History Film / JoshuuSasori

** ''Beast Stable'''s Katsu, however, is a particularly nasty version of a Femme Fatale, possibly a parody, possibly turned {{up to eleven}} and possibly just a victim of the 1970s.

* KnifeNut: When afforded a choice, Matsu tends to wield a common cooking knife, or occasionally a Tanto.

* ExtraordinarilyEmpoweredGirl: Easy though it is to argue that Meiko Kaji isn't going to frighten off any potential muggers, what makes the film as satisfying is that about the only thing that's actually unbelievable about the series is Matsu's resilience, and that's more or less explainable in context. There's also the frequent implications of supernatural involvement, though.

* {{Reconstructed}}: Sort of. There's not really been any attempt to ''deconstruct'' a Women In Prison film, presumably because there's no concievable way that it really needs its myths debunking - nobody could possibly take the idea of a prison full of beautiful, sex-starved women seriously. At least, one hopes so. Anyway, Itou is taking the idea of a [[GirlsBehindBars WIP flick]] and turning it on its head; while audience tittilation is possible, the heroine is very rarely placed in a sexual situation, and when she is, it's usually framed as coercion, depicted as a thoroughly horrible experience that depicts the attackers as beastlike, pathetic and rather ridiculous, and soon followed by her vicious revenge. Moreover, rather than simply being disposable, the films have serious messages about moral corruption and abuse of power woven deep into them. And then there's the psychedelic, surreal flashback sequences.

* [[AntiHero Anti-Heroine]]: Matsu - a type IV or V. While it's hard not to sympathise with her, she is undeniably merciless, and some of what she does is pure vindictiveness. Although never explicitly stated, she seems to have a code of conduct: help her and she'll help you; mess with her and watch your back; betray her trust and ''you're going down''.

* CrapsackWorld: Understandable in a prison context, but the wider Japan we see in these films isn't the place you've seen in all those samurai flicks, all forests and lakes and pretty vistas. It's dirty, dark and run-down, physically and morally similar to how the Allied Powers negatively caricatured UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII; all the guards are mindless sadists, all the cops are corrupt, most of the women are vindictive and unprincipled and most of the men are misogynistic and cowardly. The general public are an uncaring, unresponsive and unsympathetic mass.

* CrapsackWorld: Understandable in a prison context, but the wider Japan we see in these films isn't the place you've seen in all those samurai flicks, all forests and lakes and pretty vistas. It's dirty, dark and run-down, physically and morally similar to how the Allied Powers negatively caricatured Imperial Japan during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII; all the guards are mindless sadists, all the cops are corrupt, most of the women are vindictive and unprincipled and most of the men are misogynistic and cowardly. The general public are an uncaring, unresponsive and unsympathetic mass.

* CrapsackWorld: Understandable in a prison context, but the wider Japan we see in these films isn't the place you've seen in all those samurai flicks, all forests and lakes and pretty vistas. It's dirty, dark and run-down, physically and morally; all the guards are mindless sadists, all the cops are corrupt, most of the women are vindictive and unprincipled and most of the men are misogynistic and cowardly. The general public are an uncaring, unresponsive and unsympathetic mass.

* DeathIsDramatic: Generally, Matsu's last target is the one who takes half a dozen gut-mincing, body-checking thrusts of the knife, interspersed with the victim's pathetic, gasping, staggering attempts to escape. [[spoiler: Sugimi's]] death is particularly Shakespearean.

* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: Matsu's relationship with Yuki is [[BaitAndSwitchLesbians never quite clear]]. More clearly, the warden attempts to break her resistance by using a female police officer masquerading as a new inmate to get through her guard. She starts out trying to get Matsu to brag, and ends up [[spoiler: failing, covered in lovebites and begging to be let back into the cell 'to try again']].

** {{Roaring Rampage Of Revenge}}: Matsu is not subtle, long-winded or devious [[spoiler: once she has escaped]]: find target, stab target, repeat from start.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: After the [[spoiler: escape]] in ''Jailhouse 41'' Matsu works with Oba and the other women, even though Oba clearly hates her and most of the rest are simply following Oba's lead.
* TheVamp: averted in a similar way to the Femme Fatale trope - Matsu is not primarily a sexual manipulator so much as a psychological one, and although she will use sex to get her way, it's not something she does naturally or apparently happily. And again, she's not immoral or evil so much as amoral.

* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Averted - Matsu has no interest in complex schemes to ruin people's lives or make them suffer. She just lays their carotid artery open and moves on, barely even looking back.