FEMALE PRISONER: CAGED! (1983)

Reviewed by Kris Gilpin

Nikkatsu is Japan's oldest film studio, and after the sexy Pink period in Asian films, Nikkatsu introduced what they called Roman Porno, short for Romantic (tho this film certainly isn't that), and perhaps their most extreme RP flick is the typically goofily entitled FEMALE PRISONER: CAGED!

At a tightly paced 68 minutes (well directed for the genre by Masaru Konuma), the Japanese gave us a run for our money when it came to making the sleazy, beloved women-in-prison genre flicks -- in fact, this one tops ours (it even includes urine & semen (!), along with the bloody beatings, of course).

After one woman masturbates for 5 minutes (this actually comes up later on as a plot point), the story involves Masayo (the beauty Mina Asami, who even has a beauty mark), who arrives back at the femme prison after a thwarted escape attempt. The evil woman warden just cannot break her spirit (leading to an unusual ending scene). There is a tough-girl gang--you can tell they're tuff grrls because they walk like John Wayne. And like all WIP movies, it's not really about a "through storyline" (but of course, who cares in these films?).

The Asian sleaze & cheese runs rampant here: tons of nudity from the sexually frustrated inmates, one extended-thrusting fornication scene offers some pixilated crotches, an extended torture sequence turns into an orgy (!), one child-like inmate confesses to the prison priest how she was molested by her father as a little girl & the turned-on said priest later has it off with the also-beautiful, evil prison guard. There is the mandatory rape scene, naked whippings, a group of prisoners get so turned on by the construction workers laboring nearby, they all shake the non-electrified wire fence (resembling zombies in Romero's DAY OF THE DEAD) before hopping over it (boy, that was easy!) and getting it on with them, etc.

In the past few years these hotter-than-Pink, S&M-tinged Roman Porno epics have had a revival of sorts, especially with women, who reportedly appreciate (despite the rape scenes) the stories and the strong female characters.

And if you like the genre, FEMALE PRISONER: CAGED! is a great WIP B-flick! (And the DVD has some cool trailers on it, too, such as NAKED RASHOMON, based on Kurosawa's final script--oh, I kid, I kid!)