SAMEHADA  OTOKO  TO  MOMOJIRI  ONNA

SAMEHADA OTOKO TO MOMOJIRI ONNA means 'Sharkskin Man and Peach Hip Girl' in English.  This strange title derives from the two main characters' names; Samehada and Momojiri.  We are first introduced to Toshiko Momojiri (played by newcomer Shie Kohinata), a young nerdy-looking girl who lives with, and works for, her Uncle at his hotel.  One day when she goes to the bank she discovers that her savings have disappeared.  She rings her Uncle to ask him where the money is and he tells her that he saw a good deal and 'invested it for her'.  As she is speaking to him, the bank is held up by a man.  We cut to two years later and meet Kuro Samehada (played by Tadanobu Asano), a yakuza on the run from his gang (he has stolen 10 million yen from them).  He is holed up in a sleazy motel room with two hookers and escapes into the woods, in just his pants, as the gang arrive looking for him.  The gang chase him in their car down narrow trails.  Meanwhile, Toshiko is making her way to the post office for her Uncle, in his truck.  As Samehada runs out of the woods she is understandably distracted and plows into the yakuza car, overturning it.  Samehada gets into her car and they make good their escape.  As far as narrative goes, that's about it.  The rest of the film concerns the exploits of the gang to catch Samehada, in order to get back the money that he has made off with.  The gang are an extremely motley crew, and include Sawada (played by Susumu Terajima), Samehada's partner and friend, the boss (played by Kishibe Ittoku), his spoilt, deranged son Mitsuru (played by Shingo Tsurumi) and the mysterious Mitsuko (Kimie Shingyoji).  Meanwhile, the lecherous Uncle wants his girl back and hires a bizarre, diminutive, effeminate middle-aged hitman, Yamada (Tasuya Gashuin), to get her back.  

This was the debut film of Katsuhito Ishii, a well-respected director of commercials in Japan, as well as a well known animator (the opening credits for this film are a mix of anime and live action, and were probably created by Ishii, whilst the film itself was based on a manga).  He has since gone on to make PARTY 7 (2000), but this was the film that launched him onto the international circuit.  SM was shown at many film festivals in 1999 and was famously a big hit with Quentin Tarantino.  A particularly interesting thing about SM is the cast - Ishii managed to get some very well known actors involved with the film.  Lead actor Tadanobu Asano is one of the most successful actors on the independent scene and has appeared in major films such as Shunji Iwai's PICNIC (1996), Satoshi Isaka's FOCUS (1997) and Nagisa Oshima's GOHATTO (1999), as well as three films for Sogo Ishii: LABYRINTH OF DREAMS (1997), GOJOE (2000) and ELECTRIC DRAGON 80,000V (2000) and the aforementioned PARTY 7.  Most interestingly, Asano is the star of Takashi Miike's latest film, the ultraviolent ICHI THE KILLER (2001).  Both female stars are relative unknowns, but the yakuza are nearly all familiar faces; Susumu Terajima especially is instantly familiar from Takeshi Kitano's work.  He has had major roles in all of Kitano's films, with the exception of KIKUJIRO (1999), and also appeared in most of Sabu's films and Takashi Miike's DEAD OR ALIVE (1999).  Ittoku Kishibe is also familiar from films such as VIOLENT COP (Takeshi Kitano, 1989), MANY HAPPY RETURNS (1993, acting with Kitano), WE ARE NOT ALONE (1993), RAMPO (1994), KEIHO (1998) and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's SEANCE (2000), to name but a few.  Shingo Tsurumi is familiar from Takashi Ishii's GONIN I & II (1995/1996) and BLACK ANGEL (1997), plus Miike's DEAD OR ALIVE.  As you can see, Ishii couldn't really go wrong with a cast this strong and indeed, the cast are a big part of the film's success.  

The film is very light in both tone and content, and really sets out with only one aim in mind: to entertain the audience.  The cast seem to be thoroughly enjoying themselves and there are some extremely eccentric characters thrown into the mix.  There's no particular attempt at realism in the film, and some of the scenes and ways in which characters behave are bewildering, but then Ishii's watchword throughout is 'cool'; everything is cool, the way it's filmed, the way the characters talk, act and dress, the humour, everything!  An interesting thing I felt was the Lynchian feel that many scenes had to them.  David Lynch is of course an extremely popular director in Japan so it's not surprising that his influence should be felt in films like this.  WILD AT HEART (1989) is the most obvious influence here, though the dark, brooding atmosphere (particularly in the scenes in the hotel foyer - the use of light and sound were very reminiscent of TWIN PEAKS (1990-1991) and ERASERHEAD (1977)) did seem somewhat out of place at times, but perhaps I just imagined it...  The film is perhaps a little overlong and does tend to drag a bit in places, but overall SHARKSKIN MAN PEACH HIP GIRL is a very enjoyable and offbeat addition to the road movie genre, and a very competent feature film debut by Ishii.

DVD Specification
Original year of release - 1998
Approximate running time - 108min.
Aspect ratio - Widescreen ~1.85:1
System - NTSC (colour)
Rating - Unrated.
Sound - Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS
DVD release - Tohokushinsha
Region Coding - Region 2

DVD Extras
Teaser
Trailer
15 second TV spot
30 second TV spot
Reel of deleted/alternative scenes
Production Notes and Introduction (both are short, seemingly improvised pieces featuring Tatsuya Gasyuin (Yamada in the film) and Youhachi Shimada (the Uncle in the film) and are Japanese language only)
Interviews with the director, Tadanobu Asana and Shie Kohinata (Japanese language only)
Cast filmographies (Japanese only)
Conceptual artwork

DVD Ratings (out of 5)
Picture - 5
As with all Japanese DVD's (or at least all those that I have seen), the picture quality on this DVD is exemplary. The film is presented in its correct aspect ratio of approx 1.85:1 and is anamorphically enhanced. The image is crystal clear and colours are striking and deep, with blacks well defined and dark. There's really very little more one can say- if you've seen other Japanese DVD's like GEMINI then you'll know just how good they are.  There are optional English subtitles, which are very visible and very literate, as is usually the case on Japanese DVD releases.
Sound - 5
Again, excellent. The DVD contains both a DD5.1 track and a DTS track despite being released quite some time ago. Both tracks are excellent, though I couldn't discern a great deal of difference between them. The film uses a lot of very 'upbeat' music and this comes across well on the audio tracks, sounding exactly as the director would have intended, I'm sure. All dialogue is very clear and the tracks are free from hissing or static. 
Extras - 4
A whole range of different features here. The menus are very good with lots going on and a long audio track (not the usual short loops that one finds on Western DVD's) accompanying them. There are the standard trailers and TV spots which sell the film very well and a reel of alternate takes (possibly some deleted scenes, but mainly these seemed to consist of longer takes for scenes found within the film), which are in Japanese language only. There are two strange short features ('Introduction' and 'Production Notes') which appear to be humorous monologues by two of the actors in the film, presumably known as comedians within Japan. These are also in Japanese only. There are three interviews with the director and two stars, these seem interesting but once again are only in Japanese. Another interesting feature is the conceptual artwork, which features a drawing of each character in the film (quite probably these were done by Ishii himself) and shows how well the actors in the film matched the original ideas for their characters. Finally there are filmographies for the cast (in Japanese). All menus are in English which makes navigation considerably easier (it can be very difficult to find one's way around Japanese DVD's when they are in Japanese characters). The only thing missing is a commentary, but of course these are not usually found on Japanese DVD's. My only complaint was the lack of English subtitles on the extras, but I guess this is to be expected.
Overall Rating - 4
The DVD itself is excellent and highly recommended as an example of the format's capabilities.  The film itself is perhaps a bit less impressive, but is still well worth seeing and is likely to be enjoyed by pretty much anyone.  Whether you'll find yourself coming back to it for repeat viewings is debatable though; the content is too fluffy and superficial to really grab one's interest and at the end of the day, it's the catchy music and general coolness that will remain with you.  Bear in mind that this DVD would probably cost you in the region of �35-40, so it's not worth getting unless you've already seen it and liked it, or you have a good reason to expect to like it (or you have so much money that you're not worried by such matters!)  If that sounds a bit steep to you, then look out for an eventual Western release, when you really should check it out if you get the chance.  Note that Ishii's less well-received follow-up film (featuring many of the same actors and again featuring a Hotel as a prominent backdrop), PARTY 7, has just been released on Japanese DVD with English subtitles by the same company.

AKA
SHARK SKIN MAN AND PEACH HIP GIRL (translation of Japanese title)

Alternative versions
This is the only release of the film to date to feature subtitles - surprisingly, it hasn't yet been released on VHS or DVD in the West, but I'm sure that it will be sooner or later.

 

 

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