Most days if you ask me to name my favorite actress, I’m going to answer Meiko Kaji.

The Japanese singer and star of dozens of films, notably the Stray Cat Rock series and the Lady Snowblood movies, is a haunting beauty with a commanding screen presence, able to convey more with one squint of her eye than most actors could in an entire page of dialogue.

I was thrilled to learn that my favorite Blu-Ray label, Arrow Video (who I’ve professed my love for on this blog before) is releasing my top-pick Meiko Kaji film, Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 in a glorious 2K HD restoration as part of a box set along with the three other films in the Scorpion series.
 

Arrow’s box set of the “Scorpion” films is available for pre-order HERE.
 
The entire Scorpion, or Sasori series, which consists of the films Female Convict 701: Scorpion, Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41, Female Convict Scorpion: Beast Stable, and Female Convict Scorpion: Grudge Song are all visually striking early ‘70s Japanese exploitation films filled with violent imagery, but it’s the second film in the series that goes well above and beyond the genre.

Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 contains all of the stock violence, humiliation, and revenge elements of the women-in-prison formula, but director Shunya Ito’s stylized manga-inspired set-pieces, camera techniques, and avant-garde compositions are downright lysergic at times. The film tends to transcend its own narrative, becoming a stunning dreamscape, rising above its lowbrow subject matter to become a profoundly important cinematic vision. A vision that, sadly, many will write off due to the fact that it’s, well, a women-in-prison flick.
 

 
I curate a long-running cult film series at a local arthouse, and had the pleasure of presenting Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 to a packed theater who, by and large, had never seen the film before. I’ve had several patrons tell me since that it is now one of their favorite films.

In the film Matsu, nicknamed “Scorpion,” is hogtied in solitary confinement due to her willfully rebellious nature. Little do the warden or guards know that even tied, Scorpion has been creating a shank by holding a spoon in her teeth and sharpening it by scraping on the concrete floor. Scorpion is trapped in a never-ending cycle of violent rebellion and brutal reprisals, but nothing can break her. Eventually she escapes prison with six other female inmates, leading them on a violent rampage, exacting ruthless revenge on the men who have wronged her.

Director Ito has described the Scorpion character as “the ultimate rebel.” Much like Eastwood’s “Man With No Name,” Matsu barely speaks a word throughout the entire series. She’s an absolute outsider, completely unbreakable, single-mindedly dedicated to revenge, and, perhaps, the most graceful yet savage feminist anti-hero ever to glare at an audience from the silver screen. 
 

 
The recurring theme song of the Scorpion films is the evocative “Urami-Bushi” which became a hit song and is sung by Meiko Kaji herself. Quentin Tarantino liked it so much he pilfered it for Kill Bill.

Here’s Meiko Kaji performing the song on Japanese televison:
 

 
More after the jump…

“Take a little piece of my heart”—Still from “Bride of Reanimator”
 
My primary job here at Dangerous Minds is to essentially say “Here, look at this cool thing”—a job I’m well-suited for because it’s something I generally find myself doing anyway. Lately, I find that when I’m telling friends about whatever cool new thing that’s fascinating me at the moment, more and more often it’s some cool new thing that came down the pike from Arrow Films.

The U.K.‘s Arrow Films has been making a name for itself the past few years with their tricked-out DVD and Blu-Ray issues of cult horror films, westerns, science fiction, sex comedies, yakuza epics and neo-noirs.  Arrow sits alongside Grindhouse Releasing and Mondo Macabro as the holy trinity of digital video companies specializing in genre films. All three companies go above and beyond the call of duty with attention to detail in their transfers and bonus materials. Arrow has very quickly become my favorite, though, and I recently described them in conversation as “The Criterion of Shit Movies.”

To be perfectly honest, some of their packages put Criterion’s fine work to shame.

I wrote here recently about one of my favorite ‘80s slasher movies, The Mutilator, which just got the deluxe treatment from Arrow. For a relatively unknown (outside of cult horror-fan circles) low-budget splatter film, Arrow went totally balls-out on the double-disc release with a beautiful 2K restoration of the unrated version of the film (from the only surviving intact print that they managed to track down at the Library of Congress) and a slew of extras, including a feature-length documentary on the making of the film. The amount of love poured into this single release is remarkable when you consider that fans of the film (which had been previously unreleased on a digital format) would have bought the thing whether or not they had produced a documentary or recorded audio commentaries, or loaded it up with behind-the-scenes footage. They didn’t have to go the extra-mile, but they DID.
 
Much more on Arrow Films after the jump…

 
During the early 1970s, Nikkatsu Studios out of Japan released a series of youth films that helped define an era. Very much of their time, the five motion pictures that make up the Stray Cat Rock cycle were inspired by the late ‘60s counterculture. Amidst a backdrop of psychedelic imagery, the characters represent Japan’s wayward youth, juvenile delinquents hell-bent on living life on their own terms, stealing, drugging, and fighting along the way.
 

 

 

 
Two different filmmakers were at the helm for the series. Yasuharu Hasebe directed Delinquent Girl Boss (1970), Sex Hunter (1970), and Machine Animal (1971), all of which focused on gangs—especially the ass-kicking, female sort—and organized crime. Toshiya Fujita was behind the camera for Wild Jumbo and Beat ‘71, films that, while still featuring unlawful and violent behavior, are really about youth enjoying life.
 

The young women of ‘Machine Animal’; Meiko Kaji, center

The Stray Cat Rock cycle represent the breakout films of Meiko Kaji. She would achieve her greatest fame starring in Lady Snowblood (1973), a film which, decades later, proved to be a major influence on Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003).
 

Meiko Kaji in ‘Beat ‘71’

On July 14th, Arrow Video will release the five Stray Cat Rock flicks as a limited edition boxed set. This will mark the North American debut of all the films in the Blu-ray format.

We’ve selected a clip for you, dear reader, one you’re sure to enjoy. It’s from the fourth installment, Sex Hunter, and features a female gang on a mission to rescue fellow members from a party gone wrong. Led by Meiko Kaji’s character, Mako, the young women show up armed with a surprise for the captors.
 
Meiko Kaji in ‘Sex Hunter’

Preorder the limited edition Stray Cat Rock Blu-ray/DVD boxed set via MVD or Amazon. Probably best to get yours sooner rather than later, if demand for the 2014 UK version is any indication, as its already out-of-print.