Check this out. Meiko Kaji, now in her sixties, performing Urami Bushi (Female Prisoner Scorpion’s Grudge Song). She actually looks pretty healthy for her age (she’s dropped the stick-skinny thing, but not the Stray Cat Rock clothes), and still sounds exactly the same as on her Zenkyokushu album. Check out the video below.

Wow. Sometimes the DVD gods just smile upon you, you know? Kris and I were pondering checking out Spider-Man 3 this evening, but something told me to go check an infrequently visited Fry’s instead. And boy, am I glad we did. I snatched up the whole Jodorowski Films box set, featuring Fando Y Lis, Holy Mountain, and El Topo for just $14.99. I have no idea why it was priced so low, but I don’t expect to see that ever again. Also, I picked up Tokyo Shock’s restorations of the …

The third film in Nikkatsu/Daiei’s Rising Dragon series of female yakuza films, Blind Woman’s Curse marks quite a departure from the norm. This entry features a new heroine, new enemies, and a new theme: that of a period yakuza/horror hybrid. Meiko Kaji, in her first starring role, plays Akemi Tachibana, who, following the death of her father, finds herself the newly branded leader of the Tachibana clan. The film opens on a dark and stormy night, with Tachibana and crew confronting her father’s killers at their clan headquarters. In …

Way back in high-school, Female Convict Scorpion Jailhouse 41 and Black Lizard served as my introduction to 1970’s Japanese exploitation cinema. I was a bit reluctant to review this film, lest my opinion be clouded by rosy glasses and nostalgia. But, having gone back to the film again, I believe I’m prepared, and my love for it justified.
Female Convict Scorpion Jailhouse 41 starts pretty much where Female Prioner #701 Scorpion left off. Having been captured following committing “slashing vengeance” on her treacherous ex, the opening scene of Jailhouse 41 shows …

With the arrival of Grindhouse in the theaters today, a lot of lists are coming out with “Grindhouse” films recommended by professional critics. Some of them are actually pretty good. But, for the majority of them, if you look closely at the lists, you’ll realize the recommenders never actually saw the films listed. Some of the offenders proffer widely known, but rarely actually seen, trash. Take, for example, Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS. I’ve seen this on countless lists. But, aside from its shocking title and amusing film trivia …

Rage, honor, betrayal, duty, racism, love. All are at the heart of Fukasaku’s magnum opus, Yakuza Graveyard, a stunning cops and Yakuza tale that stands with the best hard boilded cop films of all time, be it domestic or international.
Tetsuya Watari plays tough as rusty-nails cop, Kuroiwa. An outcast from his youth, Kuroiwa is filled with an deep rooted rage that more often than not explodes in the face of those who cross him. Assigned to investigate two quietly warring Yakuza clans by a police branch looking to instigate …

Lady in the Water
Including a critic in your film, and making him the brunt of jokes and ridicule is guaranteed bad reviews, even if the film is quite good. This is certainly the case with M Night’s latest, Lady in the Water, a tale of a lost sea nymph who winds up in the pool of a Pennsylvania apartment complex. So much of the bad press for this contemporary fantasy is unwarranted, but what would you expect from lonely basement dwellers whose only relationships are those experienced vicariously though …

I was first introduced to Meiko Kaji’s music back in the late 1990’s with Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41. Though only my initial viewing, I found the theme song amazing, and it stuck with me long after the film. It wasn’t until later that I became a true Kaji fan. I had knowledge of her singing career, but reservations about picking up an album. I mean, how many cult film stars have released actual quality albums? Well, I’m here to tell you that Zenkyokushu, the Best of Meiko Kaji is …

The last Scorpion entry starring Meiko Kaji is certainly the least of the films. Moving forward sans director Shunya Ito, this installment finds Sasori on the run from yet another gung-ho police inspector, facing threat of execution, and falling in love. That’s right, Sasori in love. When the film starts the police are hot on her tail. Sasori manages to escape arrest, but not unscathed. Wounded, she makes her way to hiding, only to be found and nursed back to health by a young strip club owner named Teruo …

These days the term fierce has been so overused by hip-hop artists, Tyra Banks, and Inside Hollywood celebrity-trash mongers, it seems to have lost its meaning. But if one were forced to find a dictionary definition personification of the word fierce, that one person that would fit the bill would have to be Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood, Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion) in her role as Sasori, the Female Prisoner, Scorpion. Her savage ferocity is not conveyed in idle threats of physical harm, or boasts of physical prowess, but rather manifests …

Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion is the first film in the Scorpion trilogy, as well as the first film by director Shunya Ito. Based on the manga of the same name, The story follows Nami Matsushima (Meiko Kaji), the fiercest inmate in the Japanese women’s prison system, and for that matter, all women in prison films. Having been used as bait for wanted yakuza scumbags by her first and only love, a hotshot police detective, Matsu sought revenge. Taking matters into her own hands, she attempts to kill her former lover …