You often hear movie critics whining about sequels are announced. Why must we get another installment of a film? Has Hollywood run out of ideas? Most of the time with a Hollywood sequel, reuniting the cast and crew turns out to be a case of a cash grab without much creativity involved. The studio is smugly satisfied that they put the band back together for one more go around. They expect everyone that came to the first film to be there opening night. Sometimes they’re hits, other times they are duds. Back in the mid-20th Century, Japanese theaters were filled with sequels. People in Tokyo didn’t mind going back to see the next movie in the series. Abashiri Prison spawned 17 sequels from 1965 to 1972 starring Ken Takakura (Black Rain) as Yakuza mobster Shinichi Tsukibana. Prison Walls Abashiri Prison I-III contains the first three films of the series.
Abashiri Prison (1965 – 91 minutes) opens with a train pulling into a snowy station. The people getting off aren’t eager for a ski vacation. They’re all chained together and led off to the most Northern remote prison in Japan. Abashiri Prison is a real place and noted for the freezing winters. The inmates are stuck in the same cell and share the floor with their bed. Among the new residents is Shinichi Tsukibana (Black Rain‘s Ken Takakura). He’s a Yakuza member who doesn’t seem as hardened as a few of the guys on the chain. He only has a few months to serve, but he’s worried because a relative is not in good health. During the day, the group is taken out to cut down trees. While Shinichi tries to use his legal connections to shorten his sentence, a few of the cellmates with years to go begin plotting a breakout. Can he stop it without making him turn into a snitch to the warden?
Abashiri Prison II aka Abashiri Prison Continues (1965 – 87 minutes) doesn’t keep us locked up behind bars. Instead of breaking out, the movie opens with a break in at a jewelry store. Two burglars bust open a safe to get to the diamonds and other jewels. They kill a guard and then one takes out the other. It’s a cutthroat operation. Shinichi is now a free man and taking a boat ride along with an inmate who is being transported to a police station to confess to an unsolved crime. It’s a colorful cast setting sail. Shinichi meets a woman who turns out to be a thief. A rather sleazy mother trains her toddler son to light her cigarette. There’s a nun carrying a box full of colorful algae balls. This turns out to be trouble since the nun’s balls are how the jewels from the heist are being smuggled out. Things get tricky when she drops her box and one ball goes missing. Shinichi finds himself dealing with a lost ball and the gangsters that want it back. Is he going to find himself heading back to prison before he gets home? There’s a bit of a tone change from the first film with more comic moments. But there’s still quite a bit of violence. Ken Takakura is able to establish himself as a Yakuza hero in this second outing.
Abashiri Prison III aka Love For The Homeland (1965 – 89 minutes) brings Shinichi back to Nagasaki. He’s there to take care of his mother’s grave and reconnect with his old crime family boss. Things have changed during his time in the penal system. Turns out his crime family is no longer dominate. They are not getting the choice assignments working the docks. Shinichi swears that he wants to help get the legal business working for his boss. But can it thrive with a rival mobster eager to take everything. The film features a kid roaming the area named Emi (Mâgaretto Hayashida) and hustling. She is an outsider who bonds with Shinichi. Her estranged mother is a prostitute, and her absent father was an African American solider stationed there after World War II. The kid stands out compared to the other people in the city. The actress is coated in black makeup and given a scruffy afro wig. This might upset some people, but Hayashida gives a great performance that brings out the humanity in Shinichi. The tone in the third entry returns to the more serious nature of the first film. The battle between Yakuza families isn’t played for laughs. In one scene, Shinichi uses a lighter to burn off his old mob tattoo.
Prison Walls Abashiri Prison I-III gives us a taste as to why Ken Takakura was a major star in Asia. He ended up with supporting roles in American movies shot in Japan such as Black Rain and Yakuza. These three films have him as the star. He dominates the screen whether he’s stuck in prison, dealing with hijinks on a boat or facing off at the docks. It’s easy to see how he ended up making 18 films as Shinichi and why viewers wanted to see them all. What’s astounding is that the first ten movies were directed by Teruo Ishii. Several of Ishii’s movies have finally been released in America over the last few years (Shogun’s Joy of Torture, Horrors of Malformed Men and Inferno of Torture). The Abashiri Prison movies are the ones that made him a box office superstar. He brings quite a bit of excitement to the screen including the daring escape on rails at the end of the first movie and a nasty samurai sword fight in the third. You won’t be complaining about sequels while watching Prison Walls Abashiri Prison I-III. You’ll be eager for the remaining 15 to arrive on Blu-ray.
The Video is 2.35:1 anamorphic for all three films. Only the first is in black and white. The 1080p HD transfers bring out the details in the snowy escape and the sword fights in the later films. The Audio is Japanese LPCM 2.0 Mono for all three films. The audio is sharp and clear. The movie hadn’t been released in America before so there’s no English dub. The movies are subtitled in English.
Audio Commentary by Tom Mes gets into the cold weather production. He gets into how the film allowed Ken Takakura to become one of the top actors Japan. The sequels to the film made more money than the original at the Japanese box office. Do hope more get release since the seventh installment was the highest grossing film in Japan during 1966.
Original Theatrical Trailer (2:45) lets us know this is a cold prison covered in snow. We get a sense of an escape by two men chained together on a daring escape down the railroad tracks.
Audio Commentary by Chris Poggiali, the co-author of the amazing These Fists Break Bricks: How Kung Fu Movies Swept America and Changed the World book. If you enjoy Martial Arts films, get a copy. He gets into how the sequel came about and the background of the cast.
Original Theatrical Trailer (2:50) has the subtitle “Another Abashiri Prison Story.” We get a recap of the first film (which had just been released a few months before. The black and white jumps to color.
Audio Commentary by Mike Leeder & Arne Venema has them go through the various titles of the third film. They get into how this third entry is so different from the second movie. This film almost seems more like sequel to the original than the second entry. The also get into the Emi character made to look half-black and Japanese. They point out the careers of other actors in the film.
Original Theatrical Trailer (2:21) lets us know he’s coming home to see his family and settle scores. We’ll also see a few faces from the first film.
Break Out (29:26) has Jasper Sharp & Mark Chilling Discuss Abashiri Prison. The two get into how this film series was Teruo Ishii’s biggest hits in Japan. He made 10 movies including the first four getting released in 1965. Toei studio didn’t think the first film would be a hit which is why Ishii shot in black and white. The film was a hit and the studio wanted more and didn’t want to wait too long. Ishii had only a week to write the second script. They also talk about Ken Takakura’s career.
Interview with Tony Rayns (30:41) gets into how Japanese studios were all about getting film series rolling into the movie theater. He gives the biography of Teruo Ishii. After World War II, Ishii hooked up with Toei Studios and knew how to make films fast. Toei brought him the book for Abashiri Prison. He didn’t like the book and really wanted to use the book as an excuse to remake The Defiant Ones or at least the plot device of two guys chained together are fleeing the prison guards. The studio was mainly concerned with making the film a breakthrough part for actor Ken Takakura. The first film was sent out as the B-movie on the double feature but became the reason people bought tickets. While Ishii and Takakura made 10 films together, the series lasted another 8 movies with Takakura into the ’70s.
Collector’s booklet featuring an essay by Mark Schilling
Eureka Entertainment presents Prison Walls: Abashiri Prison I-III. Directed by Teruo Ishii. Screenplays by Teruo Ishii and others. Starring Ken Takakura, Kôji Nanbara, Tetsurô Tanba, Tôru Abe, Kanjûrô Arashi and Kunie Tanaka. Boxset Contents: 3 movies on 2 Blu-rays. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: May 28, 2024.
