abashiri bangaichi aka the walls of abashiri prison (teruo ishii, 1965. japan)

from weirdwildrealm.com :

The Abashiri Prison series marked the beginning of Ken Takakura's meteoric rise of popularity, so the early films of the series are important for understanding the curve of his success.However, these first few episodes are not great films. The kind of tragic-visaged chivalrous gangster Ken would soon perfect was not as yet fully formed. Still, he's one gorgeous fellow whom all Japan embraced in the 1960s & 1970s as the perfect ideal of Japanese manliness, sensitive & strong & just totally handsome & buff.And if these ex-con films aren't the best he would do, even so, for just long as Ken at least sings that yakuza-enka (gangster folk song) on the sound track, there's always be at least that one thing that is grand.The actual prison dates to the Meiji Era, in a desolate area of Hokkaido surrounded by snow, as deadly & difficult to escape from as Alcatraz or Devil's Island. It was not such a famous place before Ken starred in the long-running film series about yakuza who served time in that place, but it is today a major tourist attraction with a prison museum, & that is thanks mainly to Ken.The first three in the series all appeared in 1965, with three more in 1966, quickies directed by Teruo Ishii who would do ten of them before turning the series over to other hands. The very first Abashiri bangaichi aka The Man from Abashiri Jail was a black & white cheapy, yet a surprise hit for Toei Studios which was always swift to cash in on a good thing, with a habit of revisiting any cash-cow as often as the studio could get away with it.The supporting cast includes Tetsuro Tamba as the warden who liked our hero then was angrily disappointed in him; Toru Abe as the evil yard boss; rubber-faced charmer Kunie Tanake, & as the prison's aging but strong oyabun or gangster boss, Kanjuro Arashi.Ken plays Shinichi Tsukibana, a good guy serving three years & approaching the end of his time. After introducing the viewer to prison life, the tale takes a sudden change in direction when Tsukibana against his choice escapes from Abashiri Prison handcuffed to the dangerous Gunda (Hiroshi Nanbara), who instigated the escape. Thus tethered, they start out on a journey across the desolate snow country of Hokkaido.What keeps Tsukibana going is his desire to see his ailing mother, the "sensitive" touch to his character that would mark most of Ken's roles thereafter. Although this is not a great film, the acting is convincing & the vistas of Hokkaido shocking in their starkness. And as the starting point of Ken's enormous popularity, worth seeing.



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