Eighteen Years in Prison Blu-ray - Noboru Andô / Shinobu Chihara

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Choueki juhachi-nen" or "Eighteen Years in Prison" or "Eighteen Year Jail Term" or "Eighteen Years' Imprisonment")

Directed by Tai Katô
Japan 1967

Trying to survive in the ruins of post-war Japan, Kawada (Noboru Ando, By a Man's Face Shall You Know Him) and Tsukada (Asao Koike, Sympathy the Underdog) run afoul of the military police after stealing valuable copper wire. Kawada is arrested and sent to prison, but Tsukada uses their gains to start a yakuza gang. Facing violent inmates and a cruel warden (Tomisaburo Wakayama, Big Time Gambling Boss), Kawada vows to escape and stop his former partner. Tai Kato directs this epic prison story with characteristic visual flair, while gangster-turned-actor Ando delivers a stunning performance charged with real-life gravitas. As an examination of the deep scars of wartime, this genre classic is also a clear precursor to Kinji Fukasaku's epoch-making Battles Without Honour and Humanity series.

***

A former soldier is caught working the black market and sent to prison while his partner escapes and goes on to become a gangster, but their paths cross again as they both fall in love with the same woman.

Posters

Theatrical Release: October, 1967

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Review: Radiance - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Radiance - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:30:39.892
Video	2.39:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 39,970,937,458 bytes Feature: 28,573,578,624 bytes Video Bitrate: 37.81 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	LPCM Audio Japanese 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
Subtitles	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Radiance 2.39:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 39,970,937,458 bytes Feature: 28,573,578,624 bytes Video Bitrate: 37.81 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Appreciation by critic and programmer Tony Rayns (2024 - 24:17) • A visual essay on Japanese prison films by author Tom Mes (2024 - 16:57) • Original trailer (3:04) Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Ivo Smits and an archival interview with Noboru Ando by Mark Schilling Blu-ray Release Date: July 29th, 2024 Transparent Blu-ray Case inside slipcase Chapters 12

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Radiance Blu-ray (July 2024): Radiance have transferred Tai Katô's Eighteen Years in Prison to Blu-ray. It is on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate. The 1080P transferred image is thick with pleasing color depth. The heaviness is common with Japanese films from this era. There are strong textures and I would say this HD presentation is very film-like with the bolder colors being a notable characteristic.

NOTE: We have added 60 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Radiance use a linear PCM dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original Japanese language. Eighteen Years in Prison has many fights/conflicts/brawls and some gunfire. It's quite violent. There can be jarring depth but it is not dynamically testing the bass. The score was by Hajime Kaburagi (By a Man's Face Shall You Know Him, The Executioner, Horrors of Malformed Men, The Sleeping Beast With, Retaliation, Blind Woman's Curse, Fairy in a Cage, Tokyo Drifter) sounding a shade sly before bursting forth with drama using some funky riffs. The presentation audio is competent in the uncompressed transfer. Radiance offer optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Radiance Blu-ray offers a new appreciation by film critic, curator and Asian cinema expert Tony Rayns
who discusses the film and its place within Tai Kato's filmography for almost 25-minutes. We also get a new visual essay by writer and film historian Tom Mes (Japanese Film and the Challenge of Video) who traces the history and evolution of the prison movie in Japanese cinema. He cites the Abashiri Prison to Female Prisoner Scorpion films and more. It runs just shy of 17-minutes. There is also an original trailer and the package has a limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Ivo Smits (The Pursuit of Loneliness: Chinese and Japanese Nature Poetry in Medieval Japan, Ca. 1050-1150) and an archival interview with Noboru Ando by Mark Schilling (NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS: Nikkatsu Action Cinema.)

Tai Katô's Eighteen Years in Prison is loosely based on Kyuichi Tokuda and Yoshio Shiga's autobiographical book of the same name. This is Radiance Films third release of a film directed by Katô - the other two being By a Man's Face Shall You Know Him and I, the Executioner. I am appreciative as a I had not seen a film by him before their Blu-ray editions. So I was very keen to watch Eighteen Years in Prison. It's a prison-based crime-drama film with both disreputable and noble characters and has strong themes of morality, loyalty and resilience under the umbrella of harsh, poverty, conditions in post-war Japan. I found it fairly engrossing with impressive style (love the low angle shots) and will watch it again. The Radiance Blu-ray is worth seeing and owning, imo - even beyond Japanese cinema fans. Another Tai Katô classic.