{"id":48122,"date":"2025-06-11T00:01:38","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T04:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=48122"},"modified":"2025-06-11T01:34:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T05:34:12","slug":"the-rapacious-jailbreaker-aka-datsugoku-hiroshima-satsujinshu-1974-radiance-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/11\/the-rapacious-jailbreaker-aka-datsugoku-hiroshima-satsujinshu-1974-radiance-films\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rapacious Jailbreaker (aka Datsugoku: Hiroshima satsujinsh\u00fb) (1974) [Radiance Films]\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Now available on physical media from Radiance Films<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A man is sent to prison which can\u2019t contain him for long. Soon he finds his way out, again and again, so that he can go live life a bit and be a menace to the locals.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The story here includes a lot of questionable decisions and some rape-y (at best) moments, so be warned. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Written by Tatsuo Nogami from an idea by K\u00f4z\u00f4 Mino, and directed by Sadao Nakajima, the film here has interesting moments but definitely isn\u2019t for everyone. There a lot here that has aged questionably. The story is that of a rapacious (yes, it means what you think) man who is put in jail and keeps escaping to indulge himself. It\u2019s decently written but not all of it needed to be on the screen. The direction here works with the script quite well and makes the most of everything. While the pace here is a bit odd at times, it generally works and helps advance the story. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The cast here is led by Hiroki Matsukata in the titular role. His work sells the movie mostly, going fully into the insanity of doing the same thing over and over, in different ways, while seemingly hoping for different results. His acting works well with the character and the story. The supporting cast works quite well too, giving the film a well-rounded bunch of people to lean into as it moves forward. The cast does well, some of the characters are a bit odd for current tendencies but were what you could see in many films back in the day. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The cinematography is where this film shines with work by director of photography Shigeru Akatsuka. The images here are fairly nice, many with a blue tint to them, showing the quality of the film chosen and that the cinematographer knew how to use the right look, the right film stock, and the right lighting. The work on this front is fantastic and beautiful in a dark and moody way. The story itself is not the central shining element but is upstaged by the cinematography with its careful planning and framing. The images win the viewer over, bring them into the story, and keeps them involved. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Rapacious Jailbreaker will not be for everyone, but those who are into this type of film should love it. It looks great, the acting is solid, and the writing is more than decent. There is a lot of questionable elements here but they are part of the story and make the film what it is basically. Did viewers need all of this on the screen? Probably not. Did the filmmaker make bold choices? Of course.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The features on this Radiance Films release are decent with a new translation for the subtitles, a good quality on the image transfer that allows the look of the film to really shine through, and uncompressed audio from the original mono recording. The extras for this release are minimal but good, the visual essay by Tom Mes works well here, the audio commentary by Nathan Stuart is interesting, and the booklet is a good quick read. Overall, a solid release that could have used a bit more on the extras, but the quality of what is on here is tops.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now available on physical media from Radiance Films\u00a0 A man is sent to prison which can\u2019t contain him for long. Soon he finds his way out, again and again, so that he can go live life a bit and be a menace to the locals.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[240,302,367,824],"class_list":["post-48122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collectors-den","tag-crime","tag-drama","tag-foreign","tag-re-release"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48123,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48122\/revisions\/48123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}