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| Images courtesy of Eureka Entertainment |
The work of Teruo Ishii is generally wild if not across the
board, from his Tokusatsu serials Super Giant before moving towards the
ero-guro (erotic grotesque) sexploitation subgenre including but not limited to
Shogun’s Joy of Torture, Orgies of Edo and the hyperkinetic
freakish Blind Woman’s Curse.
Often full of lush, over-the-top kaleidoscopic visuals, the provocateur
frequently referred to in his native homeland as ‘The King of Cult’ is often
synonymous with Yasuharu Hasebe or Seijun Suzuki in terms of conjuring up
colorful transgressions for the lush glistening panoramic 2.35:1
widescreen. But unbeknownst to most
western filmgoers until recently thanks to the ongoing efforts of Eureka
Entertainment, a particular untouched period of the director’s career bridging
his Super Giant work and his sexploitation efforts with a classy foray
into the prison drama as playground for yakuza warfare.
Entitled Prison Walls: Abashiri Prison 1 – 3 (incredibly
all produced in 1965) and grounded on a real prison that originated in 1890 in
the Hokkaido Prefecture, this special-edition blu-ray boxed set comprises three
notably if not iconic entries within the yakuza genre. Starting out as a stark black-and-white
reimagining of Stanley Kramer’s escaped prisoner drama The Defiant Ones
before moving into yakuza battles across modern Japan outside the prison
setting in full blown color photography, this disparate yet kindred trio of
films kickstarted an entire series of films including seven more entries
directed by Ishii all starring actor Ken Takakura before the series got
rebooted once again in 1968 as New Abashiri Prison. But rather than get into those iterations
which the boutique label may still do down the line, Eureka Entertainment has
elected to focus exclusively on the first three pictures which paint a broad
portrait of Japanese imprisonment before cementing themselves as primary
examples of the uncompromising yakuza thriller.
Beginning with the panoramic black-and-white Abashiri
Prison, based on the 1956 novel of the same name by Hajime Ito based on his
own experience in the real Abashiri Prison before being reworked as a remake of
The Defiant Ones, we find model prisoner Shinichi Tachibana (Ken
Takakura) nearing the end of his sentence with six months left to go. However, he is handcuffed to violent criminal
Gonzo Gonda (Koji Nanbara) who drags him into a haphazard escape plan from the
prison orchestrated by Heizo Yoda (Toru Abe) and is forced alongside the Gonda
into the frozen open wilderness. Taking
on an almost Essential Killing or The Ascent quality as far as
wintry survivalism running afoul of the law or opposite sides of a military
conflict, Abashiri Prison gradually turns into an endurance with the duo
racing each other towards a brutal end that will claim the lives of one or
possibly both of them.
Continuing onward with the same original author Hajime Ito
with rewrites by Teruo Ishii and jumping into color courtesy of cinematographer
Yoshikazu Yamazawa of the previous film, the next film Another Abashiri
Prison Story sees Tachibana wrapping up his prison sentence and he returns
to the streets with an old cellmate.
However their plans for a clean restart is interrupted when they stumble
upon stolen diamonds and other contraband from a bank heist. Bringing unwanted attention upon himself from
yakuza and policemen, Tachibana finds himself navigating the yakuza underworld
while finding his own place in it over time.
Basically a stock trade cat-and-mouse thriller featuring many of the
same characters from the previous film, it functions more or less as a
transitional work while Tachibana slowly locates his wings.
Lastly in Abashiri Prison: Sage of Homesickness,
Tachibana after visiting his mother’s gravesite and ruminating on his abusive
father once again finds himself mingling with former yakuza members who are
trying to get a fresh reboot on life.
However as with the previous film, shedding one’s scales of a past life
of crime isn’t as easy as it seems. Soon
old rivals are busily infiltrating his life upon his return home and after
taking an orphan girl under his wing, Tachibana finds himself at crossroads
between a violent broken past and the aftermath of his own previous path of
destruction and of the three films we find lead actor Ken Takakura delivering
his most emotionally involved performance of the trilogy yet. It proves to be a far more satisfying
offering than the second film and despite several more films following
thereafter Saga of Homesickness has a sense of closure to it.
With the first black-and-white film and the second color
film both shot by Bullet Train cinematographer Yoshikazu Yamazawa, Abashiri
Prison captures the Hokkaido prison complex with grand wide-angled
panoramic detail while the switch to color in the next film Another Abashiri
Prison Story feels like a thematic development of being freed from the monochromatic
shackles of the first film. Switching
cinematographers altogether with the third film, moving to The Assassin cinematographer
Kiichi Inada, Abashiri Prison: Sage of Homesickness retains the scope-colored
theatricality of the second film. What
does carry across all three pictures is Yakuza Law composer Masao Yagi’s
eclectic original scores which energize and augment the already tense proceedings
unfolding.
While many more films followed in this trilogy’s wake, these
first three jump started both an entire series of successful pictures while
boosting the star power of evolving genre icon Ken Takakura who himself would
later star in the aforementioned Bullet Train. For Teruo Ishii and the sheer amount of these
films he directed, it represented an important artistic stepping stone for him
in doing yakuza action fare that would or would not lead into his eventual
foray into and canonization of sexploitation.
Fans of the director’s more extreme and transgressive creative output as
well as those keen on his superhero serials start, the Abashiri Prison films
are an integral intermediary period and building blocks for both the filmmaker
and leading star’s respective careers.
With all three films housed across three discs in beautiful new transfers
supplied by Toei and plentiful extras including a Tom Mes commentary, a Tony
Rayns interview and lastly a video essay by Jasper Sharp, Prison Walls:
Abashiri Prison 1 – 3 is a splendid three-film set from Eureka
Entertainment chronicling Ishii’s eventual ascension towards the moniker of
being ‘The King of Cult’.
--Andrew Kotwicki
