An arch-iconic prison breakout movie, Abashiri Prison is the starting point of Takakura Ken’s meteoric rise to superstardom. With this film Takakura became the epitome of Japanese manliness, strong and sensitive in equal measure. Here, he plays Tsukibana Shinichi, a lone wolf low-level yakuza who still believes in honor among thieves and lives by an upright code of conduct. After three years behind bars amidst the shadiest characters in Japan, his time within the walls of legendary Abashiri Prison is almost up. Erected in the Meiji Era, the prison stands in a desolate area of wintry Hokkaido, as inescapable as Alcatraz or Devil’s Island. Things take an unexpected turn for the model prisoner when he finds himself breaking out of jail, chained to the mercurial and malevolent Gunda (Nanbara Koji), a man whose villainy knows no bounds. Tethered to each other, they start a perilous journey on the run, much like a couple of Japanese Defiant Ones, wading through the snowstruck stretches of the north. This could very well be the end of the earth, or of their lives.