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

Aankhen (2002) [Film Review]

Aankhen- Because fiction is far stranger than the truth…

What do Amitabh Bachchan, three blind men, and a bank have in common? Brace yourselves for the weirdest heist movie straight from Bollywood!

Release Info

Directed by: Vipul Amrutlal Shah Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal, Paresh Rawal, Sushmita Sen

Language: Hindi English Title: Eyes Movie Industry: Bollywood Runtime: 165 min

Plot

The movie opens with an enjoyable dance stunt and the title song. At least, the movie underlines the fact that it’s a Bollywood flick, although you might actually forget about it as the story goes on.

Our main hero is a fine gentleman called Vijay Singh Rajput (played by the always awesome Amitabh Bachchan) who is the manager of a highly respectable and profitable bank. However, honourable Mr Rajput suffers from… schizophrenia(!), which often makes him lose his temper in heated situations and resort to physical violence. That is the case with one of the bank clerks who after stealing 100 rupees is beaten almost to death by Rajput. Needless to say, Rajput is fired from his beloved job by the bank management and thus he decides to carry out the most painful revenge on his superiors. That is, he plans to perform “the weirdest bank robbery ever made.”

In view of this, an alleged schizophrenic (the guy’s a maniac for sure, yet I wouldn’t call him schizophrenic, but rather a guy with some serious self-control issues) devises a plan which even Dom Cobb would find batshit crazy, namely, rob a bank with the help of three blind folks. Reason? Such guys would never be suspected of committing the crime. Genius!

In order to carry out his devious plan, Rajput puts out a fake announcement about a workshop for blind men, and also blackmails a foxy teacher, Neva (Sushmita Sen), by kidnapping her younger brother, to help him train the team…

Premise & Focus

The longer the movie goes on, the crazier it gets, but not entirely in a negative way. The main premise is clearly put forward at the beginning and the “how they’re gonna do it?” question is the driving force which keeps us watching this Italian Job on steroids.

Interestingly, the focus of the film shifts relatively quickly from the character of Rajput to the blind men. Arjun (Arjun Rampal), an endless optimist whose tendency to care can only be compared to Jesus; Ilyass (Paresh Rawal), a noisy street-bum who can never be serious when required to; and Vishwas (Akshay Kumar), a guy who with the loss of his eyesight gained “the sixth sense” and can sense people around. Yes indeed, this trio seems even crazier than Rajput, but watching them work together is pure entertainment itself. Strangely enough, they seem to be the characters whom we are supposed to cheer on and relate to. We get to know their tragic back stories, observe how they get along, and eventually how they get as a team. Nevertheless, the viewers are somewhat fooled from the beginning by perceiving Rajput as the ultimate hero of this twisted story. Why is that the case?

Characters

First of all, Rajput is the very first character we see on screen and the issue is that with every consecutive scene, Rajput is presented as more and more negative and inconsistent as an action hero. By logic, he should be the one we ought to have pity on. Despite his anger, he was a devoted worker who got cheated out of his years of hardship. In consequence, it should seem that Rajput wants to commit a crime purely for providing sufficient moral justice, in order to make the management feel fooled and ashamed. However, the bank booty becomes Rajput’s obsession and after the heist, he is determined to go at lengths so as to keep the stolen jewellery.

The blind team, on the other hand, are the total contradiction of Rajput. Instead of being just in the background, they are the ones who are put in the spotlight of this twisted story. Apart from comic relief from Ilyass and some “thriller-like” innuendos from Vishwas, we are also served a romantic subplot between sensitive Arjun and harassed Neva. Unfortunately, this stereotypical love affair does more harm than good to the picture, because it goes totally nowhere…

In fact, after the amazing final heist scene (because there are a couple of these in the film) the whole picture seems to go nowhere. The last 40 minutes completely ruin the still-unstable mood of the picture with its unbelievable plot twists and unevenly paced action.

Bollywood flick or not?

At the beginning, I made a statement that you might lose the feeling of the film being a Bollywood production. The problem is that it tries as hard as possible to be a Hollywood-like movie. We have the evil bank, some high-class interiors, and a few English catchphrases like “All the best” or “Truth is stranger than fiction.” In addition to that, the setting is also a crucial factor. The movie was shot mainly indoors, but you get impression that there is something wrong with all of the outdoor scenes. Why is that? Well, perhaps it is the fact that the film was shot not in India, but in Cape Town, South Africa! This isn’t Mumbai, this isn’t New Delhi, this is just Cape Town pretending to be an Indian city! Maybe it’s just my own exaggeration, but I clearly felt that all the streets packed with Indian extras looked pretty strange and after reading the movie info, I finally knew that the “fake location” was to be blamed.

Moreover, we are served with only three dance scenes in the movie. These were very well made, but also felt quite forced and out of place. However, perhaps the genre of heist movies isn’t the best sort of material to put Bollywood music in.

Recommendations

All in all, the makers of this weird delusion couldn’t decide whether it should be entirely a heist movie, an action-drama movie, or a thriller and as a result we are served with a mixture of the three. Yet again, the movie isn’t entirely bad and it has some positive sides. For instance, the heist scenes are awesome, the chemistry between the partners in crime is also great, believable, and somewhat moving. I deliberately left out some major plot twists from this review so you could fully enjoy the fun as well as the insanity of this “weirdest heist movie ever made.”

However, don’t expect anything in “Ocean’s Eleven style". If you don’t have anything exceptional to watch on Saturday evening, this film is worth giving a shot only for one time, just to experience some proper action but also a chain of illogical inconsistencies which will surely make you laugh a bit.

Overall score: 6/10