As prison break noirs go, Nobuo Nakagawa’s Onna shikeishû no datsugoku (US: Death Row Woman) is unique for its focus on a woman’s escape but downright revolutionary for its inclusion of a lesbian rape scene. After a loud quarrel with her wealthy industrialist father (Hiroshi Hayashi), in which she tells him she’s pregnant by the boyfriend he disapproves of, Kyôko Imai (Miyuki Takakura) is framed for patricide when a glass containing cyanide is soon after found next to her father’s corpse and a perfume bottle of cyanide is found in her purse. Despite plenty of other suspects (her stepmother, stepsister, boyfriend, even her father’s chosen fiancée for her), Kyôko is tried, convicted, and sentenced to execution, prompting a desperate effort to escape (including from aggressive lesbian cellmates) and clear her name. This is a gorgeous film that uses black and white to full effect. The camera spies on characters from overhead (the living room, the duck hunt, the prison cell), underneath (the leap between rooftops), and dollying in front (the cop on the train), while the steady strum of a guitar-heavy score intensifies during suspenseful moments, notably during the nighttime escape. Compared to masterpieces like Le Trou from the same year, Kyôko’s escape may seem way too easy (where did she get the rope?) but such improbability only adds to the film’s dream-like quality.