Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972)

The four-film Female Prisoner Scorpion cycle charts the vengeance of Nami Matsushima (Meiko Kaji, Lady Snowblood), who becomes an avatar of survival and an unlikely symbol of female resistance in a male-dominated world. Spiritually akin to Ms. 45, Coffy, and The Bride Who Wore Black, FEMALE PRISONER SCORPION: #701 (the first film in the cycle) introduces Nami—a gullible, unjustly imprisoned woman who must find a way to escape and exact revenge upon the man who betrayed her. Featuring stunning pop-art compositions and ultra-violent outbursts, it’s easy to see why this movie was a direct inspiration for Uma Thurman’s character of “The Bride” in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill.