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Released by: Radiance Films
Released on: July 30th, 2023.
Director: Tai Katô
Cast: Noboru Ando, Tomisaburo Wakayama, Asao Koike
Year: 1967
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Eighteen Years In Prison – Movie Review:
Set in post-war Japan with the country in a shambles and occupied by American forces, Tai Katô’s 1967 film, Eighteen Years In Prison, introduces us to a former Kamikaze captain turned gangster named Kawada (played incredibly by real life former Yakuza gang leader Noboru Ando) who, along with his partner, Tsukada (Asao Koike), decides to make himself some money by stealing some copper wire and selling it on the black market. In fact, they want to take over the black market in a sense, returning the profits from various acts of thievery to local families, many of whom lost husbands and fathers in the war. It’s a noble but still very definitely illegal idea, and he hopes to soon earn enough money doing this to buy up some property and go legit. Hisako (Hiroko Sakuramachi), who lost her brother during the war, is so destitute that she considers selling her body to make ends meet and get the money she needs to take care of her ailing mother. When a group of drunken American G.I.’s attempt to have their way with the young woman, Kawada steps in and puts a stop to it.
When it comes time for the heist, it goes south pretty quickly and the military police show up to put a stop to it. Kawada is initially sentenced to five years behind bars for the crime, but Tsukada, who is injured and sent off by Kawada, manages to escape doing any hard time at all.
In prison, Kawada meets, and frequently comes into conflict with, various characters while dealing with a sadistic and remarkably corrupt prison warden named Hanya (played by Ito Ogamia himself, Tomisaburo Wakayama!) who is hardly the new inmate’s biggest fan. He does manage to befriend a young man named Kenichi (Kondô Masa), but overall, life behind bars is clearly unpleasant. While this is going on, in the outside world Tsukada has built up a gang for himself and used the property that was to serve as the basis for the legit market and turned it into a red light district of sorts, personally profiting off of prostitution and other crimes.
Featuring a genuinely excellent performance from gangster turned actor Noboru Ando, Eighteen Years In Prison is an interesting look at the turmoil that existed in post-war Japan before the country’s economy turned around and turned them in to the powerhouse that they are today. It deals with the effects that the war had on the country’s populace and place Ando’s Kawada smack dab in the middle of it, his character clearly trying to redeem himself after sending untold numbers of Japanese pilots to their death in service of their nation. Rife with social commentary and political allegory, it’s unflinching in its depiction of how destitute much of the country was when the war ended, and in capitalism’s role in
what would happen in the years to come, both good and bad. Tomisaburo Wakayama’s character is a really strong representation of this, using his position of authority to undermine those around him and abuse those in his charge in an attempt to benefit only himself. His performance, like Ando’s, is excellent while Asao Koike and Hiroko Sakuramachi also doing excellent work in front of the camera.
Nicely shot and tightly paced, it may not get as extreme with its depictions of intense violence that the Yakuza films that would follow in its wake would, but Katô’s films still packs a pretty mean punch, offering plenty of interesting food for thought along the way.
Eighteen Years In Prison – Blu-ray Review:
Eighteen Years In Prison arrives on Blu-ray from Radiance Films in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer provided by Toei framed at 2.35.1 widescreen on a the Region A/B locked 25GB disc. The transfer is a good one, presenting the film in very nice shape. Although the movie is visually very dark, with much of it taking place inside some dimly lit prison interiors, colors are reproduced nicely and quite accurately and the image is free of any noise reduction or edge enhancement issues. The picture is very clean, showing really no real print damage at all while retaining the expected film grain. Detail is quite nice, compression artifacts are never a problem and there’s good depth and texture to take in.
The only audio option on the disc is a 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Mono track in Japanese with optional subtitles provided in English only. This is a fairly dialogue heavy film despite frequent scenes of intense action, but the track handles everything well, giving things some punch when the movie calls for it and doing a very nice job with the score and the punchy gunshot sound effects. No problems with any hiss or distortion and the levels are balanced nicely. The subtitles are clean, clear, easy to read and free of any noticeable typos.
Extras start off with an appreciation by critic and programmer Tony Rayns that runs twenty-five minutes. Rayns spends a good bit of time talking about Tai Katô's life and career, offering up plenty of background information about how he got into the film industry after doing military service in The Second World War, how he worked his way up, the rise in popularity of Yakuza films in the sixties and seventies through various studios, the state of the Japanese film industry at the time, real-life stories about Yakuza activity that may have inspired some of these pictures, Noboru Ando's life and career as well as his work in the movie as well as his background as an actual Yakuza gangster, Ando's work in this picture and what makes it unique, the film's production history and the themes that it explores.
Up next is a visual essay on Japanese prison films by author Tom Mes titled Tall Escapes. This seventeen minute piece covers how the Japanese film industry didn't make many prison films before the end of the Second World War, the effect of militarism on the country and its artistic output, some of the early entries in the genre that came out in the fifties, genre highlights from different studios, important cast members that played a part in these movies, how the genre changed as the seventies came around, how themes of prison made their way into different genres, the directors that contributed to the genre and films that have come out since the genre's seventies heyday.
A trailer for the feature finishes up the extra features on the disc.
As to the packaging, Radiance supplies, with the first pressing, some really nice reversible sleeve artwork featuring newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow on one side and art from the original Japanese theatrical poster on the reverse. This release also comes packaged with a limited edition full-color booklet featuring an essay on the film by Tom Mes titled ‘Years Of Filming Dangerous’ that does a nice job of exploring the film, alongside and interview with Noboru Ando conducted by Mark Shilling in 2002. The nicely illustrated booklet also includes cast and crew notes and credits for the Blu-ray release. This limited edition first pressing is being pressed in 3,000 copies and comes with a removable Obi strip, which is a nice touch.
Eighteen Years In Prison - The Final Word:
Eighteen Years In Prison isn’t as rough and violent as some of the films that would follow in its wake but it does prove to be a really solid showcase for Noboru Ando and it makes for pretty gripping viewing, even if it lacks some of the more sensational qualities of better known genre entries. The Blu-ray edition from Radiance Films is a good one, presenting the movie in a very nice transfer with two genuinely fascinating featurettes and an booklet well worth reading to complement the feature. Recommended.
Click on the images below, or right click and open in a new window, for full sized Eighteen Years In Prison Blu-ray screen caps!
