The Prison

Song Yu-gun is a former policeman; he gets into an accident from drink and goes to prison. Inside there is an order, but who built it is not clear. In time he understands that the prison is really run by an inmate; the man has contact with the outside, the guards listen to him, and leaving a cell happens with his permission. This man runs a crime organisation and the prison is its centre. From the moment Song goes in he has to become part of that order. Na Hyun wrote and directed; it is his first film. Han Suk-kyu, Kim Rae-won, Jung Woong-in and Jo Jae-yun are in the cast. It is a South Korean production. The film came out in 2017. The matter it treats is law and crime living under the same roof; the prison both punishes and produces the crime. Han Suk-kyu plays the character as a polite and dangerous builder of order. The film shows the hierarchy inside the prison in detail; who works with whom, who fears whom. The narrative builds its action in confined spaces and produces a claustrophobic tension. Song stays in moral uncertainty from beginning to end; neither wholly bad nor wholly good. The narrative also carries the corruption inside the police force outside the prison walls. The ending does not tear the order down; it rebuilds it. Its limit is familiarity; the setup follows the known shape of Korean crime films and surprises little. Who it is for: viewers who like Korean crime films and confined space thrillers. Who it is not for: it is familiar, harsh, and the ending dark.