| Review by Jim |
| Plot: After stealing millions of yen in syndicate money, Samehada runs for his life half-naked from a group of oddball assassins. At that same time, Toshiko is an employee at the Hotel Symphonia running away from her crazed uncle and is distracted by Samehada fleeing in his undies until she crashes into the assassins. Now both are on the run from the yakuza as well as a wealth of other crazy characters. Will they make it out with the money alive? Review: Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl has to easily be the longest title for a movie I've ever seen. I've you've seen one longer, let me know. The title is offbeat as you can get, but it seems to make sense because this is a very offbeat movie. This is the type of movie that confuses a reviewer like myself. If you stripped down our ratings system to its very core, it would go something like this: a movie can either be good, decent, or bad. Just those three categories. This movie confuses me because it's somewhere between being good and decent. There's so many aspects of the movie I liked, but there are some dark spots here and there. So in all fairness, let's get all the negative parts out of the way first. On the back of the DVD box it says "giddily graphic violence," so I assumed that this movie was going to pack one hell of an ultra-violent punch. I was disappointed in that area since I was expecting some good, gory shoot-outs. It's as if the term "ultra-violence" is thrown around way too lightly these days. I guess I'll have to get my gore fix somewhere else. On top of that, the action sequences are spaced far apart and in short supply, though, they are pretty entertaining. My next beef with the movie is that there's really no reason for Samehada and Toshiko to be involved with each other. I could understand at the beginning when they're both running from the mob, but Toshiko stays with Samehada and acts as if they've got some kind of personal connection with one another and they hardly speak a word to each other. They have little if any actual interaction with one another, which doesn't make much sense seeing as how the title of the movie is named after them. The last stain on the movie's carpet in my opinion is that the story just kind of stalls. They both go on the run, all the baddies are chasing them...and that's it. Nothing more to it. So what we have here is a pretty bare-bones story and not much action, so what makes it good, you ask? The unique and plentiful characters is what really makes this movie shine. The main idea seems to be "let's get a bunch of wacky characters in one setting and let them try and kill each other," and it worked like a charm. Toshiko's uncle likes to cross-dress and constantly harass her, there's a guy wearing a white jump-suit and blonde hair that doesn't like to get wet, there's a mentally ill guy that carries a bat with a katana in it, there's a nerdy amateur assassin with a uni-brow and a squeaky voice, and if that isn't enough there's a guy that carries a bunch of throwing knives and his hobby is collecting advertising posters. Hell, there's even more than that. Every character is a hoot to watch, especially when they're having a conversation with each other. Picture Quentin Tarantino being born Japanese and writing movie dialogue and that's how you can sum up the conversations. One particularly funny chat happens when one of the gangsters wants to know the title of a yoga book for strange reasons. I won't spoil any of the rest of the dialogue or memorable moments for you. Oddly enough, the main characters are also the weakest. Samehada's very first scene has him having a threesome, but he never follows up on doing anything else outrageous. Rather than run away as soon as possible from the group of killers, he just calmly waits around in a cabin for them to come by. He's so confident that he'll make it out alive that he hardly does anything to shake them off his trail and only fights back if absolutely necessary. Tadanobu Asano just plays Samehada casually and with nothing special in his performance. Toshiko has literally no character whatsoever. All she does is tag along with Samehada and that's it. Her backstory is semi-interesting, but that's all that can be said about Toshiko's character. Shie Kohinata plays Toshiko as blandly as possible and I really didn't care for her. Toshiko could've been played by a cardboard cut-out and I couldn't have told the difference. Katsuhito Ishii directs this movie as uniquely and colorful as possible. Dream sequences, unique characters, and kinetic scenes just list a few. Ishii plays by his own rules and avoids most of what we'd normally expect out of this type of movie. The movie is based off a manga of the same title, but we never really see any comic book-esque style within the movie, save for the strange characters. But the biggest ace in the entire movie is the fact that it's just plain fun. It never takes itself seriously, there isn't any corny sentimental moments, and there are no deep subtexts or social commentary. This movie's pretty hard not to enjoy no matter what point of view you have. Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl is a unique spin on the usual yakuza story and Bonnie and Clyde type tale. There were slows parts, don't get me wrong, but those were usually rounded out by even more zaniness from the characters, clever dialogue, and some amusing gunfights (especially the one for the climax). So to answer the question in the introduction, was this movie good or just decent? After all this, I have to say it's good. If you were expecting gangster-related ultra-violence, you might be disappointed, but anyone else I say they should dig into this movie as soon as possible. It's worth several viewings just because of the dialogue alone. If you're looking for a movie that's a gritty, unique, clever, and at times funny piece of Japanese cinema, then you should make your next rental Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl. |
| Rating: *** |
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