Movielogr

Rating: 5.5 stars

Tags

Hong Kong Japan women in prison fight to the death swordfight sword revenge violence remake graphic novel adaptation manga comic book movie prison prisoner

All movies seen on 12/09/2013

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Sasori (2009)

Directed by Joe Ma

Action | Crime

Overview

A ruthless pack of thugs force mild-mannered, caught-in-the-middle-of-something-bigger Nami to murder her fiance’s sister, decidedly ruining her pending marriage and landing the poor girl in the most brutal women’s prison ever seen. Inside the hellblocks, she decides to stop being a victim at all costs, and ends up becoming stronger and even more vicious than the craziest inmates in the pen. She eventually escapes in a most unusual way, gets valuable fight training from a mysterious mountain man and returns to the streets in order to make the thugs who ruined her life pay.

Length 101 minutes

Actors

Miki Mizuno | Dylan Kuo | Emme Wong | Nana Natsume | Sam Lee | Siu-Lung Leung | Ryo Ishibashi | Lam Suet | Simon Yam | Cat Lo Siu-Yi | Peggy Tseng

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

Disappointing.

Bought the blu in anticipation of an updated take on the original Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion but there is very little in common outside of the prison setting and revenge tale. Everything else including the motives are different. It could be that this adaptation is closer to the original manga than the film (or possibly a blend of all 4 original 701 Scorpion films). So I don’t want to be completely harsh but it’s best to enter this movie without comparing to the 1972 film. At all.

That said this is still a rather dull take on the story shoving more style and atmosphere rather than making a coherent movie. Sadly the group of actors that Joe Ma as assembled are wasted here. I don’t even want to delve into the weird plot missteps like Nami’s ex-lover/boyfriend not even recognizing her after she escapes prison. When the movie turns into total comic book fantasy fighting is when I really turned off.

Also this is a weird HK/Japan co-production that apparently featured Japanese but this blu is Cantonese only and the dubbing is obvious and sometimes distracting. Can’t recommend this film but it is available on NWI as of this writing. I’d be favorable if the movie wasn’t so dull and lifeless. Even the fighting is uninspired.

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