Scorpion, Nami Matsushima, is on the loose, running from the law. A depressed young woman who reminds Scorpion of Yuki (and is played by the same actress, Yayoi Watanabe) helps her hide and find a job. She starts to live a semi normal life, but things don't stay that way when she begins to be harassed. One thing leads to another, and she has to, yet again, run from the law.

Beast Stable is the third Female Prisoner Scorpion movie, and the last one Shunya Ito directs. It feels a lot different than the first two movies, which was a turn off for me at first. Beast Stable is more like an actual movie than a women's prison movie. It's not nearly as insane and while the symbolisms from previous films are still there, it's not as obvious.

The movie starts out pretty damn cool. Scorpion is spotted on a subway and as she runs away the detective handcuffs her to his arm. But nothing stops Nami Matsushima, and she proceeds to cut off his arm and run away with his arm swinging beside her. After that the movie slows down quite a bit and focuses more on the characters. Scorpion gets to view things much differently now that she's out of jail, and sees many terrible things these women go through. Like the second movie, Beast Stable's character development focuses more on the other women while Scorpion seems to be the one discovering these wrongs and fixing them. Scorpion has more screen time in this one versus the previous movies, and she actually forms a friendship with the woman she believes is Yuki. It was refreshing to see her have a connection with SOMEONE.

While Beast Stable is still exploitive, it is much tamer than the first two films. There is some incest, torture, forced abortions, and boobage. There's not a day gone by that a woman doesn't get her clothes ripped off in these films. Doesn't that happen to everyone? I know it's hard to walk outside without some dude getting pissed off and ripping off my clothes. At least there's no crazy pantyhose wearing monkey dudes. The story in Beast Stable is well told, though at times it does feel a bit disjointed. Mainly because sometimes it seems to go off in another track, but then it falls back into place. The ending was pretty damn cool, but it seemed kinda separated from the rest of the movie.

Shunya Ito is a great director and it's a shame that this is his last Scorpion movie. Beast Stable ended in a way that it didn't NEED a fourth movie, but they made one anyway. Shunya Ito has a way of blending exploitation and art together into something amazing, and all three of his Female Prisoner Scorpion movies prove it. The score was perfect, although there were some "boing!" sound effects that slipped in during a murder scene. Where did they come from and why were they there?!

Meiko Kaji (Scorpion) is, of course, awesome. You get to see more of her in this movie, and she even smiles! As I've said before, the movie could consist of her staring straight into the camera for hours and I'd love it. Although it might be better just to get a picture of her... same thing, really. Yayoi Watanabe (Yuki) played a very sympathetic character and did it well. Mikio Narita (Detective Kondo) was a perfect as the one-armed asshole detective. He didn't show at first HOW much of a bastard he was (unlike Goda, who was a bastard outright), but the more you saw of him the more the evil showed. I thought he did great. Though it was hard not to notice that odd lump in his coat where his arm should be. Guess they really didn't have the technology to hide an arm, and he didn't really want to chop off his arm for a movie.

At first I was fairly disappointed in Beast Stable, probably because I was expecting an outrageous women prison movie, which it is not. However I liked it a lot after watching it later knowing what it isn't. It has a different feel than the first two films, and is less exploitational, but overall it deserves to be up there with its two predecessors.

What I liked: Meiko Kaji running around with a severed arm handcuffed to her; the directing; Scorpion's sweet sweet revenge... again; Scorpion smiling; Meiko Kaji; the cute doggy who found the severed arm! He was so happy! So proud!

What I didn't like: Scorpion was never in her black suit, that made me sad; the ninja "boing!"; the slight disjointedness of the story; the pacing was much different than the first two films and threw me off.

What I've learned: Burning your crotch keeps you warm, I'll remember that the next time I'm cold; if a woman pukes it INSTANTLY means she's pregnant; women cannot walk two steps without getting their clothes ripped off; all it takes is a few whacks from a knife to cut off an arm; When you're running from the cops don't worry about the spotlight they shine on you. As long as you're in the sneak pose, they'll never see you.

Female Prisoner #701 Scorpion: Beast Stable is available to buy at the following vendors:
 

Or you can also buy the box set (which includes the first, third, and fourth movies) at Amazon or YesAsia.