History Film / JoshuuSasori

* [[AntiHero Antiheroine]]: Matsu - a type IV or V. While it's hard not to sympathise with her, she is undeniably merciless, and some of what she does is pure vindictiveness. Although never explicitly stated, she seems to have a code of conduct: help her and she'll help you; mess with her and watch your back; betray her trust and ''you're going down''.

* DissonantSerenity: a natural extension of/complement to her [[TheStoic stoicism]], [[TheDeterminator single-mindedness]] and [[DeathGlare propensity to express all her loathing and contempt using only her eyes]]. Particularly evident in the psychedelic flashbacks in the first film. This is part of what makes the loud, aggressive Oba so grotesque in the second.

->''"To be deceived is...a woman's crime"''

The ''Female Prisoner Scorpion'' (Japanese: ''Joshuu Sasori'') series are [[GirlsBehindBars women in prison]] films (surprise!) 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.

* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: 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.
* WomanInBlack: A [[NiceHat wide, floppy sunhat]], [[BadassLongcoat long belted coat]] done up to the neck, flares and gloves tends to be Matsu's preferred garb [[spoiler:after she escapes and goes on her vengeance streaks]].

* EyeScream: This, in a very obvious way regarding the warden, and in a rather less obvious way concerning Matsu. [[IncrediblyLamePun Keen-eyed viewers]] will notice that much of the shot design, from her character design integrating long hair and floppy hat, to camera angles, serves to obscure one of her eyes a lot of the time. Japanese viewers will probably get this, while westerners might well miss it - it's a reference to youkai, Japanese ghost/demon/evil spirits, which frequently have only one eye. The trope crops up in [[GeGeGeNoKitaro various works]]. Additionally, there's multiple moments of close-ups on eyes with a knife held readied in front of them.

** The costume is fairly iconic; it's referenced in ''LoveExposure''.

* {{Revenge}}: The lifeblood of this series. While the link to {{Lady Snowblood}} is better known, this is in some ways just as much of an influence on ''Film/KillBill as the former, e.g. the modern setting, the protagonist's character, the fact that the {{Roaring Rampage Of Revenge}} is something she comes to as an adult (by contrast, the protagonist of Lady Snowblood is fated to it since before her birth). Vengeance comes in a variety of flavours here:

* {{Revenge}}: The lifeblood of this series. While the link to {{Lady Snowblood}} is better known, this is in some ways just as much of an influence on {{Kill Bill}} as the former, e.g. the modern setting, the protagonist's character, the fact that the {{Roaring Rampage Of Revenge}} is something she comes to as an adult (by contrast, the protagonist of Lady Snowblood is fated to it since before her birth). Vengeance comes in a variety of flavours here:

* WomanInBlack: A [[NiceHat wide, floppy sunhat]], [[BadassLongcoat long belted coat]] done up to the neck, flares and gloves tends to be Matsu's preferred garb [[spoiler: having escaped, during her vengeance streaks]].

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.

* [[AntiHero Antiheroine]]: Matsu - a type IV or V. While it's hard not to sympathise with her, she is undeniably merciless, and some of what she does is pure vindictiveness. Although never explicitly stated, she seems to have a code of conduct: help her and she'll help you, mess with her and watch your back, betray her and ''you're going down''.

* [[AntiHero Antiheroine]]: Matsu - a type IV or V. While it's hard not to sympathise with her, she is undeniably merciless, and some of what she does is pure vindictiveness. Although never explicitly stated, she seems to have a code of conduct: help her and she'll help you, mess with her and watch your back, betray her trust and ''you're going down''.

->"To be deceived is...a woman's crime"

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: The featured song across the series, ''Urami Bushi'', features unusually visceral lyrics, sung with very emotional (that is, angry and bitter) intonation. The best thing, though, is that they're sung by Meiko Kaji herself, who is to this day a well-regarded Enka singer in addition to her acting career. Nothing like the personal touch.

* MagnificentBitch: 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 [[ManipulativeBastard 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 [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge a goal]].

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: The hallmark of the series is its combination of this unexpectedly savage version of the subject matter with repeated recourse to out-of-left-field surrealism.
** The first film's stageplay-like origin story flashback is the first instance of this, with echoes all through the film, created by unexpected coloured spotlighting.
** However, ''Jailhouse 41'' kicks it into overdrive, with a kabuki-like segment and a scene where a bus becomes a courtroom, and the imposition of the surreal onto the real, like the witch, the waterfall or the ending.
** 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.

** {{Revenge Against Men}} is very much the way of things here. It's not exclusive to men, but Matsu's focus is on male targets. Perhaps the important point, though, is that women who wrong her generally do so due to the machinations of powerful men manipulating them.

* BewareTheQuietOnes: A central facet of Matsu's character. She'll silently endure whatever hellish mistreatment gets thrown her way, but if she gets an opportunity to exact revenge, she will take it, and those who mistreated her will have hell to pay.

** Highlights in the first film include a Yakuza member stabbed and lynched from the roof of his own building, beside a banner extolling the 'beautiful soul and harmony of Japan', and of course the warden's commendation document, blown away and stamped on by guards rushing to recapture Matsu.

* FanService: Interestingly, the decision to star in the ''Joshuu Sasori'' series was an attempt to avert fanservice by Meiko Kaji, who moved to the Toei studio when her former studio, Nikkatsu, decided to switch their output entirely to adult films in the [[PornWithPlot "Roman Porno" style]]. However, this was the first role she played that involved nudity. To what extent the films are fanservice or [[FanDisservice a subversion thereof]] is fairly open to debate; while the ultimate message is clearly one of female empowerment, it's still a film that opens with female prisoners forced to exercise nude while watched by leering male guards. Then again, the leering is so grotesquely emphasised and the nudity clearly an exercise in humiliation and assertion of power that this scene comes over very ambiguously indeed. Which is, of course, the point.
* FemmeFatale: Averted, in that 1) a central part of the femme fatale is her ultimately immoral character, while Matsu possesses a strong internal moral framework, but out of desperation behaves thoroughly amorally in the service of 'the greater good' as she sees it, and 2) Matsu is neither reformed nor outwitted by a male hero, as there is none. All the men are just bad, basically.

* {{Lady of War}}: Matsu is a rare example of a Lady of War who is characterised as such purely by her attitude and behaviour, rather than social standing. Whatever physically happens to Matsu, she is spiritually untouchable - but crucially, this is not because of her upbringing or connections, simply because that's how she has to be to get what she wants. Also of note: as a prisoner, she does not generally get to choose weapons, but does not discriminate when the opportunity presents itself. Knife, gun, stick, homebrew split-bamboo guillotine trap, her own manacles: it's all good. However, given a choice, she seems to favour a knife, combined with remarkably ''[[ExtremeMeleeRevenge inelegant]]'' [[ExtremeMeleeRevenge charging and thrusting with all her might, putting her face-to-face with her victim]].

* TheQuietOne: 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.

** However, ''Jailhouse 41'' kicks it into overdrive, with a kabuki-like segment and a scene where a bus becomes a courtroom, not to mention the imposition of the surreal onto the real, like the witch, the waterfall or the ending.

* CrapsackWorld: Understandable in a prison context, but the wider Japan we see in these films isn't the place you've seen in all those samurai flicks, all forests and lakes and pretty vistas. It's dirty, dark and run-down, physically and morally; all the guards are mindless sadists, all the cops are corrupt, most of the women are vindictive and unprincipled and most of the men mysogenistic and cowardly. The general public are an uncaring, unresponsive and unsympathetic mass.

The ''Female Prisoner Scorpion'' (Japanese: ''Joshuu Sasori'') series are [[GirlsBehindBars 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.

* NoPeriodsPeriod: Averted rather hard. Yuki has a rather painful one inside of three minutes into the first film. There's also lyrics in the featured song about "bleeding once a month". Arguably, since men generally don't feel that comfortable around menstruation, this is another element in the whole 'subverting the Women In Prison genre while adhering to its main elements' schtick that Itou has employed.

* TallDarkAndBishoujo: Not really very tall, but not that short either. Otherwise, this fits Matsu to a tee.

** Assuming the viewer sympathises with the convicts, then Oba, from ''Jailhouse 41'', can also count, although she [[CardCarryingVillain paints herself]] as a [[CompleteMonster complete monster]].

* FemmeFatale: Averted, in that 1) a central part of the femme fatale is her ultimately immoral character, while Matsu is thoroughly amoral in the service of a strong internal moral framework, and 2) Matsu is neither reformed nor outwitted by a male hero, as there is none. All the men are just bad, basically.

* GirlsBehindBars: Deconstructed. Depite the setting, the films don't catter to the usual "Women's Prison = Lesbian porn all over" fantasy that so many male viewers would expect, but depicts how female inmates often have other fish to fry than scheming about how to have sex with each other.

Unlike the vast majority of women's prison films, though, they don't exist as [[GirlOnGirlIsHot an excuse for porn]]; well, not exactly. While they lie squarely in the Pinky Violence genre, meaning there's [[FanService plenty of sex]], violence and exploitation, they are also intermittently surreal, intelligently shot/directed and feminist in message. It's as if Shunya Itō, nowadays known as an arthouse director, was handed the script for something [[PlotWithPorn much more conventional]] and decided to see how far he could subvert it without actually changing the story.

* FanService: Interestingly, the decision to star in the ''Joshuu Sasori'' series was an attempt to avert fanservice by Meiko Kaji, who moved to the Toei studio when her former studio, Nikkatsu, decided to switch their output entirely to adult films in the [[PlotWithPorn "Roman Porno" style]]. However, this was the first role she played that involved nudity. To what extent the films are fanservice or [[FanDisservice a subversion thereof]] is fairly open to debate; while the ultimate message is clearly one of female empowerment, it's still a film that opens with female prisoners forced to exercise nude while watched by leering male guards. Then again, the leering is so grotesquely emphasised and the nudity clearly an exercise in humiliation and assertion of power that this scene comes over very ambiguously indeed. Which is, of course, the point.

* BewareTheQuietOnes: A central facet of Matsu's character. She'll silently endure whatever hellish mistreatment gets thrown her way, but when an opportunity for violent revenge arises, she will take it, she will take it, and those who mistreated her will have hell to pay.

* [[AntiHero Antiheroine]]: Matsu - a type IV or V. While it's hard not to sympathise with her, she is undeniably merciless, and some of what she does is pure vindictiveness. Although never explicitly stated, she seems to have a code of conduct - help her and she'll help you, mess with her and watch your back, betray her trust and, well, that's it for you.

* BewareTheQuietOnes: A central facet of Matsu's character. She'll silently endure whatever hellish mistreatment gets thrown her way, but if she gets an opportunity to exact revenge, she will take it, she will take it, and those who mistreated her will have hell to pay.

The ''Female Prisoner Scorpio''n (Japanese: ''Joshuu Sasori'') series are [[GirlsBehindBars 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.

* {{Revenge}}: The lifeblood of this series. While the link to {{Lady Snowblood}} is better known, this is in some ways just as much of an influence on {{Kill Bill}} as the former, e.g. the modern setting, the protagonist's character. Vengeance comes in a variety of flavours here:

The series centres around Nami 'Matsu' Matsushima, prisoner number 701, also known by the inmates as Sasori ('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.

* DeathIsDramatic: generally, Matsu's last target is the one who takes half a dozen gut-mincing, body-checking thrusts of the knife, interspersed with the victim's pathetic, gasping, staggering attempts to escape. [[spoiler: Sugimi's]] death is particularly Shakespearean.