Jail Breakers (1976) [Film Review]

Jail Breakers; or, Sonny Chiba the Escape Coordinator!

Have you committed a serious offence and landed in a high-security prison? Even though you tried to break free numerous times, it’s still too darn hard? Well, in that case, it’s high time to call the professionals. Special team of the so-called “Escape Coordinators” will get you out in no time, but for substantial remuneration.

Release Info

Directed by: Kôsaku Yamashita Starring: Sonny Chiba, Haruko Wanibuchi, Eitarô Ozawa
Language: Japanese Original Title: Dassou Yuugi Runtime: 93 min

Plot

Kamiki (larger-than-life Sonny Chiba) is a petty criminal and a notorious prison escapee. After his 32nd(!) attempt, fortunate coincidence gives him another opportunity. When one of the prisoners fails to reach the rendezvous point, Kamiki takes his place in spur of the moment. The escape succeeds, but Kamiki’s unexpected presence instead of the other prisoner, greatly angers the gangsters who organised the whole thing. As a result, he becomes entangled in a series of scams and hustles in which he and the gang are constantly trying to deceive each other. In the end, Kamiki joins forces with “the escape coordinators” when they get an assignment worth approximately 3 billion yen. All it takes is to get out of prison a certain young lady and her father…

Feel the might of Chiba!

This forgotten, yet highly enjoyable, film starts right off the bat as our protagonist outruns masses of prison wardens and catches the helicopter ladder just to change his clothes while hanging hundreds of feet above the ground (genius opening sequence!). All in all, we’re talking about Sonny Chiba himself. Things have to be epic!

The title of the film says it all, and the film perfectly delivers it’s topic. Thankfully, the picture does not attempt to fall back on the tone of an exploitation flick (so popular in Japan of the 1970s), but instead, it imitates the style of a heist movie. However, there's still some room for humour. In my opinion, the most hilarious part of the film is when, during a mission at women's prison, female convincts suddenly wake up in their cell and jump with wild lust at one of the gangsters!

Yet, instead of the break-ins, we are served with the break-outs. On top of that, we also get to see gunfights, car chases, and Sonny kicking lots of butts in hand-to-hand combat. What can be considered a letdown are definitely the quarrels between Kamiki and the gang. Firstly, they want him to pay 30 million yen and throw him into the river. Then, Kamiki fools them during the break out job, by stealing the prisoner’s payment. Next, the boss of the gang, Reverend Tadokoro (Eitarô Ozawa), wants him dead, but boss’ girlfriend, Yoko (Haruko Wanibuchi), saves Kamiki just in time and orders him to kill the boss. During a confrontation between Kamiki and Tadokoro, the boss talks about a gig involving diamonds, which ultimately makes them join forces. Unfortunately, all these shifting alliances are very hard to follow.

Nevertheless, where there’s Chiba there’s action. As mentioned previously, the movie offers a great deal of action sequences and every single one was made flawlessly, especially the final escape, which deserves an honourable mention. In terms of acting, Sonny Chiba is basically himself at the top of his prime, which is always a great pleasure to watch, Eitaro Ozawa convincingly portrays a double-faced gang leader, and Haruko Wanibuchi shines with her beauty as Tadokoro’s manipulative girlfriend.

Recommendations

I recommend this film primarily to Sonny Chiba fans. Unfortunately, it’s quite a rare film and it’s not included in The Ten Faces of Sonny Chiba- 10 Movie Pack, but after a careful search on the internet you should be able to find it. In addition, if you want to introduce your child to Sonny Chiba, it’s best to start either with Jail Breakers or The Bullet Train (1975), because, contrary to Street Fighter Trilogy, these do not splash the screen with graphic violence. To sum up, Jail Breakers is a cool and entertaining flick for Saturday afternoon.

Overall score: 7/10

Memories of Murder (2003) [Film Review]

Memories of Murder; or, In search for the culrpit

      There's a reason people say I have a shaman's eyes.

This week’s review will be about the most successful South Korean film of the year 2003. A crime-drama film based on true events and crafted by Bong Joon Ho (the director of such quirky blockbuster hits as The Host (2006) and Snowpiercer (2013)).

Release Info

Directed by: Bong Joon Ho Starring: Song Kang Ho, Kim Sang Kyung, Park Hae Il, Jeon Mi Seon
Language: Korean Original Title: 살인의 추억 Runtime: 127 min

Synopsis

The film depicts the unsolved case of the so-called Hwaseong serial murders that took place between 1986 and 1991. In the story, we follow a local detective, Park Doo Man (Song Kang Ho), who hopelessly tries to solve the first murder. Unfortunately, methods and technology of the local law enforcement prove inefficient in catching the killer and, after wrongfully accusing a mentally handicapped boy of being a murder, a detective from Seoul, Seo Tae Yoon (Kim Sang Kyung), is assigned to the case. Initially, the two detectives clash with each other, but the arrival of Seo Tae Yoon really starts the investigation going. The officers discover that every woman was strangled to death by use of their own clothes, each one of them wore a red piece of clothing, and they were all killed on a rainy night (while the song “Sad Letter” was broadcast on a local radio). All clues lead to an inconspicuous factory worker who had moved to the town just before the first murder...

Tough Cops, Elusive Killer

First of all, interesting in Memories of Murder is the fact that it does not attempt to be just another police procedural. Vivid visuals of spacious fields and gloomy look of the local town combined with twisted personalities of the main heroes provide a great deal of realism into the story. Yet, the thing that the viewers may perceive as the most controversial are not the murders themselves, but the investigational activities conducted by the local police. Here’s the list of what you can learn from the movie:

1) It’s perfectly alright to falsify previously destroyed pieces of evidence.

2) It’s okay to hold the suspects in custody indefinitely and relentlessly beat them up until they confess.

3) When nothing else works, it may be a good idea to consult a psychic.

4) Encouraging suspects to give false testimonies is also acceptable.

Obviously, it’s difficult to believe that Korean law enforcement resorts to such methods today, but these provide an unintentional comic relief in the film as well as present the amount of pressure put on the detectives to catch the killer. However, only Seo Tae Yoon does not engage into these questionable practices. He is the only one who employs reason and deductive skills, but his meticulousness eventually turns against him.

Art imitating life

Even though the investigation lasted until the year 2006 and 10 women died in total, the real Hwaseong murderer was never caught. The movie follows a similar line of narrative, but delivers a great twist in the end (if it can be called a twist at all). Memories of Murder does not focus much on the killer, but closely studies characters of the detectives. On the one hand, there’s Park Doo-man, a superstitious idiot rather than a professional officer, who inefficiently struggles to hide his illiteracy, comes up with crazy theories (like that the killer has no hair in his private area), and is genuinely convinced that “his eyes can read people”. On the other hand, we have Seo Tae-yoon, a detective with style and proper expertise, who unexpectedly transforms into a Harry Callahan-like character by the end of the film.

Also, the supporting performances are worth mentioning. Park Hae Il as the prime suspect did a splendid job, as well as Jeon Mi Seon as detective Park Doo Man’s wife, also Kim Roi Ha convincingly portrayed a hot-headed interrogation officer. All thing considered, great performances, wide natural landscapes, gripping story, simple yet powerful score, and professional direction are the main assets of this picture.

 

Recommendations

I recommend this film to anyone interested in the crime genre, yet ‘whodunit’ lovers may feel a bit disappointed. Memories of Murder goes for evoking distinct emotions of empathy, sadness, and rage, while also doing justice to the original source material. It leaves one wonder whether the real Hwaseong killer will ever be found. A flawless motion picture for a rainy night.

Overall score: 9/10

Sanjuro (1962) [Film Review]

Sanjuro; or, Return of Yojimbo

      It's a stupid plan, but some excitement might keep me awake.

This week’s review will be about the only sequel in Akira Kurosawa’s career. Following the overwhelming success of Yojimbo in 1961, Toho executives pressed Kurosawa to make a follow-up story. As a result, Sanjuro was released a year later with Toshiro Mifune reprising his role of a wandering ronin, marking the 14th successful picture in the Kurosawa-Mifune collaboration

Release Info

Directed by: Akira Kurosawa Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yuzo Kayama, Takashi Shimura
Language: Japanese Original Title: 椿三十郎 Runtime: 95 min

 

Synopsis

Eight samurai led by Iori Izaka (Yuzo Kayama) meet together in an isolated shrine and discuss their issues. Iori suspects that his uncle, Chamberlain Mutsuta (Yunosuke Ito), might be involved in corruption since he tore up his nephew’s petition against organised crime. Thus, Iori went to the Superintendent for help and the latter reluctantly agreed. Nevertheless, it turns out that the Chamberlain was never involved in any dubious activity and that the Superintendent is the real villain. After imprisoning Mutsuta and his family, nine helpless samurai have nobody else to rely on than a shabby, yet extremely wise ronin who was sleeping in the shrine and overheard their conversation, Sanjuro Tsubaki (Toshiro Mifune).

Sanjuro vs. Yojimbo

After making Yojimbo, Kurosawa wanted to move on to something different in the samurai genre and, for instance, make a movie about a day in life of a samurai who is about to die, but due to Toho’s decision about Yojimbo’s sequel, he proceeded to adapt a story by Shugoro Yamamoto called Peaceful Days and positioned Mifune’s ronin as the story’s protagonist.

 

Interestingly, Kihachi Okamoto’s Kill! (1968) was also based on this novel and a number of similarities can be observed between the two films. However, they differ significantly in their tone. Whereas Kill was a parody of chanbara films and a satire on samurai lifestyle in general, Sanjuro poses a question of what it takes to be a good samurai. In Yojimbo, Sanjuro was acting for his own personal gain when playing off the leaders of two rival clans against each other, but in the sequel, we see him taking action due to his empathy for nine samurai in need. He wants to help because it is a right thing to do, yet, rest assured, he does not go soft on killing bad guys.

I admit that Yojimbo is a masterpiece which made its impact on popular culture, sparking numerous remakes and references, but storywise, Sanjuro feels to be a superior picture. Yojimbo provided great fun and action, but never really explored its protagonist’s personality. The sequel complements that hole and goes even further. Sanjuro becomes almost like a father figure to the young and impulsive samurai and, at the same time, he learns from the gracious Lady Mutsuta (Takako Irie) that “the best sword stays in its scabbard”. In consequence, Sanjuro has greater understanding for his adversary, the Superintendent’s henchman, Hanbei Muroto (played by the legendary Tatsuya Nakadai) whom he has to face in the finale’s electrifying showdown.

In terms of behind the scenes trivia, the morbid death of Nakadai’s character was allegedly done in one take and, accidentally, turned out to be more spectacular than intended. Supposedly, a compressor hose attached to Nakadai burst at one spot and a much larger gush of fake blood spilled out. The impact of the hose’s pressure was so strong that Nakadai was nearly lifted off the ground (which can explain the quick cut to Sanjuro’s close-up). Nevertheless, the death itself still looks impressive.

Recommendations

To sum up, Sanjuro is a great continuation of Yojimbo. Professionally directed (as always by Kurosawa), brilliantly acted (not only by Mifune but by Nakadai and other cast members as well), and with a great music score (composed by Masaru Sato- yet Yojimbo’s original theme can’t be heard until the closing shot of the film). It’s a shame that the third part was never conceived, because out of Kurosawa’s filmography, Yojimbo seemed the best material for a series. Although Mifune made unofficial sequels in 1970 with Hiroshi Inagaki (Incident at Blood Pass) and Kihachi Okamoto (Zatoichi vs. Yojimbo), I would love to see Kurosawa’s continuation of the ronin’s adventures.

Overall score: 8/10