Whereas the 1972 "Prisoner 701: Scorpion" movie was watchable and entertaining, this 1973 sequel was utter rubbish and quite a waste of time. I managed to endure 43 minutes of the movie, then I just quit. Nothing in the movie appealed to me.

The storyline was laughable and had nothing worth of any interest to offer. It was so mundane and pointless that I very quickly lost interest in it. It is slow paced and very little of any interest happens as the movie trots on in a grotesquely slow pace. But I stuck with it, deciding to give the movie a chance beyond the 15 minutes or so where I first started to seriously lose interest. I managed to stick with it for 43 prolonged and painful minutes.

Sure, it was nice that Meiko Kaji returned to the role of Nami Matsushima, but she had nothing, seriously nothing, to work with here in terms of script, plot or character development.

The entire movie seemed like a jumble of random scenes filmed by random directors, then handed over to Shun'ya Itô to make a movie out of all the random scenes.

I wasn't even entertained for a minute throughout the course of the ordeal that is "Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable" (aka "Joshuu sasori: Kemono-beya") and that has left me with absolutely no interest in returning to finish the movie.

Sasori is outside the prison and on the run from the police, wanted for breaking out of prison and murder. She takes refuge with a woman who has a brother with a learning disability. The woman and her brother are also involved in an incestuous relationship. Both the police and an ex-prison mate of Sasori's pursue her.

Although part three of four, some consider this the end of the original series because the director did not return for part four. That is reasonable, though certainly not the unanimous view. At this point in the series, Scorpion is barely even a "prison convict" and we can no longer say this is a "women in prison" film (really that only happened in the first).

This film has its ups and downs, and I suppose if you watched the first two, you should probably watch the third. Whether or not I give it a second viewing, I have no idea.

Fugitive prisoner Scorpion (Meiko Kaji) is on the run, pursued by a relentless, vengeful, one-armed detective named Kondo (Mikio Narita). In an attempt to 'blend in' with society, she decides to shack up with Yuki (Yayoi Watanabe),a beautiful young prostitute who lives with her mentally handicapped brother, and get a job. However, when the local prostitution ring gives poor little Yuki a very hard time, our silent heroine decides to seek revenge, and, in doing so, reveals her whereabouts to the law.

Judging by IMDb's current rating (7.6 out of 10),and some glowing comments by trusted, prolific authors, I expected to have my socks blown clean off by Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable. Indeed, the first few minutes, in which protagonist Nami Matsushima hacks off Kondo's arm (which is handcuffed to her) and proceeds to leg it with the severed limb dangling from her wrist, did just that (I paused the DVD to pop them back on).

Unfortunately, however, the remainder of the film proved to be far less impressive, never matching the sheer audacity of the opening scene. Sure, director Shunya Ito comes close with some exploitative moments including incestuous sex between Yuki and her retarded brother, and a nasty, forced abortion, but, for the most part, Beast Stable is rather boring, being very slow in the telling and uneventful for long stretches.

The film is, of course, very stylish, and always good to look at (the stunning lead actresses certainly help there, with Watanabe obligingly getting her kit off a few times),but compared with parts one and two, this third outing for Scorpion is a tad disappointing.