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| Images courtesy of Radiance Films |
The work of Japanese writer-director Sadao Nakajima, despite
winning multiple awards for his yakuza, jidaigekis and being the first to make
a gendaigeki or film set within the present day, remains relatively unknown
outside of his native country.
Frequently working in film and television, including co-directing Theater
of Life with Kinji Fukusaku and Jun’ya Sato, Nakajima carved out a sizable
oeuvre amassing some seventy-two titles before his recent passing in 2023 at
the age of 88. Posthumously, the folks
at Radiance Films saw fit to begin bringing his works over to the US and
England starting with Toei Films’ blistering and savage true crime drama The
Rapacious Jailbreaker starring Hiroki Matsukata of Fukusaku’s Cops vs.
Thugs. Partially a prison drama,
partially a yakuza breakout film about a real seven-time prison escapee,
Nakajima’s The Rapacious Jailbreaker makes its worldwide disc premiere
through the eclectic, ever evolving and growing boutique label.
Following the aftermath of World War II, black market runner
Ueda (Hiroki Matsukata) is ripped off of his morphine supply and takes bloody
violent revenge on his robber. Arrested
and sentenced to twenty years in prison, Ueda proceeds to break out of his
captivity again and again, met with increasing hostility from his captors and
wardens every time yet remaining undeterred in his quest for freedom. Trying to keep him from getting himself and
everyone else into unnecessary trouble is Okada (Tomisaburo Wakayama), perhaps
the only one to calm this wild man down.
Much of the rest of the supporting cast of extras and character
actors/actresses find themselves bystanders or observers of the determined,
unfazed Ueda forcing through gunfire and knifing with each punishing setback
and imprisonment only further fueling his drive.
Something of a down and dirty precursor to I Love You
Phillip Morris which was also a true crime film about a prison escapee wardens
and guards couldn’t seem to keep behind bars, The Rapacious Jailbreaker
though somewhat redundant nevertheless is a thoroughly captivating scope
widescreen Japanese prison drama. With
an engaging if not rocky score by Kenjiro Hirose and gritty yet panoramic
widescreen scope photography by Shigeru Akatsuka, Nakajima’s film looks and
feels tight and claustrophobic with kindred stylistic techniques to the more
frenzied vistas of, say, a Fukusaku film.
Hiroki Matsukata as the multiple escapee all but fully engages with the
physicality of the role with lots of running, crawling and tense hand-to-hand
combat. Tomisaburo Wakayama of Lone
Wolf and Cub gives here a surprisingly understated role compared to some of
the more freakish characters he’s played in the past also and the ensemble
supporting performers all give pitch perfect roles here.
Brutal and battering, the Radiance Films world blu-ray
premiere of Sadao Nakajima’s gritty epic is among the rawer yakuza prison pictures
of the 1970s not directed by Kinji Fukusaku or Teruo Ishii. Comparable to Eighteen Years in Prison
from Tai Kato, the experience of the Japanese prison film is often harsh and
unforgiving. However while that film was
intended to be an endurance of sorts, Nakajima’s The Rapacious Jailbreaker is
more of an ironic thriller as we watch Ueda make one prison break after another. Nakajima, again, remains relatively unknown
in the US but with this Radiance release hopefully that will start to change
among Western filmgoers keen on East Asian cinema. Radiance’s disc looks and sounds great and
comes with an illustrated booklet as well as a visual essay from renowned
Japanese film critic Tom Mes. Bumpy,
rough riding but well worth the ordeal in the end.
--Andrew Kotwicki
