This invites comparisons with Scum (1979), updated and set in the context of the London riots of 2011. But it owes more to Doing Hard Time (2004), a less auspicious film which features another hurt, angry and apparently law-abiding man intent on avenging a terrible crime… and who is similarly prepared to surrender some high moral ground by senselessly attacking police – simply to get into jail and to get access to those who have wronged him. (more…)
Posted on March 3rd, 2013 at 11:23 am. Updated on March 3rd, 2013 at 11:23 am.
Let’s make it clear from the outset: this is not a campy remake of Girls in Prison (1956). I wish it were. (more…)
Posted on January 27th, 2013 at 9:17 pm. Updated on January 27th, 2013 at 9:17 pm.
The Executioner is one of those rare prison officer-centred films, as opposed to prisoner-centred. It traces the fledgling career of Oh Jae Gyeong (Yun Gye Sang), a raw, immature young officer whom we follow through trials both at his work and in his personal life. (more…)
Posted on December 22nd, 2012 at 7:29 pm. Updated on February 16th, 2013 at 7:56 pm.
This is one of those stories that would quickly be dismissed as ridiculous… were it not based on a true story. (more…)
Posted on December 9th, 2012 at 5:51 pm. Updated on December 9th, 2012 at 5:51 pm.
Looking for creative solutions to prison overcrowding? Try this for size. (more…)
Posted on October 7th, 2012 at 9:11 pm. Updated on August 28th, 2019 at 8:02 pm.
I’m not keen on sci-fi prison movies, so it’s good that while this is set ‘sometime in the future’, it’s hardly futuristic, with very 1980s-90s cars and fashion and people speaking on pay phones. But like Fortress (1992), it provides a wonderful illustration of real prison innovation. (more…)
Posted on September 25th, 2012 at 10:16 pm. Updated on September 25th, 2012 at 10:20 pm.
Comparisons between this and A Prophet (2009) are inevitable; for a while, the trajectories of the main protagonists in both movies, two young men introduced into hostile new prisons, are almost identical.
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Posted on September 18th, 2012 at 9:18 pm. Updated on September 18th, 2012 at 9:18 pm.
I have no idea what this is about, but if you only watch prison movies for the shower scenes, this could be the film for you. (more…)
Posted on July 24th, 2012 at 9:07 pm. Updated on December 1st, 2012 at 4:56 pm.
This is, quite frankly, a pretty ordinary film. I have, however, given it an extra half-star for containing the only punishment I have seen, on film or elsewhere, involving a prisoner being forced to wear three large teapots. (more…)
Posted on June 30th, 2012 at 8:16 pm. Updated on June 30th, 2012 at 8:16 pm.
One of the better things that can be said about this film, also known as ‘The Jailbreakers’ or, more properly, ‘Huo shao dao zhi heng hung Ba dao’, is that this time Chu Yen-Ping directs an original script, rather than stringing together scenes from his favourite prison movies as he did in Island of Fire (1990). Some things however remain very similar; same island, same prison, same format of four (or five) prisoners with interwoven stories. (more…)
Posted on April 24th, 2012 at 11:20 pm. Updated on December 16th, 2016 at 8:20 pm.