Overview: In the free-for-all chaos after World War II, black marketeer Ueda (Hiroki Matsukata, Cops vs Thugs) is robbed of a stash of morphine. He takes his brutal revenge but is arrested for murder and sentenced to 20 years.

He escapes and is caught, but no matter where they send him, Ueda won’t let prison walls stop him. Directed by a master of the genre and based on the real exploits of a seven-time prison escapee, this ranks as one of the rawest entries in the 1970’s cycle of Japanese true-account crime films.

Blu-ray Verdict: The awesome chaos of Crazed Beast got me hooked to see more Nakajima films and a title like The Rapacious Jailbreaker sure is one way to grab my attention. Here’s another darkly-humorous crime odyssey, barreling forward with the same breakneck energy as its titular serial-escapee lead (played by Hiroki Matsukata with half-gritty-half-slapstick intensity).

You could almost describe this film as a thematic cousin to Fukasaku’s Graveyard of Honor as it also follows a criminal’s inescapable cycle of deviancy. But whereas that film was vile and grim, this is an increasingly absurd (yet always fatalistic) cycle of breakouts, street crimes, and inevitable capture.

Nakajima pairs the crafty prison capers and on-the-lam escapades with a narration that turns Matsukata’s relentlessly self-destruction into the adventures of a self-deprecating wily rogue forever driven towards the next jailbreak, while prison slowly saps his humanity and leaves him more caged beast than freedom-yearning man.

The juggle of crime outside and behind bars provides a brisk energetic pace, and while each jailbreak takes shape, Nakajima treats lock-up as a peek into odd prisoner culture, smuggling cunning, and incarcerated life. It’s great stuff, and the escapes are all clever and varied, often followed by frenetic pursuits and process-focused evasion.

Outside the prison walls unfolds a compelling struggle within an outlaw torn between himself: the man who truly does want to settle down with those he cares for and the man who can escape prison but can’t seem to escape his own nature.

In short, The Rapacious Jailbreaker is another very entertaining, very bloody, and very well-paced Toei thriller from Sadao Nakajima.

Limited Edition Special Features:
High-Definition digital transfer
Uncompressed mono PCM audio
Audio commentary by yakuza film expert Nathan Stuart (2025)
Visual essay on Sadao Nakajima by Tom Mes (2025)
New English subtitle translation
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Filippo Di Battista
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Earl Jackson and an archival review of the film

Official Purchase Link