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Film: Sakuran
Release date: 12th January 2009
Certificate: 15
Running time: 111 mins
Director: Mika Ninagawa
Starring: Anna Tsuchiya, Kippei Shiina, Yoshino Kimura, Hiroki Narimiya, Miho Kanno
Genre: Drama
Studio: ICA
Format: DVD
Country: Japan
First time director Mika Ninagawa captures a vibrant interpretation of a the manga series of the same name, and Japanese idol Anna Tsuchiya brings the main character to life as a bad girl rising her way up the ranks from servant girl to the highest courtesan, known as an oiran.
The pre-credits begin in a flurry of cherry blossom, appropriate as sakura translates to cherry blossom, and they feature throughout. We see the not quite linear narrative of Kiyoha, sold into the Yoshiwara pleasure district as a maid when she was young; she is rebellious and rude, even as a child. Her attempts at running away are always thwarted, and she is told that it doesn’t matter where you are in life, every place is the same.
Enveloped in this world of women, she is raised to be a courtesan and singled out early by the current oiran as not only having potential and the spirit needed to be successful, but also the tenacity to maintain her position.
Soon after her debut, Kiyoha is quickly established as one of the most popular girls in the district, despite her young age. She has learnt the tricks of the trade well, and men can’t get enough of her. Such success, however, inevitably invites jealousy from the other girls, and tensions bubble to boiling point. It’s not long before she attracts the attentions of a handsome client and they fall for each other, but she is soon to learn that age old lesson that the road of love for a courtesan is never easy or obstacle free...
Sakuran is shot in an extremely vibrant and lively environment, perfectly capturing the slightly more garish world of courtesans compared to geisha. In every scene, the surroundings and colours are constructed perfectly. There is a heavy emphasis on red in most shots, obviously bringing to our mind the passion which this film is focused around. Yet the occasional shot of nature is astonishingly beautiful, particularly the cherry blossom which surrounds the city. It is filmed in a playful way, much like the character of Kiyoha - a little bit rude and abrupt, yet dreamy. In a film about prostitutes, one might expect plenty of shots of seedy trysts, and whilst there are a few, there are also some surprisingly intimate and tasteful scenes as well.
Whilst the narrative might come across as a typical story of the ambitions of a young girl turning to a love story, it brings something more to the tale than that. It explores the occasionally toxic environment of the working girls, the jealousies that grow, and the deceit which is inherent in the position. It highlights the trials and tribulations facing these girls: the desire to escape, desire to love, and the reality that it is near impossible. The mood is one of a harsh reality that the girls can only attempt to make the best of, despite their disdain for the job and their hope to escape it.
Anna Tsuchiya plays the role of troublesome Kiyoha to perfection. Bursting onto the acting scene with her role as tough-girl yanki in Kamikaze Girls, in which, despite her constant head-butting and spitting, she brought a certain charm and tenderness to the role - exactly what she does here. Supported by the other strong performances, she plays Kiyoha as cheeky and likeable, insolent, but tender-hearted deep down, illustrated in some truly touching emotional scenes later on.
One of the more surprising aspects of the film is its innovative soundtrack. Throughout the film, it swaps between Japanese jazz, big band sound, soulful female singers, J-pop and even grunge. A veritable melting pot of modern music, and all utilised extremely effectively depending on the scene. Occasionally during montage sequences, the shots have been made to fit the music, making them punchy and effective. Although the music might appear heavy handed, it fits in with the playful style that the film has throughout.
Sakuran plays out like a high contrast Memoirs Of A Geisha, but with less restraint, more fun - and a lot more smut. A touching and modern take on the life of working girls in the Edo period. If nothing else you’ve read about the story and performances grab you, the film’s recommended for the stunning visuals alone.
Film: Kamikaze Girls
Release date: 8th February 2010
Certificate: 12
Running time: 103 mins
Director: Tetsuya Nakashima
Starring: Kyoko Fukuda, Anna Tsuchiya, Kirin Kiki, Hiroyuki Miyasako
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Third Window
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Country: Japan
An ode to individuality, friendship and loyalty in a cynical, somewhat desperate world. Does Kamikaze Girls have anything new to say?
17-year-old Momoko (Fukada) is fiercely individual. Eschewing modern fashion in favour of the rococo style, with which she is forever obsessed, she also treats the people around her with a curiously cold detachment. When her ‘useless’, wannabe gangster father (Miyasako) is run out of the city for selling counterfeit designer merchandise in a scheme that incurs the wrath of both Universal Studios and Versace, Momoko is taken to the countryside to live with her grandmother (Kirin Kiki).
Keen to continue buying her favourite frilly dresses, Momoko begins selling the remainder of her father's counterfeit clothes, and before she knows it, into her life rides Ichigo (Tsuchiya), a sullen, hot-tempered teenage biker girl. Ichigo is also fiercely individual, though her external toughness masks an inner desire to belong and be accepted, even if it’s by just one other person.
These two girls have nothing in common except that they have (different) wild imaginations and slightly skewed views of the world around them. Will their antagonism give way to friendship? And will that friendship survive the challenges life throws at it?
Kamikaze Girls is a film that defies easy categorisation, and this proves to be to its endless benefit, as it shifts gears from zany comedy to odd-couple ‘dramedy’ and, finally, to a tense and gritty urban showdown.
Held together by loveable characters, whose good and bad traits are given equal airing, the story rips through a succession of increasingly bizarre situations and sequences that truly dazzle the heart as well as the eyes and brain. And while the story feels haphazard, it never feels false, even in the final third when the characters inch towards scenarios that are more structured and ‘written’ than what has come before. If a viewer is not entirely sure how seriously to take the face-off that forms the climax, director Tetsuya Nakashima is astute enough to quickly right the course and reassert the film’s offbeat tone before the narrative - alternately madcap and reflective - careens off the rails. It is a measure of the film’s infectious nature that, even during what at first feels like a forced climactic conflict, the audience is always willing to ‘go with it’.
Nakashima’s genius is in making the ordinary memorable, and the absurd relatable - all the while making sure that almost everything is, simply, incredibly funny. The madcap first ten minutes features a rapid succession of bravura images: a love-at-first-sight encounter between a drunk woman, projectile vomiting in a way that would make Linda Blair’s head spin; a petty criminal prostrate and sobbing after losing his nerve on a ‘hit’; the view of Momoko from underneath a cow; the camera angle from the point-of-view of a baby being born; another baby born - wearing a tracksuit! And it continues, with the director employing every nifty trick in the cinematic book - rewinds to the rococo period; to-camera asides; summarising flashbacks and cartoons (“so you kids don’t fall asleep”). A cynic may argue that these are simply cheap tricks, style over substance, and they would miss the point completely - like the central characters, Nakashima goes his own way, according to his own whims and wants. It is the perfect stylistic choice for a narrative about teenage outsiders.
If there is one niggle, it is that the film suffers from a short, second-act lull after its utterly riotous introduction to the life of its protagonist, perhaps waiting a little too long before introducing the second half of its central odd couple, Ichigo. Stalling its pace to fill in her back-story, the film’s opening forty minutes play like two first acts in sequence, before beginning its ‘odd-couple’ story where the two very different girls find, if not common ground, then a definite kinship based on mutual alienation. This is not to take away from the performance of Anna Tsuchiya, who turns one of the more common cinematic clichés - the bad girl who wants to be loved - into an endearing, three-dimensional character that the audience feels and roots for, but her initial appearance effectively ‘catches’ the pinball-like narrative.
What pulls the film through during this slightly sluggish period is its characters - broad, over-the-top, but with a novelistic attention to the little details that lends them richness. Ichigo (…of the Ponytails) is prone to spelling mistakes, mispronunciation and, most memorably, spitting in between threats (“She spat!”). She also makes a habit of head butting Momoko when she is cross. Momoko’s father is gullible, sentimental, and prone to severe depression during bad times and impossible cockiness during the good. Her one-eyed grandmother can pluck insects out of the air with Ninja-like precision.
None of these characters are broader, more over-the-top and richly realised than Kyoko Fukada’s Momoko - a breathtakingly beautiful, endearingly sweet teenager who is nevertheless magnificently selfish and nihilistic, apparently tired of human interaction. The character is almost serene in her perverse, pseudo-angelic superiority (as when her 10-year-old self tells her mother that: “humans are cowards in the face of happiness”). Fukada’s gears shift so smoothly, one never questions Momoko’s contradictions, even when she moves from sternly defending her Rococo-inspired, frilly dress to glibly encouraging the hot-tempered Ichigo make good on a vague threat to kill her. Indeed, before the narrative dictates that she come out of her shell, Momoko’s selfishness should alienate audiences. That it does not is a testament to Fukada’s intuitive performance and natural charisma. If the protagonist wrongly thinks that the world revolves around her, there is no denying that this film gratefully orbits its leading lady.
Infectious, joyous and uplifting. Perfectly tempering cynicism with genuine warmth, Kamikaze Girls is a true delight. JN
