Les Prisonniers du paradis

Falsely charged with heroin possession and unceremoniously traded in by his fiancée, slick yuppie Kohei Hayakawa (Koji Kikkawa) finds himself a stranger in Paradise of a very wrong kind. Stranger yet, in the fullness of time this Phillipines prison camp becomes his dwelling of choice. But the film belongs to Tsutomu Yamazaki, best known thanks to Juzo Itami as the swaggering trucker Goro in Tampopo and the master tax cheat Gondo in Marusa no onna, who stays in character as the would-be crook Katsuaki Yoshida come into his own in the jailhouse, to trade his insider survival skills for Hayakawa's business acumen. The political subtext contrasts the élite position of the stiffly crooked Japanese with the vibrant corruption of neighboring Asian cultures. While lacking the moral rigor of Audition and the manic intensity of Ichi the Killer, this film will reward the viewers with what may be the most life-affirming message delivered by Takashi Miike to date.