Out on Blu-ray and 4K UHD July 30, 2024
Following getting caught and imprisoned for working on the black market, a former prisoner comes across his partner who got away following this stint his stint in prison when they both fall for the same woman.
Written by Kazuo Kasahara and Shin Morita and directed by Tai Katô, Eighteen Years in Prison is a film that has an interesting story but ends up taking too long and the road less interesting as it develops. The film is not entirely bad, but something is missing here, perhaps something that disappeared with the era it came from. The film isn’t badly made and the writing works and so does the direction, but the story here is not one that has wide appeal in the way it is brought to the screen in this film. It’s a classic story of two friends turned enemies, gangsters, crimes, and loves, but it ends up feeling incredibly long, something is off, but it’s hard to pinpoint what it is. In terms of cinema history, it is a film that still matters but the story at here and how its handled will leave many uninterested before the film is done.
The cast is good here, but unfortunately hard to figure out who is who from the credits and the IMDB page for the film. The cast overall is good here, turning in solid performances with a few bits of the style of the era. There is something charming about these performances, something very 1960s, very of its era and very much of its culture. The performances are great to watch which is all one can asked rally.
The cinematography by Osamu Furuya (credited as Shin Furuya) is just the right look for the film. Somewhere between the lighting and the film stock used for this film, the cinematographer found their sweet spot and made the film something lovely to watch. The look here is something that aged beautifully well and the restoration by Radiance is stunning to look at. There is very little artifacting here, with everything looking just right. The film is properly restored visually, but also on the audio side of things. The sound is limited to what the restoration team had to work with, and it sounds great. The newly translated subtitles are working quite well here, bringing the film to English speaking audiences just right.
In terms of extra, this new release from Radiance has the aforementioned new subtitles, new art by Time Tomorrow that is quite nice, a visual essay by Tom Mes on Japanese prison films, a limited edition booklet, and a piece by critic Tony Rayns.
