Prisión Abashiri

This is a very nice Japanese classic movie. It depicts the life of some inmates serving in the notorious Abashiri prison. The hierarchy among inmates is the same as in Western culture, except that they continuously greet each other by nodding which is unique to Japanese culture.

Storytelling is so nice. Childhood memories of the lead character is shown with flashbacks. His attachment to his sick mother is so emotional. His sorrow is very well reflected to the viewer. Finally, the movie is blended with beautiful songs. They reminded me of Turkish ballads.

I came up to this movie because a character in the first (and only, the second one is terrible, sexy shots of Balalaika's legs in episode 2 permitted) Black Lagoon series mentions the series this movie spawned in the original japanese language in episode 11 as a series he enjoyed when he lived in Japan. Unfortunately, this movie turned out to be a contrived borefest of epic proportions that make the stupid complaints about the unbelievability of what is going on in the first Black Lagoon series (I have no idea what people expects from an animated series) completely disappear because nothing of this movie makes a lick of sense in any way, shape or form. Also there's an overabundance of the typical tropes that you expect from the prison genre, with the usual stuff of a prisoner pretending to be ill to get the attention of a guard, two guys using the railroad to free themselves from the chains, etc. I get it, this was probably cheap entertainment stuff not to be taken seriously, but still it's extremely outdated by today's standards and I don't recommend this movie one bit. I guess I won't look at the following 16 (!) sequels if this is the "quality" of the original.

Abashiri Bangaichi was not the easiest movie to find. I found it kind of as an accident after I had given up on it. Abashiri Bangaichi is following a group of inmates in a a snow covered wilderness. it focuses mainly on Shinichi Tsukibana who is trying to get a parole.

The stories is about a group of prisoners and the interactions between themselves and the guards. It shows how the criminals get ranks after what crime they have done and how long sentences and how long they have been there.

Camera work was good. The actors did a very fine job too and the characters were interesting. So if you like prison movies this may be interesting for you if you come across it. I would also recommend if you are into old Japanese movies. It was certainly worth viewing.