Review
As with a lot of stuff I watch I didn’t know anything about this film when I watched it… other than being called doing time I surmised that it was probably about prison life. I could not have expected on that basis what a wonderful film this is!
It’s based on the real life experiences of a Manga artist Kazuichi Hanawa! In 1994, Hanawa was arrested in Japan for owning a firearm. A collector of model guns, he was caught testing handguns far away from civilization. He was sentenced to three years in prison.
For anyone in the west that’s going to watch this film you should be warned, this is not going to be what you expect of a prison drama! There are no beatings, there is no hanging around smoking & plotting. No rape, murder or any of the other things you would get in a western prison drama! This is nothing like Oz or any of those things. This is an insight into a completely different world.
The whole film revolves around the rigid rules that have to be followed in a Japanese prison. (The west could probably learn a lot from this) and how everything, the tiniest details become all encompassing!
We see the prisoners at work, we feel their excitement when the food arrives (They do seem to eat well). There is a scene where one of Hanawas’ cellmates gets to go to see a movie with a bunch of other prisoners and when he gets back he shares the experience with the others, all taking simple pleasure from it. We see the terror in their faces when they do something wrong (and when I say do something wrong it’s basically nothing) and they think they will get in trouble.
I can’t really say much more, I know a lot of people are going to think this sounds dull as dishwater, but it really isn’t. It’s a film that keeps you riveted from start to finish maybe partly because it is such a different world, but also because it is so nicely made. The characters are wonderful, the direction is perfect, you really need to see this one! I really can’t recommend this film highly enough!
4½ out of 5
Review by Uzumaki (UK)
www.koroshiya.co.uk for all your Asian film reviews!
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