Review: Prisoners Of The Ghostland

WTF??!!  I mean What in The actual ‘Film’ did I just watch??!!  Whenever I watch a movie, in this case ‘Prisoners Of The Ghostland’, the first thing I think about is ‘Is it good?’, followed by ‘What about it is good?’

But, in order to ask if it’s good, I have to know what the heck ‘it’ is!  And, ‘Prisoners’ is so bazaar, so ‘much’; I have a ton to sift through, just to get to the ‘it’.  So, let’s do it!

The Plot

The Genre

‘Prisoners Of The Ghostland’ combines many different genres.  First and foremost, ‘Prisoners’ is a Japanese Western, or ‘Chambara’, also known as ‘Samurai Cinema’.  Throw in Dystopian Science Fiction, like Mad Max, and a modern day Boss Hogg into a Nicolas Cage shaped blender; and we have ‘Prisoners Of The Ghostland.’

In the post-Apocalyptic near future of Japan, The Governor runs things in his neck of the woods.  The sole power broker in a small town, everything runs through him; just like we see in ‘The Man With No Name‘ trilogy; the Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns of the 60’s.

The Players

Cage stars as a nameless Bank Robber who gets imprisoned after he and his partner kill several people, including a young boy.  The prison he’s held in is run by The Governor, played by Bill Moseley, dressed in all white, like Boss Hogg from ‘Dukes of Hazzard’.

The Governor’s chief enforcer, a reluctant Samurai name Yasujiro, played by Tak Sachaguchi; and the Governor’s ‘daughter’, a Geisha named Bernice, played by Sofia Boutella; stand out in this town driven mad with fear.

The Premise

The only simple thing about ‘Prisoners’ is the Premise.

The Governor gives the Bank Robber a mission: save his daughter Bernice from the Ghostland, and bring her back alive; and the Bank Robber goes free.  Fail in any way, and get blown up by the explosive-laden leather suit he’s wearing.

The Bank Robber receives several rules.  Violence against any woman, the suit blows up.  Any ‘romantic’ activities with Bernice; the suit blows up.  Fail to complete the mission in three days; the suit blows up.

The Journey

The Ghostland earns the name for a reason.  Those who journey into the Ghostland do not return.  The few who manage to escape are never the same.  Rumors of spirits and hallucinations abound.

The Bank Robber quickly finds this to be true.  Not long into his journey, he crashes his car after seeing things.  Continuing on foot, the Bank Robber wanders into another settlement, this one run by a preacher/educator named Enoch, played by Charles Glover.

However, this settlement differs greatly.  Here, survivors build vehicles and weapons out of salvaged parts, try to stop the passage of time through a collective tug-of-war, and  help other survivors cope with trauma.  This is where the Bank Robber now labelled ‘Hero’, meets Bernice.

The Good – Prisoners Of The Ghostland

The Visuals

By far, Director Sion Sono‘s biggest strength in this movie are the visuals.

The use of bright colors throughout the film makes the picture pop off the screen.  The bright costumes worn by characters, the bright pink apple blossoms slowly falling to the ground, even the bright red of the blood in fight scenes; build a superlative visual style that reflects the escalated tensions of our characters and elevated reality of surviving the Apocalypse.

The surreal visions of the ghosts themselves further strengthen the visual palette.  The Radiation burns, traditional samurai helmets, and even the horizontal stripes of prisoners’ uniforms; strongly add an ethereal element through strong backlighting and dust obscuring the air.

Even nighttime scenes are well lit with naturalistic fire light and repurposed carnival rides.  The Governor’s town pops with Neon and LED lighting mixed in with standard bulbs.

The Story

The premise of the story is fairly straightforward, but the Director Sion Sono slowly reveals details of the story as the movie progresses.

The first 45 minutes of ‘Prisoners’ is all about the visual spectacle and world building.  But, Sono slowly starts filling in the missing pieces as Hero figures out the situation.  What’s good is the ‘how’ he reveals the missing pieces in different ways.

Bernice’s story reveals slowly throughout the film.  Hero’s comes in chunks, altering how we view him substantially with each information drop.  But, what’s most fascinating is how the story of the apocalypse reveals itself.  Avoiding all spoilers here, but the way it’s told is uniquely creative and deeply impactful to the odd world being built.

The Bad – Prisoners Of The Ghostland

No Subtitles

There’s not a lot in the Bad category for, but there was a notable lack of subtitles; even though roughly 20-30% of the dialogue is in Japanese.  
One could make the argument that this is a creative decision that reflects the world where everyone understands both English and Japanese, and both are spoken interchangeably; but it does not feel that way.  The lack of subtitles instead just limits my ability as a viewer to fully understand what is going on during those portions of the film.

The Review

‘Prisoners’ is a visual spectacle from the opening shot onward.  The pacing, energy, action, and general weirdness come close to overwhelm, but never cross that line.

No matter how outlandish or strange, everything in this world is there for a reason.  Every odd character introduced is paid off by the end, and every Nicolas Cage-ism somehow works it’s way into the film.

As Andy Samberg’s SNL version of Nick Cage would say; ‘All the dialogue is either whispered or screamed’ and ‘Everything in the movie is on fire!’  Both of these Nic Cage tropes are 100% true in Prisoners.

Director Sion Sono successfully blends Dystopian SciFi and Japanese Western, even including an exploded testicle for good measure.

Watch this film, but don’t be surprised if you have to stop to let your mind catch up to what your eyes are seeing.  If you love Nic Cage at his weirdest, this just might be the film for you!

Additional Information

Prisoners Of The Ghostland IMDb page

My Dragon Movie Guy YouTube Channel

My Top 10 Movies To Watch For In September

Dragon Movie Guy’s Author Page