Prisoner 701: Sasori

Nami has dilemma under threat of death. She either kills her cop boyfriends father and sister or she dies herself knowing they are going to get killed anyway. She kills and goes to jail only to come out of grave for revenge on those who set her up. Lot of bloody violence and martial arts combat fill much of this film that contrasts beauty with beastliness. Arty.

As I haven't seen the anime or read the comic books on which this is based I can't offer any comparison and will have to review this film as a stand alone movie. To be honest I think something may have been lost in the translation. I don't speak Cantonese (I know it says Japanese but the copy I saw WAS Cantonese), but some of the subtitles were terrible, I don't know if that's down to the translator or down to the origional script but either way it took away from the quality of the film. This also lacked the sheen of a feature film and instead looked like a made for T.V. movie. The acting throughout wasn't much cop and the direction failed in it's attempt to look stylish. However some of the fight scenes were fantastic, dark and gritty, they showed a real brutality. But other fight scenes were terible with completely pointless use of wires to send the actors flying. There was also no real graphic violence, mostly just blood on the floor, with almost all of the real contact blows happening off screen. I also found it a little annoying that our main girl Nami seemed able to learn how to fight simply by watching the other prisoners, I mean I've seen a fair bit of Bruce Lee in my time but I certainly can't kung fu chop my way out of a bad situation. Over all this film failed to live up to my expectations and didn't really follow the plot synopsis offered on the back of the case. Either that or I managed to miss Nami's transformation into the 'Scorpian'. But despite it's numerous faults it's not what I would call a particularly bad movie, but I wouldn't say it's any better than just ok.

I'm a film fan.

I dont care if they're speaking a foreign language, and the movie is subtitled.

Jackie Chan's early Hong Kong cinema stuff is some of the most enjoyable stuff arround!

This film, is just rubbish. Not because it's in Japanese. Not because it's subtitled, but because it's just rubbish.

I fell asleep at it! I wasnt even feeling tired! I dont fall asleep at films!

It's that bad!

If you rent it, you'll regret it!

Rent Battle Royale instead. Same language, same dodgy subtitles, but it's enjoyably gruesome.

this was rubbish not worth looking it turned it off at the finish

Slick film. Quite bloody & horrific especially the prison scenes. Voyeuristic. Not unenjoyable but nothing new in the plot at all.