- Doing Time (2002 film)
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Doing Time Directed by Yoichi Sai Written by Wu Sin Chong,
Yoshihiro Nakamura,
Yoichi SaiStarring Tsutomu Yamazaki,
Teruyuki Kagawa,
Tomorowo Taguchi,
Yutaka Matsushige,
Toshifumi MuramatsuRelease date(s) 2002 Running time 93 min. Country Japan Language Japanese Doing Time (刑務所の中 keimusho no naka) is a 2002 film directed by Korean-Japanese film director Yoichi Sai. Based on Kazuichi Hanawa's manga, it follows the day-to-day routine of a middle-aged inmate at a low security Japanese prison.
The film uses a series of short vignettes to portray, often with understated humour, different aspects of prison life, especially the unvarying daily routines, the highly detailed rules, and the petty obsessions and minor pleasures that occupy the inmates' thoughts and conversations.
The film is based on the manga of the same name, which relates the author's experiences during a three year prison sentence.
Plot
Hanawa is a middle aged gun enthusiast, but is jailed for three years for possession of illegal firearms. He is placed in a low security prison in Hokkaidō.
He shares a cell with four other inmates, and adjusts to the strict rules which dictate prisoners' movements in minute detail. At first he is amused by the importance that his cellmates attach to normally trivial matters, but over the course of the film he too comes to find them a way of passing the time and relieving boredom.
After a minor transgression of the rules, he is placed in solitary confinement, where he finds contentment in his solitude and his repetitive job of assembling paper medicine bags.
External links
Films directed by Yoichi Sai Hana no Asuka-gumi! (1988) · A Sign Days (1989) · All Under the Moon (1993) · Doing Time (2002) · Quill (2004) · Blood and Bones (2004) · Soo (2007)
The Inugamis (1976) · The Yellow Handkerchief (1977) · Third Base (1978) · Taiyō o Nusunda Otoko (1979) · Kagemusha (1980) · Enrai (1981) · Fall Guy (1982) · The Family Game (1983) · The Funeral (1984) · And Then (1985) · Comic Magazine (1986) · A Taxing Woman (1987) · Tomorrow (1988) · Untamagiru (1989) · Sakura no Sono (1990) · My Sons (1991) · Sumo Do, Sumo Don't (1992) · All Under the Moon (1993) · A Dedicated Life (1994) · A Last Note (1995) · Shall We Dance? (1996) · Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald (1997) · Hana-bi (1998) · Spellbound (1999) · Face (2000) · Go (2001) · The Twilight Samurai (2002) · Doing Time (2003) · Nobody Knows (2004) · Always Sanchōme no Yūhi (2005) · Hula Girls (2006) · I Just Didn't Do It (2007) · Departures (2008) · Shizumanu Taiyo (2009) · Villain (2010)
Categories:- 2002 films
- Films based on manga
- Films directed by Yoichi Sai
- Films set in Japan
- Japanese films
- Japanese-language films
- Prison films
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