I just viewed the first, original "Prison Walls of Abashiri" film. This is the one in black-and-white where the Takakura Ken character escapes,
chained to another prisoner. This film had loads of atsmosphere, the cold of the snow. The prison was shown to be a harsh place where criminals were being
punished. But it didn't overdo the "cruel prison" motive.
I've now seen three of the Abashiri Prison films. All of them are basically morality plays, where bad guys go through changes in their characters and they reform. There is some action in each film, but these films are rather "sweet" in their tone and are not like the "cruel" yakuza films. I still have another Abashiri film (one in the "new" series) that I still haven't seen.
I've now seen three of the Abashiri Prison films. All of them are basically morality plays, where bad guys go through changes in their characters and they reform. There is some action in each film, but these films are rather "sweet" in their tone and are not like the "cruel" yakuza films. I still have another Abashiri film (one in the "new" series) that I still haven't seen.

