Beast Stable begins with Matsu still on the run after her escape in the previous movie. She's cornered on a subway train and handcuffed to a cop, who she promptly hacks at with a knife, severing his arm. A wonderful flight through the city streets with a dismembered arm cuffed to her wrist as the opening credits appear gets things off to a good start.
Matsu is quickly taken into care by her old friend Yuki, who is forced to live in a shack with her mentally damaged brother while satisfying his sexual needs. The one-armed detective doesn't let a little thing like the loss of an appendage stop him from his pursuit of Matsu, however, and he rounds up every police goon in the city to close the net on her. Meanwhile, the Yakuza have an axe to grind with Matsu as well. She will make them all pay, and a succession of gory revenge and escape scenes follow.
It's less arty-farty than the first two, and follows traditional three-act structure with better locations. The endless, depressing prison scenes are gone, replaced with better characters, wickeder villains, and some semblance of an actual plot. I found the others a bit too thin, honestly, but Beast Stable is definitely the most watchable of the series so far.
The ending scenes don't make much sense though.
Matsu is quickly taken into care by her old friend Yuki, who is forced to live in a shack with her mentally damaged brother while satisfying his sexual needs. The one-armed detective doesn't let a little thing like the loss of an appendage stop him from his pursuit of Matsu, however, and he rounds up every police goon in the city to close the net on her. Meanwhile, the Yakuza have an axe to grind with Matsu as well. She will make them all pay, and a succession of gory revenge and escape scenes follow.
It's less arty-farty than the first two, and follows traditional three-act structure with better locations. The endless, depressing prison scenes are gone, replaced with better characters, wickeder villains, and some semblance of an actual plot. I found the others a bit too thin, honestly, but Beast Stable is definitely the most watchable of the series so far.
The ending scenes don't make much sense though.