guy! If you're looking for gruesome and campy stuff, this one may disappoint you, cos it's definitely not as good as the earlier ones done by a different director. But it's a Sasori movie -- if you've watched the rest, there is no reason to miss this one.

4.0 out of 5 stars Finding love again only to have it destroyed., July 4, 2007

By	Daitokuji31 (Black Glass) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701: Grudge Song not only marks Kaji Meiko's last performance as Matsushima Nami, aka Sasori--the Scorpion--but it also marks a change of directors with Hasabe Yasuharu taking the director's chair from Ito Shunya. Kaji was unhappy with this switch of directors and the resulting film, so this film marks the end, if one does not count non-Kaji related Female Prisoner Scorpion films, of one of the great heroines of 1970s Japanese cinema.

Like the previous film, Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701: Beast Stable, this film begins with police in hot pursuit of Sasori. Fleeing from a wedding, not her own, a bleeding Sasori encounters a man named Kudo Teruo, a man whose body, and manhood, is horribly scared by his encounters with the police during the latter years of the 1960s when he was a student activist. Daily Kudo checks on Sasori bringing her food and other such necessities and slowly against her instinct she slowly falls in love with him. Sasori, who is nearly completely silent in all of the Female Prisoner Scorpion films, goes under a transformation and one can tell that her features have softened. Being that Kaji rarely speaks in these films, her face speaks volumes and seeing the affection and naïveté on her face fills the viewer with compassion for her especially when one has the knowledge that she will soon again be betrayed.

Although Kaji Meiko herself was not satisfied with the outcome of Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701: Grudge Song, I think that it is a bit stronger that the previous film in the series. While the police never had a shining image in the series, the negativity towards it that many filmmakers held towards it really comes to the fore in this film. This is readily shown in how the police deal with Kudo in both flashback and within the time of the film. Kudo was forced not only to betray his fellows years ago, but also Sasori. Both Kudo's fellows and Sasori could represent a change of conservative society, but such efforts are destroyed by the police, i.e. the state. This might be reading too much into this film, but such tactics as fear and violence used, even against their own, by the police reek of a strong control mentality.