Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		2.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

Female Convict Scorpion Blu-ray Movie Review

Mud wrestling is no joke.

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf May 28, 2012

I’m not sure what type of women-in-prison film “Female Convict Scorpion” is aiming to be, but it’s not a very successful one. With a subgenre that typically thrives on outlandish behavior, overheated performances, and exploitation elements up the wazoo, “Female Convict Scorpion” only hints at a larger scale of madness, remaining subdued for the majority of its run time for reasons not fully understood. Boasting only a few celebratory screen elements and a handful of committed but not necessarily inspired performances, the feature is a disappointment, unwilling to truly rear back and vomit forth a particularly sticky mess of breasts, beatings, and elaborate designs of revenge. Instead, the movie is inert and weirdly incomprehensible, only tasting the sugar rush of cinematic extremity in the final act, where it suddenly finds inspiration in cartoonish violence. Until that moment arrives, it’s a long, dour journey with a one-dimensional lead character, feeling the potential of this unsavory material slowly drain away as the production fixates on a grand idea of street justice that never makes a lick of sense.

While alone in her home, Nami (Miki Mizuno) is ambushed by a gang of savages on the hunt to kill her husband, cop Hei Tai (Dylan Kuo). Forcing the nervous wreck to murder Hei Tai’s father and sister, Nami is left to accept responsibility for the violence, with her spouse utterly destroyed by her suspiciously protective actions. Sent to prison for her crimes, Nami is placed in the care of a cruel warden (Suet Lam) who forces his female inmates to battle for goods. Immediately picked on for her weakness, Nami soon learns how to defend herself behind bars, challenging prison bully Dieyou (porn actress Nana Natsume) for cellblock power, using feral fight abilities shaped while enduing daily humiliations. Faking her death, Nami is ejected from the prison, finding solace with a mysterious man known as the Corpse Collector (Simon Yam), who teaches the tender woman to harden herself, arming her with martial arts training to help focus her anger. Now back on the scene, Nami aims to destroy those who ruined her life long ago, only to grow hopelessly distracted with Hei Tai’s wellbeing, learning of his hypnosis therapy that’s helped the shattered man to forget his past, allowing the freshly minted warrior a shot at a strange reconciliation.

Based on a popular manga by Toru Shinohara and adapted into a series of exploitation movies in the 1970s, the “Female Convict Scorpion” series smashes into a new era of aggressive possibility with this 2008 effort. Possibly fearful of falling into a trap of camp, director Joe Ma plays the material with a steely focus on the tragic aspects of Nami’s journey from accidental killer to powerhouse assassin, keeping the mood of the picture somber despite the script’s interest in exaggerated street showdowns and the character of Dieyou, who’s imagined as a merciless prison antagonist with an ample bosom, unafraid to pound innocents or wear sheer tops. With a title like “Female Convict Scorpion,” there’s hope that Ma would be able to take command of the picture’s outrageousness, finding a candied tone that’s served many in the subgenre well (the prison holds mud wrestling matches for goodness sake, giving Ma an open invitation to sauce up the production). What’s actually presented is surprisingly bleak and unforgivably glacial, while the screenplay makes an assumption that everyone watching the feature is aware of the source material’s nuances. Details are scarce in Ma’s film, finding the plot breezing through characterizations that demand more time, with Nami’s vitriolic goals blurred at best. And forget about the killers introduced at the outset of the film. Those brutes are merely here for their graphic appearance and ability to tangle with Nami later in the story. They hold no threat or real purpose.

For fight fans, “Female Convict Scorpion” does provide the requisite beatdowns, which range from mild fisticuffs to CGI showdowns ornamented with heavy wirework. The gradual leap into superhuman ability is a tad disorienting, losing the cinematic grit Ma is working overtime to achieve. However, the alternative to the blade dancing is pretty harsh, with Dieyou making time to bloody Nami’s vagina with the back of her foot during one prison encounter. I’d rather have the characters fling themselves around the frame than see more of that unnecessary brutality, but the tonal changes are difficult to get used to. Helping the constant adjustment to newfound troublemaking is the lead performance from Mizuno, who’s able to balance the emotional quake of the character with her development into a stylish superhero, taking on baddies dressed in skintight club wear. Mizuno’s a striking figure of crooked justice, managing the psychological needs of the role cleanly, blending into the film’s gorgeous lighting design beautifully.

Female Convict Scorpion Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation retains a specialized look boosted with a slightly elevated contrast level, muting the potential for a crisply expressive visual experience. It's a strange looking movie to begin with, resembling a feature shot in the late 1980s, with pronounced colors embellishing the lead character's decent into Hell. Red lighting does have a tendency to blow out the image some, but the majority of the hues look passable, creating a neon atmosphere of purples and greens, while sickly yellows dominate the prison sequences. Print damage is detectable (beyond a few moments where the effect is intentional), and a minor amount of banding is present. Shadow detail is generally thick, losing edge delineation with evening and low-light encounters, with the presentation faring better in heavily lit environments, which are few and far between. There are a few passages of softness, and the image can be a little noisy at times. Skintones are largely muted, but grander displays of flesh look natural.

Female Convict Scorpion Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA sound mix shows some sonic heft to carry this bizarre story of atonement. Directional activity isn't employed freely, but there's enough circular movement to inject some surprise into the listening experience, especially during more chaotic prison entanglements. There's also some pleasing depth to the cold penitentiary environment, with healthy atmospherics feeling out the presence of water and echo. Dialogue exchanges are preserved, though dubbed, with dramatic intentions understood. Scoring is a highlight, with a large synth and pan flute effort creating a fullness to the track, gracefully supporting the passions of the material. Fight encounters bring some low-end rumble, tackling body hits and property destruction with a pleasing shake, also working surrounds for maximum sonic firepower.

Female Convict Scorpion Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• A Theatrical Trailer (1:39, SD) is included.

Female Convict Scorpion Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The final act is where "Female Convict Scorpion" comes alive, breaking out of its slumber with extravagant fights and a loopy hypnosis makeover for Hei Tai -- a silly plot twist that hints at a more agreeable direction for the feature had Ma loosened his approach. Finally achieving a freewheeling sense of violence and stylishness, "Female Convict Scorpion" finds a direction the rest of the movie is sorely lacking. Not that the increase is concentration translates to a coherent film, but the final blast of screen activity lends the material the energy it needs to reach a position of absurdity that's far more satisfying than the strange sensation of sourness Ma is committed to.