Negotiating the arcane rules of Japanese prisons is not for amateurs. Thus the existence of specialized “commissaries” — stores with items for prisoners that can pass rigid inspections.
These shops also provide services detailed in first-time director Go Furukawa’s “Kaneko's Commissary,” a heartfelt yet slow-footed film set mostly in the eponymous establishment, located outside a fictional prison.
The ex-convict proprietor, Shinji Kaneko (Ryuhei Maruyama), is earnest and hardworking. He is also hot-tempered, as we see in an early scene when, while still behind bars, he blows up at his wife Miwako (Yoko Maki) for not visiting as often as promised. Their adorable son, Kazuma (Kira Miura), and Shinji’s kindly retired uncle (Akira Terao) also live with them at the store, with the boy being the glue that holds the couple’s tempestuous marriage together.
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