Joshuu Sasori: Difference between revisions

The ''Female Prisoner Scorpion'' (Japanese: ''Joshuu Sasori'') series are [[Girls Behind Bars|women in prison]] films (suprise!) from Japan's [[Toei]] Studio. The first was director Shunya Itou's debut in 1972, and he also directed the second and third; the first four star Meiko Kaji in the title role. Several different lead actresses, reboots and plotlines, not necessarily anything to do with each other, followed her departure. They originate from a manga series begun in 1970 by Touru Shinohara.

 

 

The series centres around Nami 'Matsu' Matsushima, prisoner number 701, also known by the inmates as Scorpion. Seduced, horribly used and casually betrayed by Sugimi, her corrupt detective boyfriend, she is imprisoned for trying and failing to kill him. Her story revolves around her determination to escape in order to get her revenge, and the increasingly large web of bitter feuds and grievances this creates, inside the prison and beyond.

* [[Magnificent Bitch]]: Matsu displays all the main characteristics of one of these. She is highly charismatic, although this usually acts negatively, driving others to hate and/or fear her. She is [[Manipulative Bastard|manipulative]], using her enemies fears and pettiness against them whenever she can to compensate for her lack of freedom. She's intelligent, observant, daring and quick to use any opportunity to turn a situation to her advantage. And she certainly has [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|a goal]].

* [[More Deadly Than the Male]]: Averted, in that Matsu not only gets captured several times, she also ''isn't'' more bloodthirsty than the male adversaries who she fights; they go out of their way to make her suffer, but she just wants them as swiftly and efficiently dead as possible.

* [[Noble Demon]]: She will do anything to escape and viciously kill those who wrong her, but that doesn't stop Matsu from having principles, like helping Oba as far as possible and taking a ''very'' principled stance on forced backstreet abortions.

* [[The Quiet One]]: In the second film, Matsu speaks two lines, for a total of eight words, in 92 minutes, most of which time she's onscreen. She's not much more talkative in the others. Also, Yuki seems to be literally mute in the first film.

* [[The Stoic]]: Matsu speaks only when she must and seems to find it hard to relate to others or express positive feelings. This is not exactly incomprehensible, though; while she begins the series rather more prone to emotion, after {{spoiler|she loses Yuki}} she withdraws considerably, becoming more of an [[Emotionless Girl]], with about the only exception being rage and hatred at Sugimi. She spends a great deal of ''Jailhouse 41'' showing very little emotion at all, making the ending all the more powerful. This reticence impacts badly on her relationship with Yuki in ''Beast Stable''.

* [[Tall, Dark and Bishoujo]]: Not really very tall, but not that short either. Otherwise, this fits Matsu to a tee.

* [[The Vamp]]: averted in a similar way to the Femme Fatale trope - Matsu is not primarily a sexual manipulator so much as a psychological one, and although she will use sex to get her way, it's not something she does naturally or apparently happily. And again, she's not immoral or evil so much as amoral.

* [[Villain Protagonist]]: Depending on how you feel about law, justice, retribution and punishment. Few films portray ''all'' police as enemies of the main character, after all.

** After this, the surrealism quotient drops considerably, but there are still elements of it in ''Beast Stable'''s sewer scenes, sound editing and the music-synched stopmotion effect in the bar scene.

* [[Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?]]: Averted - Matsu has no interest in complex schemes to ruin people's lives or make them suffer. She just lays their carotid artery open and moves on, barely even looking back.

** The costume is fairly iconic; it's referenced in ''[[Love Exposure]]''.