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.

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.

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.

"[7] In a 1998 interview, Tani recalled that one scene in Fairy in a Cage was more physically demanding than some of the more notorious ones in Lady Black Rose (1978), which were simple tricks.

[3] For explanations of this phenomenon, he quotes pink film director Yutaka Ikejima who theorizes that the sexual fantasies of this generation had been warped by the war experience.

They note that in spite of his usual expertise with lightweight comedies, "Ohara's direction is crisp, and torture fans will find much to admire in the Sadean eroticism he brings to the proceedings.

"[4] Jasper Sharp, in his Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema, takes a negative view of Fairy in a Cage.

He writes that Ohara is not one of Nikkatsu's top directors, and that the film, "merely wallows in its own depravity, with ever more vicious displays of abuse towards its leading lady.