Female Prisoner Scorpion and Co.

PostED ON 22.10.2022

The Lumière Film Festival pays tribute to a badass heroine of Japanese cinema: actress Meiko Kaji, discovered in ‘Female Prisoner: Scorpion’ (1972), gang leader in ‘Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse’ (1972), and flamboyant warrior in ‘Lady Snowblood’ (1973).

Meiko Kaji dans Lady Snowblood © DR

The Allure

A slim silhouette, black cape, long hair wildly flying all over her face, she peers from below with a piercing gaze in ‘Female Prisoner Scorpion’, her hands clenched in the pockets of a long black coat that defines her waist. For Lady Snowblood, she gorgeously dons a traditional kimono, with a long sword permanently in her hand. These heroines are dressed to kill, facing the camera in full badass mode. And we will follow them.

Nudity

Of great beauty, these warriors never hide their femininity. Scorpio uses her nudity as a weapon of massive freedom. With her, everything is consumed sexually without partiality, be the body female or male. Partially dressed, Lady Snowblood stabs the man she makes love to without mercy.

Battle-ready

These female assassins speak very little and express themselves mainly through the graphic gestures of the fight to the end, akin to outraged characters from a manga.

Vengeance !

Capable of anything against the guilty and harmless to the innocent, 'Female Prisoner Scorpion’ and ‘Lady Snowblood’ (which inspired Quentin Tarantino's ‘Kill Bill’ 1 and 2), carry out their vengeance like lethal weapons, ready to inflict pain.

2022

These heroines of seductive, political, raging, imaginative genre flicks, nonetheless committed to violence against women and the tendency of societies to turn corrupt, are still very relevant and should also be rediscovered for the rebellious beauty of a certain image from the 1970s.

Virginie Apiou

NUIT MEIKO KAJI :
La Femme scorpion de Shun’ya Ito (1h27)
Suivi de Elle s’appelait Scorpion de Shun’ya Ito (1h29)
Suivi de Lady Snowblood de Toshiya Fujita (1h37)
Institut Lumière ve21 minuit