Shinjuku Swan

This movie is not much ''Sion Sono'' , so i have two ratings, one for what i was expecting from him (8), and one for the movie ignoring who is the director (10).

A unique approach to a life with empathy for men being natural and women using their naturalness to service nature and their own economic well-being. There are many fact based documentaries which try to shock you. This fictional film gives men who are natural identities and shows that it never is too late in life to be natural and use what nature gifted you: beautiful women who toil hard and give of themselves to make a living and make you happy at the same time. It is called supply and demand within the context of humanity. The people who take care of the women get very realistically seen as working hard and giving of themselves just like the thin beautiful women who get a lens on them. It really is a gem of a film. Highly recommended. Beautifully filmed leaves a long impression. I wish women around here would get laser tattoo removal.

I decided to watch this movie mainly because Erika Sawajiri was in it-she's one of my favorite actresses, and I was curious to see how she would perform in this role. Surprisingly, the plot turned out to be much better than I had anticipated. Since the movie is based on a comic, I honestly didn't have very high expectations going in. But, I ended up really enjoying the storyline. It was engaging and well-paced, and I appreciated how it didn't feel overly exaggerated or unrealistic, which is sometimes the case with comic adaptations. The acting was pretty good across the board-not just from Erika but from the entire cast-and the action sequences were also well-executed. It felt like a good balance between entertainment and depth, which made the movie more enjoyable than I expected. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it.

Shinjuku Swan, 2015, directed by Sion Sono based on the manga Shinjuku Swan.

Shinjuku Swan set in the seedy Kabukicho red-light district of Tokyo's Shinjuku, is a gritty yet somewhat light-hearted drama with comedy elements. Visually and tonally it feels like a gritty American 70's movie, especially Scorsese (Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, After Hours, King of Comedy...) Greatly helped from key location scenes actually shot in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, but the story and characters often slip into cliché archetypes - not surprising since the source material is a manga. I am not familiar with the manga so I'm not in a position to compare the movie to the manga.

While there are more than a few movies set in the sex industry - prostitution, trafficking - Shinjuku Swan picks an oddball and probably little known niche to those outside Japan - the world of SCOUTS. Young men who as a job scout women on the street in Shinjuku to work in various levels of Tokyo's red-light industry. The protagonist is Tatsuhiko (Go Ayano) , a young man from the boonies with nothing to lose. He's a simple guy, good heart, hard head, lots of energy which he doesn't mind using to get into fights. Tatsuhiko is spotted by young but veteran scout, Mako (Yusuke Iseya) who takes him in and makes him his underling.

You think the movie will be Tatsuhiko story, maybe his internal conflict with his core morals conflicting his job but it quickly turns into a movie about "palace intrigue" as different Yakuza factions who control the scouts jockey for power. We are introduced to many characters and it becomes a Gangs of New York (but more cartoony) tapestry of Machevelliam characters and how everyone plays their cards.

The first half focuses mainly on the men in this world. The second half introduces female characters, classic tragic characters who become fodder in the Kabukicho meat market.

Probably because it is based on a manga it feels much more like an American TV pilot, setting up a big cast of characters with long story arcs than a self-contained feature film. There is a Shinjuku Swan 2 which I have not seen yet.

To be honest, even though Tatsuhiko (Go Ayano) is set-up as the movies protagonist I felt Mako (Yusuke Iseya) was a much more interesting character and much more fascinating actor. But all the actors fit their part and visually it feels "right" with plenty of fight scenes.

I sat down to watch the 2015 crime drama "Shinjuku Suwan" (aka "Shinjuku Swan") here in 2022. And as I watched it, it dawned on me that I had actually watched the movie once before. But I honestly had forgotten all about the movie, so it was nice to revisit it.

Now, I am by no means familiar with the Manga from Ken Wakui, upon which this movie is based, so how true this 2015 movie is to the source material I can only guess. But I will say that writers Mataichirô Yamamoto and Osamu Suzuki did manage to put together a script and storyline that proved interesting, entertaining and enjoyable. I was immediately submerged into the plot and enjoyed the ride up and down, right up until the movie ended.

Not only was the storyline good, but the characters in the movie were interesting as well. These characters had multiple layers and good stories, motives and such, so the character gallery definitely added a lot of spice to the storyline. And it was an additional plus that they had a great cast ensemble put together for fleshing out the characters.

I am not familiar with the Shinjuku area in Japan, but this movie definitely made for a good, wholesome and enjoyable viewing. If you haven't already seen "Shinjuku Suwan", and have an interest in Japanese cinema, then this is a movie well-worth watching.

My rating of director Sion Sono's 2015 movie lands on a six out of ten stars.