There are no chain gangs in this flick (how did they come up with that title?) but there are plenty of young, nubile girls in the slammer. They are held in large, dorm-style rooms, 5 girls to a cell, and they sleep on the floor. But this is no slumber party; it’s a very mean-spirited film with a few nice GIMP scenes. Since my copy was in Japanese without subtitles, I can only explain what happens, but not why it happens.

Nami, the main character, is incarcerated after being unjustly convicted of murder (of course). She’s a rather quiet girl who tends to hyperventilate under stress, which she experiences quite a bit in this movie. The first GIMP scene occurs after a sharp object is found in one of the cells. (It was planted there by an inmate from another cell whose name I don’t know, so I’ll refer to her as BadGirl). All five girls are taken away for punishment. They are shown chained AOH and stripped down to their panties. The warden walks among the chained girls delivering a speech, while randomly swatting one of the girls with a cane. There’s a nice sense of dread as none of the girls knows which one will be thwacked next. The girls react very nicely to the whipping. Next, the guards pull out some electrified rods, which are dramatically shown with large sparks. Again the warden walks among them, applying the prods to their sides until they pass out. Then buckets of water are thrown in their faces to revive. Now they are whipped again while wet (one of my favorite combinations).

Nami is then subjected to punishment by the warden. She is stripped down to her black undies, wrists handcuffed behind the back of a chair and whipped on the upper back. Nami really displays a lot of agony, and finally collapses to the floor.

Nami’s roommate Asuza and BadGirl get into a catfight that ends with Asuza pinning BadGirl to the floor and threatening her with a shiv against the crotch of her pants. Later Asuza is chained spreadeagle and whipped by a female guard. Asuza puts up a tough front at first but finally registers pain. Then BadGirl is allowed to have her revenge on the captive girl. She produces a blowtorch and some kind of iron bar, heats up the bar until it’s red hot and then taunts Asuza by holding it up to face. She positions the glowing implement between Azusa’s sweaty legs and then shoves it upward. We see the look of agony on Azusa’s face, and then the camera cuts away to the sound of a blood-curdling scream.

If you like your movies mean, this one’s for you. Besides the GIMP scene mentioned above, Nami gets clubbed, kicked, stepped on, cut, put in cold dark isolation then bombarded with heat lamps, and just generally abused. The guards make frequent use of their batons. The inmates get into an epic free-for-all slugfest in a narrow hallway near the end of the film, and the guards wade into the crowd beating up the girls. Then the girls beat up the guards. Nasty.

Movie pluses: The whipping/electro scene was well done. As usual, the cast members deliver earnest performances. The final segment is, literally, a riot.

Movie minuses: No rape scenes; the only sex is semi-consensual (between the warden and BadGirl). The two main characters (Nami and Asuza) never get naked or topless. Some talky scenes (that I couldn’t understand) and flashbacks interrupt the action. The fights were inconsistent in quality, but that’s for someone else’s forum, I guess.