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[HanCinema's Film Review] "The Prison"

The year is 1995. Yoo-geon (played by Kim Rae-won) is a bad dude- so bad, he even gets a special color nametag on his prison jumpsuit. Soon after arrival Yoo-geon manages to get into a fight with top dog Chang-gil (played by Shin Sung-rok), who is also a bad dude that does not know the meaning of surrender. Once the baddest dude in the room has been established, it's then on to the baddest dude in the whole prison, Ik-ho (played by Han Suk-kyu) who takes the meaning of the term "bad dude" to a whole another level.

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By now you are probably wondering why I am making excessive use of the term "bad dude" to describe everything that happens in "The Prison". I do so because writer/director Nah Hyeon himself makes an obviously obsessive effort at every turn to remind us that his movie consists of very manly men engaging in very manly fights, with explosions where necessary. Admittedly, in prison, it's hard to think of many other ways for these people to entertain themselves. We're talking about people for whom fried chicken night is considered an obscene luxury.

The problem with having such simple characters is that after a certain point it's kind of hard to tell them apart. Yoo-geon and Ik-ho are so broadly defined by their desire to punch, bite, and stab other men into bloody unconsciousness that their motives start to blur together. Yeah, Yoo-geon does have a backstory about, I don't know, uncovering corruption or something. It's kind of hard to keep track of the flashbacks when extrajail robberies are a common recurring plot thread.

Chang-gil ends up being a more memorable character than either Yoo-geon or Ik-ho, his dramatically lower story importance notwithstanding, because Chang-gil does have a couple of character traits in addition to hypermasculinity. He's sneaky and unreasonably cocky. That probably doesn't sound like much, and in a better movie it wouldn't even register. But in the context of "The Prison" it does at least give Shin Sung-rok the chance to use a more impressive variety of facial expressions than the actual lead actors.

"The Prison" reminded me a lot of "Inside Men" in that both films are founded on the same basic conceit- it's a gangster movie that's technically not a gangster movie, since none of the main characters are in actual criminal gangs. But in terms of storytelling and visual tropes the movies are nearly identical. Consider how much effort is dedicated to making the viewer feel squeamish in the face of imminent dismemberment, even when the bad dude in question probably deserves it.

But then that's the problem with having a story where pretty much everyone is a bad guy. There's no one left over for us to root for. That leaves "The Prison" to dazzle us with spectacle alone and while writer/director Nah Hyeon does have his moments when it comes to that, the overall film remains largely forgettable, lacking any kind of real point. While you might have fun with this one, I'm not making any promises.

Review by William Schwartz

"The Prison" is directed by Nah Hyeon and features Han Suk-kyu, Kim Rae-won, Kang Shin-il, Lee Kyung-young, Kim Sung-kyun and Jung Woong-in.

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