Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable

Ito's third and final Scorpion film opens with Nami severing a handcuffed detective's arm and dragging it through a train station, and only gets more intense from there. Hiding in the city among sex workers, she is hunted while the film explores the solidarity and cruelty among women at the bottom.

It is grimmer and more grounded than Jailhouse 41 but no less formally bold, and Meiko Kaji's near-silent fury reaches its peak. After this Ito left the series and it became ordinary immediately.

The end of the great Scorpion run, and further proof of what the cycle could do.