Revenge in the Tiger Cage (1976)

Revenge in the Tiger Cage (1976)
Aka: Girls in the Tiger Cage 2; Woman Prisoner No. 407 2; Return to Tiger Cage; Operation First-Team
Original Title: 여수 407호 2
Translation: Female Prisoner 407 Part 2

 

Starring: Chen Hung-Lieh, Karen Yip Leng-Chi, Shen Yi, Kao Chiang, Chang Pei-Shan, Lee Wan-Chung, Jin Bong-Jin, Kim Wang-Guk, Kim Ki-Beom, Heo Jin
Director: Shin Sang-ok

 

Revenge in the Tiger Cage is the pseudo-direct sequel to Girls in the Tiger Cage, although some reviews I’ve read suggest that it fudges the details on where the first one ends and this one begins. It is also a colossally BORING entry in the Women in Prison, almost like an attempt to make a PG (albeit 1970s PG) version of the sort of sordid film that New World and the Italians were making at the same time.

The movie begins with Kuan Mou-Hua (Karen Yip, of The House of 72 Tenants and The 14 Amazons) already on the outside. She’s on the run with her fellow inmate, Kao Chuan-Tze (Heo Jin, who apparently helped write the Bruce Le film Enter the Game of Death). After enjoying a nice bath together in the wild, they find the house of Mou-Hua’s uncle. Unfortunately, the uncle and his wife have been murdered by the Japanese, leaving their young son to fend for himself. Before they can do anything, the Japanese show up and arrest Mou-Hua and Chuan-Tze. We never hear about the little kid again, so I assume the poor dude dies of starvation.

Mou-Hua and Chuan-Tze are put on trial not only for escaping from prison, but for murdering a man. Apparently in the first film, at some point Mou-Hua boarded a train and stabbed a guy to death. Up against the death penalty, Mou-Hua tells the story of her being framed (in the first film) and subsequent humiliation at the prison at the hands of Warden Kato (Chen Hung-Lieh, of Duel with Samurai and The Invincible Sword). She also says that the guy she killed was not only the one who framed her, but he had murdered her brother as well. This is enough to convince the judges to give her and Chuan-Tze life sentences…at the same prison they escaped from.

On their way back to the prison, Mou-Hua and Chuan-Tze almost die when the truck drivers try to push the vehicle off a cliff. There we learn that Kato wants them dead, as her testimony has drawn the attention of the authorities, who want to investigate him for abuse of power. So, now he needs to find a reason to kill the two girls. His first idea is to have the Queen Bee (Shen Yi, playing the same role from the first film) convince Mou-Hua to try to escape again. That way, Kato will have a reason for his guards to shoot her dead. However, Mou-Hua just wants to be a model prisoner and serve her sentence in peace. His next idea is to gather some of the girls in his office and then leave…with the keys in the door. Although the girls definitely contemplate escaping, Mou-Hua convinces them to stay.

Kato then goes for a more devious strategy. First, he cuts off the water from the latrines, which means the girls can’t shower. He then has his guards inform them that the water tower is too dirty and tell them they have to clean it up. As they’re cleaning the sludge out of the gigantic tower, tensions grow until a fight breaks out. Kato has all the women return to their quarters…except Mou-Hua and Chuan-Tze. As soon as they finish cleaning it, the guards remove the ladder and start filling it with water again. The two girls almost drown, but make it out alive and turn the tables on Kato, almost killing him.

A few days later, a fire starts in the prisoners’ quarters while a pair of them are engaging in lesbian coupling. Kato lets the fires burn, only releasing a handful of prisoners. Those prisoners release some of the others, but the fire ends up burning down one of the blocks, killing some 18 prisoners, including Chuan-Tze. At that point, an inspection team shows up at the prison to investigate Kato. He is eventually relieved of his post and a new warden is put in charge. His top security officer is also a member of the Japanese secret police. But one of the guards is part of the Korean resistance…

Much like Girls in the Tiger Cage, this film sets up moments of sleaze and then fails to follow through on them. There are multiple bathing sequences, women forced to disrobe (and jump), and lesbian sex, but are all filmed in a manner that the actual nudity is not visible (save a few bare bums). There are a few escape attempts, including one involving Mou-Hua being hidden in a coffin and then clawing her way out of the dirt to the surface. I think that scene was the inspiration for a similar one we saw in Kill Bill Vol. 2. But really, there is no real action, save a neverending chase sequence at the end involving a pair of handcars. Chen Hung-Lieh is not a particularly imposing villain here and comes across as an incompetent boob (the only boob in the film, if you catch my drift) for the most part. But with no martial arts, no gunplay, and no exploitation, Revenge in the Tiger Cage is simply a long slog to get through.