When it comes to prison break films or life in prison films, there’s a certain level of escapism to be expected. Whether it’s Frank Darabont’s poignant 1994 hit The Shawshank Redemption or Don Michael Paul’s silly but fun-as-hell 2002 flick Half Past Dead, audiences love a film where the underdog attempts to break free. While Tai Katō’s 1967 film Eighteen Years in Prison may certainly be that film … it is in many other ways not that film. The harsh realities of life and prison in post-war Japan on full display makes it tough for a hard-hitting thriller like this to be written off as escapism. The Toei-produced film follows the characters Kawada (Noburo Ando) and Tsukada (Asao Koike) who, by turn of fate, end up on different sides of class and morality. After a copper wire theft gone wrong, Kawada is arrested and sent to prison while his friend Tsukada manages to escape. One man goes on to fight injustice in prison (finding himself on the side of wronged prisoners against the tyrannical guards); the other goes on to use his gains to start a yakuza gang. Alliances are broken and worlds collide as Kawada vows to escape and put a stop to the villainy of his former partner.
The tale of Kawada and Tsukada is not your usual tale of good and evil. With these characters and their eventual moral destinations, there is an organic flow as to how Kawada becomes a symbol of pride and strength and how Tsukada becomes a thug who bends the harsh reality of his community to his will and power. “The world is changing. You have to change with it.” — this is a quote used in the film that explains the journeys of these characters. Noburo Ando (Graveyard of Honor), an actor that was a real-life member of the yakuza, brings a copious amount of gravitas to the role of Kawada. His stoic facial expressions, in moments of contemplation and defiance, are commanding and he brilliantly controls the scene. The character is like many people in his community, healing from emotional and physical scars brought on by the war, but he still manages to keep himself a believer in and a defender of humanity. Even the choice of working within a black market (before he is arrested) is somewhat noble as he is working to give back to his community which is suffering postwar. This doesn’t change in prison where the authority, specifically the vengeful warden Hannya (a terrific, despicable performance from Tomisaburo Wakayama (Black Rain)), treats prisoners like animals … unless they have the right amount of cash to pay for bribes. While most of this thrilling story belongs to Kawada, Tsukada’s rise to power is not too far from the foreground. Asao Koike (Throne of Blood) brings a sly, ruthlessness to his scenes as Tsukada, a man who is not above causally threatening a woman’s life while staying pathetically matter-of-fact about it. His bitterly stolen rise matched with Kawada’s defiant refusal to fall creates the perfect balance of being a representation of the change in your environment vs. being just a product of your environment.
Tai Katō’s direction in Eighteen Years in Prison is brutal, brilliantly staged, and visually stunning. With the film’s runtime being short and sweet, there are many great one-take sequences that run the range of hand-to-hand combat to uncommon heart-to-heart interrogations. When something demands our attention, Katō makes sure to keep all his attention on the action at hand. That’s not to take away from the many brutal moments of the film, like a particularly unsettling sequence involving torture of an unruly prisoner that, for a film made in the ‘60s, is hard to not look away from or wince. The lighting of this film is also brilliant. Even in the darkest corner of prison cells or alleyways, director Katō never fails to show the beauty in the dark. It’s no wonder why a man who studied under one of cinema’s greats, Akira Kurosawa, can pack so much into a 91-minute runtime. (Per Tom Mes’s essay “Years of Filming Dangerously,” Katō was an assistant director to Kurosawa while filming Rashomon.)
The supplemental material here is lean and clean. The high-definition digital transfer is great (as per usual with Radiance), really popping out the contrast, even in the film’s darker scenes (again, the lighting is great in this one). There is uncompressed mono PCM audio as well as newly translated English subtitles. On the featurette side, there is a visual essay on Japanese prison films by Tom Mes and an appreciation by critic and programmer Tony Rayns. A standout is a great archival interview with Noburo Ando by Mark Schilling in the limited-edition booklet, which also includes an essay by Tom Mes. For lovers of prison films such as Escape from Alcatraz (1979) or The Shawshank Redemption, this is a great purchase to add to the collection.
Eighteen Years in Prison Special Features:
- High-Definition digital transfer
- Uncompressed mono PCM audio
- Appreciation by critic and programmer Tony Rayns (2024)
- A visual essay on Japanese prison films by author Tom Mes (2024)
- Original trailer
- Newly translated English subtitles
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Ivo Smits and an archival interview with Noboru Ando by Mark Schilling
- Limited Edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
Available on Blu-ray from Radiance Films on July 30th, 2024
For more information, head to the official Radiance Films Eighteen Years in Prison webpage.
To purchase, head to the official MVD Entertainment Group Eighteen Years in Prison webpage.
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Categories: Home Release, Recommendation
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