Synopsis: A new prisoner arrives at a secret island training school. She’s headstrong and obstinate – will she survive until graduation?
 
La Femme Nikita and The Black Cat both focus on a single pre-selected criminal candidate for secret assassin training. But what if the training were communal, with the entire ‘student body’ involved, and only the most talented promoted to the next level? And what if it were an exploitation / pinku flick?
 
Death Row Girls manages to be a classic exploitation romp that doesn’t forget to be an actual movie with characterization and plot. Staples of the genre: training scenes, solitary confinement, psychoanalytical mind control, and escape attempts are spiced with catfights, bath scenes, nude group hosedowns, sex with guards, and a creepy midget that’s always sneaking around.  
 
The acting is far above normal sexploitation / pinku / WIP standards, as are the editing, script, and [digital] cinematography. Filmed mostly on location, the brick prison and catacombs is an exquisite background that becomes a character in itself. Greatly reminiscent of Fort Macon in North Carolina, built in 1826, it could just as well have been filmed there.
 
Aki Hoshino’s early scenes as Prisoner Number 1316 are rather campy as she hysterically shouts everyone down, but that’s all per the script. When she later retreats into Clint Eastwood / Sharon Stone laconic mode, she’s not bad. Even more impressive are the many JAV idols (adult stars) who portray her fellow inmates. Here the girls are present without the excessive makeup generally favored for photo shoots, and they look quite natural. Well, Aki actually had CT scans to prove the lack of artificial enhancement, but Emi Kitagawa need not bother. She may have the worse set since Rene Bond, but she’s a capable actress. Ren Suzuki handles the simulated sex scenes and Ami Sakurai is on hand as well, but most shocking is the sweet and adorable performance from Momo Izawa, one of the all-time Bukkake queens.