There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

The movie is wildly uneven but lively and timely - in its own surreal way

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Meiko Kaji returns as Nami Matsushima aka Scorpion, this time singing two theme songs (one of them being the classic "Urami bushi") and saying only two lines of dialogue, continuing to suffer abuse and humiliation only to slaughter everybody with her knife. Jailhouse 41 is the second film in the Scorpion series, way more surreal than the first one (also directed by Shunya Ito).This film has far less nudity and seemingly lower production values than the first one, but it's a bit more violent in comparison. The story takes place mostly outside the prison but it isn't anything special. Matsu escapes with six more convicts and is trailed by the vengeful warden whose eye she has stabbed in the first film. The dialogues could've been better, and I really don't understand why the other inmates hate her in this film. The surreal sequences are hit-or- miss. Some of them, like the waterfalls in a national park (?) turning red after a corpse is thrown into the water, are pretty memorable, while others, like the part where they come across an old woman who sings their backstories in the "He Had It Comin'" from the movie "Chicago" fashion, before dying, making Autumn come prematurely and getting buried with leaves, are just baffling.Some of the supporting characters include the two guards from the first film, the slightly Mexican one and the slightly nerdy one, who serve as second-to-final bosses. There's also a busful of rapey tourists, some of them being WWII veterans who brag about having raped women in Manchuria, which makes this one of the rare films to mention Japanese war crimes in Manchuria. The final scene has one of the coolest screen transitions I've seen; Matsu simply slices the screen in half and moves to a different location.The story to this film is a lot weaker than the one in the first film, and there is some awkward editing, but it's still entertaining and worth a watch.

The first film in this acclaimed Japanese exploitation cycle, entitled "Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion", literally perplexed me because it was such an atypical W.I.P accomplishment. It had a great story, a likable heroine character, stylish photography and - shockingly enough - only a minimal amount of nudity and perversion. The second entry in the series, entitled "Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41", actually astonished me even more! This time because it's such an atypical sequel. The formula of the original film clearly worked, so you would expect and even respect director Shunya Ito and his crew to embroider on the same successful elements, but they don't. In fact, the concept is completely different and easily the most innovative one ever used in a W.I.P film. Most of the action takes place outside the prisons' walls, during an escape that gradually changes into a wild and surreal 7-headed girl-power road trip across the desolate Japanese countryside. Seen from a certain viewpoint the script's drastic change of direction is actually rather logic, since the protagonist's engaging background story properly ended in part one. Scorpion successfully extracted her vengeance and returned to prison to serve a deserved sentence this time. But still, the completely alternative set-up is courageously ambitious and not just the story lines vastly changed, but nearly everything else as well, including atmosphere, imagery, editing, the depiction of violence and even the Matsu's entire persona! She now fully embodies bitterness and ferocity, which is masterfully illustrated through Ito's visionary direction. Matsu barely speaks five complete sentences during the whole film, yet her stares penetrate through the thickest skulls and she catches each suspicious sound in massive stereo. Since her virulent escapades, which even cost the headmaster's eye, Matsu spent the last year in a moist pit underneath the prison. She's allowed one day of daylight when a government inspector comes to visit and this is already enough for her to cause a major hoedown. Severe punishment ensues, but Matsu and six others manage to escape. Their journey turns into a crusade of retaliation against all (male) foes. The convicts' "road trip", if you can refer to it like that, is truly surreal and artsy and often nightmarishly macabre! They encounter a witch who eerily narrates the women's stories, rapists on tour, numerous abstract and depressing tableaux and – last but not least – collective hatred. Especially the vicious Oba battles Matsu for the honor of most respected jailbird. There's a lot of dreamy and addictive weirdness going on during the escape, but nonetheless the actual prison and revenge footage remains the best and most exciting. Both the opening and climax are tremendously brilliant, and even though everything in between is quite uniquely experimental and accomplished, it occasionally gets in the way of the good old exploitation themes. Meiko Kaji's performance is once again marvelous and she receives excellent support from Kayoko Shiraishi (who's overacting actually works) as Oba and Fumio Watanabe as the sadist head warden. Great stuff!

FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION: JAILHOUSE 41 - the sequel to the equally excellent FEMALE PRISONER #701: SCORPION - is another winner in the 70's Japanese exploit-style genre. I have yet to see one of these type film that I didn't like, and at this point I've seen a pretty good amount. There's something about this era in Japanese exploitation cinema (and exploitation cinema from other areas as well...) that is so refreshing. Along with having fun, sleazy, violent, sexy story lines and characters - there is still a real emphasis on QUALITY cinematography and storytelling that is lacking from a lot of modern shot-on-video, micro-budget, "underground" and exploitation films. This added dimension gives these 70's films a quality of "respectability" and seriousness, despite usually containing some pretty off-the-wall subject matter...FEMALE CONVICT continues the tale of Matsu (aka Scorpion by the other prisoners and guards)- a hard-ass, unbreakable inmate who's short on words and long on action, and has a penchant for violence and creative jailbreak. In this installment, Scorpion has been in the "hole" for a year since we last saw her in the FEMALE PRISONER film. A prison Official is coming to check up on the prison Warden (the guy that Scorpion stabbed in the eye in the last film) - so they decide to dust Scorpion off as the prison Official wants to do a meet-and-greet with the convicts. This doesn't turn out to be such a great idea, because even in her weakened state Scorpion is still a formidable foe, and attacks the warden. This leads to a riot, and of course Scorpion is blamed for the disturbance. As punishment, Scorpion is subjected to a public gang-raping from some of the other prison guards. Afterward, during a prison transfer, Scorpion and six other prisoners cause a disturbance that inadvertently allows them to escape. Taking refuge in a small abandoned village, the group tries to remain one step ahead of the warden and his henchmen. Here we get a little background on the other prisoners - including a particularly nutty broad who is in prison for drowning one of her children and performing a harakiri-abortion on her other unborn child. Scorpion and this chick don't get along so well, and the tension between the two is palpable. Continuing their trek, the group have a run-in with a group of traveling businessmen on a bus - and problems arise when one of the girls is raped and accidentally killed. The girls hijack the bus and the occupants and continue on their run from the law. At a road-block, Crazy-Harakiri-Lady throws Scorpion off the bus as a diversion, but ends up being cornered by the cops anyway. Scorpion tells the cops that the hostages on the bus were all killed (which isn't true...) which prompts a shoot-out between the cops and the hijackers. Scorpion is carted BACK to jail - but a bungled attempt to kill her in transit to the jailhouse offers her ANOTHER chance for escape. Free again, Scorpion exacts revenge on the sinister prison warden in much the same fashion as the end scene of the first film...There's all kinds of stuff going on in FEMALE CONVICT. The storyline is solid, the acting is good, cinematography is excellent - everything that I love about this genre of films is present. This entry is a little more "stylized" that the previous, with a few trippy dream sequences thrown in. This doesn't impact the film negatively - in fact, they're kinda cool - it just gives FEMALE CONVICT a little less straight-forward feel then FEMALE PRISONER. Overall - another winner for fans of such films as SEX AND FURY, FEMALE YAKUZA TALE, LADY SNOWBLOOD, of course FEMALE PRISONER #701: SCORPION, or pretty much any 70's era Japanese pinky/exploit-style films. 8.5/10

I was fortunate to see this film on the big screen and I was very impressed with the cinematography. There isn't much character development, but the simmering hatred between Scorpion and a rival inmate creates significant tension. Those who enjoy Eastwood's "man with no name" films, other unusual Japanese films from the same time period (Black Tight Killers, Ecstasy of the Angels, etc.) will find this interesting... my only caveats have to do with the rape scenes, which for some reason often find their way into offbeat Japanese films. Some of the scenes aren't entirely fulfilling... at times I wished for more (unbelievably) violence so the characters are more fully able to avenge themselves. Some of the editing is a little awkward, but there are a few scenes that have breathtaking cinematography... particularly in the hut toward the end of the film where the camera focuses on Scorpion as the contents of the hut rotate around her... and the amazing transition "dream" scene on the bus. Great stuff... I thoroughly enjoyed it. Will be buying on DVD....___________________________________________________________________I wrote that review in 2001, but thought I'd add a comment four years later. This film has worked it's way into my subconscious and has become one of my all-time favorites. Not only do I own the U.S. DVD, but the Japanese Region 2 as well (the print quality is much higher... no English subtitles, though). I have since seen all four of the Sasori films, and this film (Joshuu sasori: Dai-41 zakkyo-bô), the second in the series, is the best one.