Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		2.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 18, 2025

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of the V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal collection from Arrow Video.

In 1976 folks in the United States were celebrating the bicentennial anniversary celebration of a famous revolution, but another revolution of a technological rather than a political variety was just beginning to unfold across the ocean in Japan at virtually the same time. That was the year that VHS began its scrappy upstart status against Betamax in a format war which in its day was probably at least as notorious as the one that decades later marked the rollout of high definition home video with competing HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats. Betamax of course ultimately lost that battle (rather incredibly both Betamax player and VCR production extended well into the 21st century, despite having been supplanted by disc formats), and by the time Toei had the bright idea to start producing direct to video releases in 1989, VHS was the dominant format. In a way it's kind of fascinating to compare and contrast Toei's decision to provide "product" to its chain of video stores with the way the major Hollywood studios used to provide feature films for the theater chains they owned until United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. forced the studios to divest those properties in 1948. One way or the other, despite economic tribulations in Japan which had severely impacted (theatrically exhibited) movie attendance, the direct to video market exploded for Toei, so much so that other major (and minor) Japanese studios soon followed suit by offering their own straight to video productions, though Toei had actually trademarked the term V-Cinema to describe their product. This collection of V-Cinema outings from Arrow includes a nonet of titles that tend to feature hardscrabble criminal types, including the film that started the whole V-Cinema craze, Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage.

What's that you say? Female Prisoner Scorpion: The Complete Collection is not in fact complete? My now pretty old (2016!) Female Prisoner Scorpion: The Complete Collection Blu-ray review offers a bit of background on the titular character while providing write ups on the quartet of films that are typically thought of as the, well, complete canon of works featuring The Scorpion. Much as various "world premieres" and/or movies of the week stateside used to revisit iconic characters of yore (sometimes in order to provide so-called "back door pilots" for proposed new series), V-Cinema evidently wasn't above trotting out a character with enough name value that hordes of video buyers were virtually guaranteed. Perhaps somewhat hilariously, if ultimately not that surprising or even idiomatically inappropriate given some of the "shenanigans" in main Female Prisoner Scorpion films, Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat was directed by Nikkatsu's Pinku eiga expert, Toshiharu Ikeda. What's kind of equally funny about the film is that Scorpion is almost a McGuffin in the story, and there's instead a kind of quasi-Shock Corridor or dare I say it Violence in a Women's Prison thing going on in terms of an "undercover" agent.

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. Arrow lumps all of the films together in their page devoted to the presentations in this set's insert booklet, as follows:

The films in this collection represent a period of film production in Japan in the late 1980s and early 1990s where films were made by the Toei Company specifically for home video. Beginning with Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage, these "V-Cinema" titles were produced quickly and inexpensively, but afforded filmmakers significant freedom when it came to censorship, resulting in riskier content than what had been produced for cinema distribution.

As such, the modest origins of these titles can be seen in these presentations. All films have been remastered by the Toei Company in high definition and are presented in the 1.33:1 home video format of the time.

I'd probably rate this presentation as among the least pleasing in this set. Things can look pretty badly faded at times, and densities and suffusion are often far from optimal. That said, at times the palette can pop at least somewhat convincingly, with primaries probably being the most noticeable standout (this is a relative term). Various scenes can skew either toward brown or yellow, and as a result color timing can look somewhat variable. Detail levels can be pretty iffy even in midrange shots, though close-ups can fare at least a bit better. Grain is heavy enough that it can add an almost scrim like black layer over proceedings.

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat features LPCM 2.0 audio in the original Japanese. The confines of the prison actually offer some decent opportunities for clangy echoing effects as guards traipse through long halls or cells are closed. There are a few passing outdoor scenes where ambient environmental sound effects are utilized. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Toshiharu Ikeda's Beautiful Monster of Vengeance (HD; 12:08) is an appreciation of the film by Samm Deighan.


• Trailer (HD; 2:09)


• Introduction by Masaki Tanioka (HD; 3:33) is accessible under the Play Film menu and is authored to lead directly to the feature. Subtitled in English.

Arrow has packaged Burning Dog and Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat together on one disc, and the keepcase features a reversible sleeve highlighting each title, as well as enclosing an art card for each film.

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It was actually probably a smart thing for the V-Cinema creatives to revisit and/or resurrect Female Prisoner Scorpion, though this film simply can't approach even the diminishing return levels of some of the original four films. This has probably the least pleasing video of the set, but audio is decent and the main supplement very appealing, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.