Fairy in a Cage

Fairy in a Cage
Theatrical poster for Fairy in a Cage (1977)
Directed by	Kōyū Ohara
Produced by	Yoshiki Yūki
Written by	Oniroku Dan (story) Seiji Matsuoka (screenplay)
Starring	Naomi Tani Hirokazu Inoue Rei Okamoto
Music by	Hajime Kaburagi
Cinematography	Nobumasa Mizunoo
Edited by	Atsushi Nabeshima
Distributed by	Nikkatsu
Release date	June 4, 1977
Running time	70 min.
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Fairy in a Cage (檻の中の妖精^?, Ori no naka no yōsei) aka Woman In a Cage is a 1977 Japanese pink film in Nikkatsu's Roman porno series, directed by Kōyū Ohara and starring Naomi Tani.

During the latter part of World War II, Judge Murayama, head of the Japanese military police, uses his position to falsely accuse, capture, imprison and torture women in whom he is interested. Namiji Kikushima, a high-class business woman, is one such lady. Kikushima is accused of using her Ginza jewellery shop to finance an anti-government organization. Judge Murayama has Lady Kikushima arrested, and orders the new recruit Taoka to torture her. Taoka falls in love with Kikushima, at first hating torturing her then growing to enjoy it. After a long series of tortures and humiliation, while the Judge espouses his twisted version of morality, Taoka sacrifices himself to enable Lady Kikushima's escape.

Lead actresses Naomi Tani and Rei Okamoto had worked together previously in director Yasuharu Hasebe's Rape! (1976). Tani would work with director Ohara again in Fascination: Portrait of a Lady (1977), and Rope Hell (1978), which also reunited her with Hirokazu Inoue, one of her torturers from Fairy in a Cage. In contrast to these torture-themed films, Ohara had been successful with light, youth-centered comedies, such as his later Pink Tush Girl series.

In a review of the films of Kōyū Ohara for the journal Asian Cult Cinema, Graham R. Lewis notes that Ohara uses conflict between social classes as a theme in Fairy in a Cage. Both Lady Kikushima and Judge Murayama are members of the upper class, while Taoka, the new recruit ordered to torture Kikushima, is from the lower class. Murayama tells Taoka, "Some think I am a sick person, but this form of entertainment has always been reserved for the rich." Taoka is repulsed by this philosophy, and when he comes to enjoy the torturing, sacrifices himself to release the prisoners. In a 2000 interview, Ohara confirmed this class-conflict theme, stating, "I think S&M is noble people's fantasy. In the Roman Empire, the nobility were the spectators at the coliseum as they watched slaves in life threatening games. This is the reason I used a fancy silver chalice to collect the heroine's urine in Fairy In A Cage."