Based on the homonymous manga by Ken Wakui, “Shinjuku Swan” is another testament to Sion Sono‘s prowess in adapting, with the many and colorful characters, the extreme violence and the overall sleaziness being just down his alley.
The labyrinth story begins with Tatsuhiko, an unemployed young man who does not have even the fare to return home (although he wears a Supreme hoodie that costs upwards than $400), getting into a fight with a gang, and getting rescued by Mako, a scout who recruits girls to work for the Burst scouting agency run by Yamashiro in Kabukicho. Tatsuhiko learns the “tricks” of wooing women to work in massage parlors, and although he feels uncomfortable when he realizes that they are exploited, the sense of belonging, success and comradeship soon take over with him becoming quite successful. However, Burst is not the only company working in the area, with Harlem scouting agency being their direct opponent, although a truce that specifies the exact areas the two can operate has kept the violence down.
As Yamashiro is forced to pay bigger and bigger amounts to Chairman Shuzen Amano of the Monbukai family, the pressure for better results soon overcomes the truce, with Burst beginning an effort to take over Harlem. However, two underbosses of the latter, Hideyoshi Minami and Yutaka Hayama have plans of their own, and soon drug trade becomes a factor, and all hell breaks loose. Even more so since Hideyoshi seems to have a beef with Tatsuhiko, who does not remember at all, and a number of women and most of all Ageha, become the apples of discord.
In a style that looks pretty similar to the one Takashi Miike implemented in “Crows Zero”, including some of the cast, the way the violence unfolds and a scene in the rain that is almost a direct rip off, Sion Sono presents a movie where sex, violence and humor coexist in the most entertaining way, in a style though, that still manages to avoid exploitation, at least in terms of the graphic depiction of all the above. Sono achieves this through a number of ways. The most obvious one is the combination of slapstick humor and absurd characters, who are met here aplenty, and frequently end up clashing in a way that seems to mock the yakuza ways, at least on occasion. Hideo Yamamoto’s polished, manga-like cinematography and particularly the overall job done on the coloring also moves into the same direction, essentially highlighting the fact that the story comes from the pages of a comic and is not a documentary, although the whole concept of the scouts seems to be pretty close to the truth.
At the same time, and although the sleaziness and the exploitation of women permeates the story, the appearance of Ageha and Eiko gives female representation substance in the film, with the same applying to Ryoko’s, who is obviously on the same level with some of the captains of the two agencies, to say the least. Furthermore, the first two are also the main sources of drama here, eventually leading to the inevitable clash between Tatsuhiko and Hideyoshi, which also moves in the same direction.
Of course, all the aforementioned do not mean that context is the main element here, since the occasionally pretty brutal action (the scene with the fingers and plastic bottle and the one in the bowling alley are indicative) is quite frequent, and excellently shot, on a number of occasions. Either in one on ones or the ones involving scores of opponents, the action choreography is top notch in brawler, not martial arts, fashion, with both the cinematography and Shuichi Kakesu’s editing finding their apogee in these sequences. In general, the production values are of the highest level, with Toshihiro Isomi’s production design resulting in a series of impressive, even in their occasional neon cheesiness, sets and the same applying to Kazuhiro Sawataishi’s work in the costume design. Naoki Ohtsubo’s music also fits the aesthetics of the scenes it appears in, quite nicely.
The cast includes some of the bigger names of the industry, most of which portray their characters with the excessiveness expected from manga adaptations. Go Ayano as Tatsuhiko and Takayuki Yamada as Hideyoshi (this man is not tired of playing characters that lose from the “good guy”) lead the way, but a number of secondary ones are also memorable, with Yusuke Iseya‘s nobility as Matora, Motoki Fukami‘s constant knack for violence as Mokoti and Erika Sawajiri‘s femme fatale/victim personas as Ageha stealing the show on a number of occasions.
“Shinjuku Swan” is a great manga adaptation, with all the pros and cons included in the category being quite evident. It is definitely very entertaining though.
