[yasr_overall_rating]
A troubled ex-cop is imprisoned for a hit-and-run accident. He discovers that the entire penitentiary is controlled by an inmate who has been running a crime syndicate with the help of the warden and guards which provides them 100% alibi.
The South Korean crime-action flick “The Prison” is, in fact, brutally entertaining as the Blu-ray cover art suggests. But these violent delights come at a price and that price is time. “The Prison” is slightly over 2 hours and about 45 minutes too long. Most of the time taken up with ultra too cool for school slow motion shots of men walking and shooting faces at each other. Length aside, “The Prison” has an unfeasible plot, lots of blood, and a good guy vs. bad battle ending. It’s ridiculous and it’s fun and doesn’t require you to be functioning on 100% to make sense of it, which makes this a perfect late-night weekend flick.
So, what’s this unfeasible bloody prison romp about? Enter Song Yoo-gun (Kim Rae-won), a former cop with a high arrest record, who finds himself incarcerated with many inmates that he is responsible for putting in prison. The situation gets ugly fast. But Yoo-gun doesn’t seem to care. He seems to have a very nihilistic approach to the whole situation. Everyone is out for blood and Yoo-gun gives just as good as he gets (if not more so). It’s not too long before Yoo-gun notices an inmate that seems to garner an unusual amount of respect among the inmates, as well as the guards and warden.
Jung Ik-ho (Han Suk-kyu) rules the prison. He is the leader of a crime syndicate within the prison and keeps the guards and warden paid up so that he and his men can go out at night to commit perfect crimes. Yoo-gun does not go unnoticed by Ik-ho, and Yoo-gun is determined to gain Ik-ho’s trust and get in on the action. But of course, Yoo-gun has a particular agenda. Yoo-gun’s younger brother, a reporter who had some very valuable information, was murdered. It is Yoo-gun’s goal to put the pieces together, to reveal who or what is responsible for his brother’s murder.
It’s easy to decipher where this is all going. And that’s fine. It’s part of the fun. It gives you good reason to yell obscenities at the television, to get revved up and revel in all the unfolding action. Both Kim Rae-won and Han Suk-kyu are superb in their roles. Han Suk-kyu is the perfect prison villain. He keeps a placid expression with just a peculiar glint in his eye indicating psychopathic tendencies. Just prepare to kick back and indulge your baser instincts with this fun yet predictable prison drama.
Now available on Blu-ray & DVD
