Prison with no fire
Already shown in Deauville Asian Film Festival,
Doing Time doesn't do anything for improving my general impression on the 2003 selection's mediocrity. I've seen worse movies this year there but this one ain't good anyway. Adapted from a cult manga by Hanawa Kazuichi, Sai Yoichi's movie is a serie of small scenes about the daily life in Japan's jail: in appearance, it seems softer than what we've seen in US ou Hong Kong prison movies: it looks like a mix between taylorism -doing the same work again and again- and military discipline -the marches, the respect of the chief- but it-s sometimes absurd -raising his hand to ask for going to pee for instance-. The movie looks like a silent movie in its structure, it's trying to be funny but misses the point by being too slow. On the other hand, it's not deep enough to be psychological -their mental invasion through food- and it isn't moving as a consequence. It's lacking of a director's point of view.
