Camille Keaton comes to mind, who was raped and left for dead before she embarked on a bloody vandetta on her perpetrators in Meir Zarchi's I Spit on Your Grave. Zoe Tamerlis' bitter rape victim in Abel Ferrara's Ms.45 was another femme fatale who made a long-lasting impression. And of course the just recently released Tarantino masterpiece Kill Bill needs to be mentioned, with Uma Thurman slicing and dicing her way up to her false-hearted squad members and perfidious former boss Bill after being shot in the head by him. And don't forget Lars von Trier's latest effort, Dogville, in which a victimized woman does not take revenge—which can be seen as a kind of more powerful revenge. Into this mix comes Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion, a film that can easily be named as one of the milestones of the genre, not to mention that it exemplifies Japanese exploitation at its best.

The gorgeous Meiko Kaji plays Nami Matsushima, a young, naive woman who falls in love with a corrupt narcotics officer who promptly takes advantage of her by making her infiltrate a drug-trafficking yakuza gang. Once her cover is blown, she not only has to endure the ultimate humiliation by her gang-banging crime-lords, but also by Susimi (Isao Natsuyagi), the cop whom she believed was her true love. Broken-hearted, she tries to assassinate him and ends up in a prison that is as nightmarish as the Turkish penitentiary in Alan Parker's Academy Award-nominated drama Midnight Express. After an unsuccessful escape attempt, Matsushima soon becomes the prime target of both the sadistic wardens and her deceitful inmates, and has to suffer through all kinds of mean-spirited attacks.

Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion was the first film in a series of more than six sequels, and Meiko Kaji stars in three more follow-ups—Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41, Beast Stable, and Grudge Song—before taking the lead in Lady Snowblood, a similar revenge story which was, according to the special feature of the Kill Bill Vol. 1 DVD, a major influence on Quentin Tarantino. In fact, Meiko Kaji is featured on the KB1 soundtrack with the song "The Flower of Carnage/Urami Bushi." Part one of the Female Prisoner series is released for the first time on DVD in North America, thanks to New York-based Media Blasters' sub-division, Tokyo Shock, which specializes in hard-to-find Asian exploitation/horror/martial arts films such as Versus, Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky, and the ultra-violent Ichi the Killer.

The Female Prisoner DVD has a clear anamorphic widescreen transfer with a ratio of 2.35:1, and features a monaural soundtrack, which adds a certain lo-fi charm to the movie, given the fact that it is Japanese with English subtitles only. Besides the original theatrical trailer, the DVD also features an extensive stills gallery.

As expected—based on the title and premise of the film—Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion is loaded with graphic violence and nudity. But it's smarter and more deeply meaningful than many of its European and American sleaze and drive-in exploitation counterparts. The film is about the quest of a woman who feeds off the humiliation she has to undergo during her imprisonment, which eventually makes her a stronger person and the movie a sort of exploitation film for hardcore-feminists. Meiko Kaji carries the Female Prisoner with a stunning performance, much to the credit of her mysterious and subtle aura, which makes her metamorphosis into an angel of death look like the birth of a beautiful butterfly from a cocoon. Once she has the chance to flee the prison, she takes merciless revenge on her perpetrators and betrayers, and rarely is it such a treat to witness an underdog succeed over her abusers.