'Prisoners of the Ghostland' is an action film that follows a bank robber who is sprung from prison by a warlord, who tasks him with rescuing his adopted granddaughter who has gone missing.
The film opens with showing the bank robber, who dubs himself as 'nobody' but later is referred to as Hero, in action as he and Psycho attempt a robbery that goes wrong, resulting in multiple casualties and ultimately imprisonment. We later find Hero in the Governor's custody, a local warlord who tasks him with rescuing Bernice - his adopted granddaughter. Unbeknownst to the Governor, Bernice planned the escape herself. Hero is tasked with bringing Bernice back to the Governor and as insurance is bound to a leather suit equipped with explosives that are to go off if the task is not completed in time. Hero sets off and travels through the wasteland and reaches an outpost where people are seemingly trapped and fear that there is no escape, as there are ghosts haunting the highway, preventing the group from leaving. Hero finds Bernice and asks her to return to the Governor with him. En route back they encounter the ghosts and a subsequent dream Hero has reveals that during the bank robbery, the resulting police shoot-out resulted in Bernice's mother being killed and her being shot in the leg, leading to the Governor adopting her. Returning to the outpost, Hero engages the people and reveals that he will help them escape and they plan a coup against the Governor.
Before returning to the Governor, Hero encounters the ghosts patrolling the highway, revealed to be prisoners who where being transferred but suffered an accident as a result of a nuclear explosion. Psycho is revealed to be a member of that group and after speaking to Hero the two reconcile their past and Hero realizes the ghosts of the people he had harmed in the past are guiding his way to redeeming and saving the others. As Hero and Bernice reach the Governor, a shoot out follows that results in mayhem and chaos. As the Governor's system crumbles around him, Bernice takes her revenge for effectively keeping her imprisoned and shoots him down in the street. The film concludes by showing Bernice and Hero as they walk through a now decimated compound which the Governor used to control, now open to new possibilities for its residents to live free.
'Prisoners of the Ghostland' is a wildly curious feature; - it combines elements of action, thriller and samurai films whilst also finding time for scenes based in fantasy as well as peppering in moments of pure comedy. The combination of the various forms associated with each of the aforementioned styles creates a truly bizarre experience, - a fun one, but surreal nonetheless. The feature is further pushed to an extreme as the creators have used and captured illuminating set-pieces, making use of visual styles associated with futuristic dystopian films, providing a dreary and bleak outlook, whilst also making use of brightly colored, neon-illuminated alleyways in the final showdown, producing a stark contrast to the rest of the feature. The violent shift in tone visually occurs early on, as we are shown Hero's bank robbery to make use of bright colors, which is later washed away by the drab greys surrounding the inhabitants of the Ghostland. The movie shifts from one extreme to the other throughout the feature, adding to the somewhat disorienting experience.
Hero is portrayed by Nicolas Cage, and the actor delivers a truly off-the-wall rendition of a somewhat crazy yet capable criminal. The actor leans into the insane nature of the production as a whole and puts forward an individual that at times seems to think too much of himself until he has a life-changing revelation, then striving towards achieving the goal of liberating the trapped Ghostland inhabitants. The performance is most definitely over the top, but the nature of the film allows for that to be just the right tone, and Cage fits into the film seamlessly, highlighting its absurdities and at times being the center of them.
The other stand-out in the film is the Governor, portrayed by Bill Moseley. Without describing the actors performance purely as a caricature of a combination of a wealthy southerner from the US and a warlord, Moseley manages to incite further dislike towards the Governor as the actor seems to relish the idea of delivering a truly despicable individual, from his twisted ideologies to the almost ritualistic nature in which he has trained those around him to break into song when prompted. Moseley does an excellent job in portraying a really nasty piece of work only accentuating the characters flaws as he has to flee his compound and reveals his cowardice, allowing the audience to truly despise him.
The film is directed by Sion Sono, a filmmaker known for delivering distinctive and subversive projects. Through 'Prisoner of Ghostland', it feels that the director has wished to deliver a mind-boggling escapade that combines both visually stunning scenes and something akin to a nuclear wasteland. The film hones two very tonally different modes - one being the candy-land type compound that the Governor is trying to uphold and the other the ghost-land, being drab and dreary inspiring little beyond despair and sorrow. By the end of the feature 'Hero' seems to combine the starkly contrasting worlds, prompting the idea that the tragedies of the past are catching up to and have to be reexamined in our somewhat phoney and artificial current world.
'Prisoners of the Ghostland' is a bizarre and eccentric film, combining multiple styles and genres of film, retelling a story that at times seems to lose its way, preferring style over substance. However, the more time the viewer has to ruminate over the multitude of themes and ideas covered in the feature, such as past tragedy, specifically nuclear warfare, American influence on present day Japan and being selfless, the more chance the audience has to find meaning in the film. The viewing experience is a strange one, in that the variety of attempted voices through which the story is told seems to demand a lot of patience of the viewer - to be able to swing wildly between action, horror, fantasy and even comedy, ultimately proving to be a somewhat taxing yet exciting exploit, if the viewers patience allows for it.
Score: 2/4
Comments