Keimusho no naka

When finds himself in an Hokkaido prison for a minor firearms possession offence, it doesn't take long for Hanawa (Tsutomu Yamazaki) to surrender utterly to the routine, arbitrary rules and the grinding sameness of life in the prison system. Indeed, he comes to find his stint in solitary confinement, cut off from fellow-inmates and with a mechanical task of creating hundreds of folded paper bags each day, a curiously satisfying experience. I liked this film because of its understated humour (not all of which is immediately obvious to Westerners) and the portrayal of the prison as a complete and self-sufficient alternative universe, with inmates simply trying to lead a kind of life that is a scaled-down version of what is on offer on the outside. It wryly observes the obsession of the prisoners with food and the occasional treat and how one can extract a sense of accomplishment in the meanest of repetitive jobs.

This movie plays out as a series of vignettes, each a few minutes long, focusing on various aspects of the (Japanese) writer's time spent in a Japanese prison. There is virtually no violence or brutality as one might expect from prison life, rather incredibly arbitrary and strict rules and incredible boredom. Not fast moving, but not boring either. Vividly, and in a way beautifully, portrayed.

What's a guy to do when he loves guns, particularly American ones featured in movies, but he lives in a country where it's illegal to own one. Well, he ends up being sent to an institution that is more like a military academy than US prison. This very funny film studies the everyday obsessions of prisoners who have nothing left to do during their days but wonder about their next meal or contemplate their next soak in the tub. Each short film that comprises this full feature deals with the absurdities of life behind bars in Japan from a fun and humorous perspective. Everything from dropping and eraser to going to the bathroom takes on dramatic tension that it becomes laugh-out-loud funny.

P.S. for US audiences, putting soy sauce on your rice is often considered child-like in Japan.