The Prison Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

The Prison Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 19, 2017

There’s quite a bit of (disturbing) data which suggests that one of the easiest places to catch life threatening diseases, including bacteria and viruses, is at your local hospital, supposedly the site of sterile proceedings and an emphasis on, you know, health. Perhaps somewhat similarly, The Prison posits an institution where the inmates are involved in exactly the sort of activities that landed them there in the first place, suggesting that this particular jail isn’t so much a place of rehabilitation as it is one of “training”. The film begins with what appears to be a gangland, or at least extremely well organized, killing of a guy who's trying desperately to get to Vietnam. An innocent female bystander also gets caught up in the carnage. The film then segues to the incarceration of former police inspector Yu-gon (Kim Rae-won) who has been convicted in a fatal hit and run, now consigned to an institution he once helped to fill himself. That said, anyone who doesn't think the opening scene ties into the main story later has not been keeping up in their Screenwriting 101 classes.

Once in stir, Yu-gon is initially the victim of some pretty horrifying violence, but he proves he’s no patsy and fights back, ultimately catching the attention of an inmate named Ik-ho (Han Suk-Kyu) who it not so surprisingly turns out is in control of his own private fiefdom at the place, with the warden being one of his vassals. A designated “luxury” wing of the prison houses Ik-ho and his crew and they are given a sanctioned “Prison Break” at regular intervals to commit various crimes, with the fact that they’re ostensibly happily ensconced in jail serving as a perfect alibi. Yu-gon ingratiates himself with these movers and shakers, but there might be some ulterior motives up his sleeve.

The Prison is dramatically inert most of the time, and it’s also fairly predictable, but it does have some viscerally effective fight scenes that almost made me wish there had been more of a martial arts element to the proceedings. Any putative caper aspects that play into the inmates’ “excursions” don’t really translate into anything overly exciting.

The Prison Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Prison is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The imagery here is very sharp and well defined, with excellent fine detail levels when lighting conditions allow, but this is a film that has huge swaths taking place in very dimly lit interior jail locations, many of them then graded in at times substantial blue tones, so that there's a certain flat and even gauzy appearance occasionally that doesn't support consistent fine detail. Some outdoor material, including a later urban sequence that has a kind of unusual pale green grading, pops quite well, with a nicely suffused (if altered) palette and generally excellent detail levels.

The Prison Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Prison features an effective DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track in the original Korean. There are some very good immersive qualities in several hand to hand combat sequences, where the crunch of bones and loud "thwacks" as bodies hit the ground resonate with considerable force. Crowd noises in some prison scenes fill the surround channels quite nicely. The film has a relentless score that is unhelpful in my opinion, but which thumps and pulses ubiquitously in the side and rear channels. Dialogue is rendered very cleanly and with generally smart prioritization, though a couple of lines are obscured by that aforementioned ubiquitous score.

The Prison Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080p; 1:32)

Note: As with most Well Go USA releases, the sole supplement has been authored so that trailers for other Well Go releases (which also play at disc boot) follow automatically.

The Prison Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I saw The Prison's supposed "big twist" coming from a mile off, but even with that "surprise" still in play for those who don't guess it, The Prison is pretty predictable at several other junctures as well. The film hops to sporadic life with its fairly violent portrayal of life in stir, but the caper aspects don't really drive the plot in any major way. Technical merits are strong for those considering a purchase.