Ex-convicts have it hard in Japan, with their criminal records trailing them from job to job, place to place. The many Japanese films about them have a common arc: The struggle to stay on the straight and narrow fails, the lure of the criminal life prevails.
Yoshiyuki Kishi’s well-intentioned social problem drama “Prior Convictions,” which has its origins in a six-part TV series on Wowow — that was in turn based on a manga by Masahito Kagawa and Toji Tsukishima — adds a component those films ignore: the volunteer probation workers who support the transition of ex-cons to productive lives.
Kasumi Arimura plays one of these workers, a woman named Kaya Agawa, who takes a near-saintly interest in her charges, while strictly shepherding them along the thorny path to reform. When one surly parolee refuses to rise from her futon to go to her new job, Kaya yells and smashes her kitchen window, a scene played for laughs. She finally wins her over, though, with heartfelt concern rather than tough love.