The Guys From Paradise (2001)

The Guys From Paradise 2001 / 天国から来た男たち 2001 / Tengoku Kara Kita Otoko-tachi

Allegedly based on a number of true cases, The Guys From Paradise is a prison story set in the Phillipines against a background of corruption, drug trafficking and paedophilia. This being a Takashi Miike film however, the results are far from conventional. It's essentially a film of two parts: the first set in a prison named ‟Paradise‟ where a small community of Japanese prisoners led by veteran criminal Yoshida enjoy a life of relative freedom and privilege, the second the story of their exploits outside prison walls with police and a deranged yakuza on their trail. Central figure is Hayakawa Kohei, a promising young corporate upstart, sent to Paradise prison on a false charge of possession of heroin. Arriving in a suit and carrying a suitcase of his belongings as he makes his way through the dirty, overpopulated concrete corridors, he assumes his lawyer will have no problem getting him out. When the message arrives that the only thing that will make him a free man is bribe money rather than evidence of his innocence, Kohei realises his old life of luxury is over and slowly surrenders to his fate, becoming increasingly close with the community of Japanese prisoners he was adopted into upon his arrival. The group is soon expanded with the inclusion of a female member from the neighbouring women's jail, whose presence greatly attributes to Kohei's decision to leave his fiancée and devote his life to the illicit dealings of his convict compatriates, all of whom seem to have adopted to their more primitive surroundings as a means of survival...