Following the success of the original, Sion Sono also headed the sequel, once more basing his film on Ken Wakui’s manga. Although the flamboyance and intense action is still here, there is a change towards the most dramatic this time, something that definitely benefits the movie.
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The story begins one year after the death of Hideyoshi, with Burst having to deal with intense financial problems, since they have already recruited almost every girl they could in Shinjuku. To avoid downsizing in scouter personnel, they instead decide to expand to Yokohama, where the All Japan Liquor Merchants Association announces plans to open a new gentleman’s club. To start the expansion, boss Yamashiro picks Seki and Tatsuhiko. The former however, is actually a Yokohama native who once took the fall for a murder rap for his friend Taki and has avoided Yokohama for 12 years for this purpose. In the meantime, Taki has become quite powerful and is the CEO of the Wizard scouting agency, who are also seeking to recruit girls for the opening of the new gentleman’s club. Expectedly, he perceives the move of Burst an act of war, and with the help from a local policeman who is on his payroll, Sunako, the head of the All Japan Liquor Merchants Association Sumitomo and President Tasaka of the Monbu Yakuza group, not only does he offer fierce resistance, but also moves into Shinjuku in order to take Burst’s business there. As the battle goes on more and more fiercely, the Association decides to hold a beauty pageant in Yokohama, where girls from both Wizard and Burst are to participate, with the competition soon taking the form of a bet between the two agencies.
Despite the evident crowd-pleasing aesthetics of the movie, with the casting, the extreme violence, the absurd characters, the slapstick comedy and the ultra colorful settings, Sion Sono has managed to induce the movie with much drama, as much as a noir/crime essence, as exhibited in the dark streets of Yokohama. Regarding the drama, the main medium here is the relationship of the former blood brothers Seki and Taki, and the ways they have found to cope with it, as much as the inevitable clash between them, which actually takes place on two levels, both personal and professional. This aspect benefits the most from the acting, with Motoki Fukami as Seki and Tadanobu Asano as Taki giving impressive performances, essentially stealing the show from Go Ayano‘s Tatsuhiko, in an element that definitely benefits the movie in the end. Lastly, a number of secondary arcs involving drugs and exploitation of people also move towards the same direction.
At the same time, the social commentary is more intense than the first film, with Sono wisely choosing not to focus so much on the concept of the scout, since it was explored quite thoroughly in the previous entry. Instead, the connection of yakuza, big corporations, the police and the prositution rings takes center stage here, with particularly the comment on the “codependence” of liquor companies and hostess clubs being quite pointy in its presentation. Also of note is the fact that this time a female scout is included and the sleaziness element is quite toned down, with the female exploitation “element” being mostly restricted to the essentially socially acceptable beauty pageant arc.
Of course, the aforementioned do not mean that the focus in action is particularly toned down, with the many and quite violent scenes still taking a rather large part of the narrative, highlighting both Kenji Tanigaki’s action direction, and the overall excellent job done in the editing. The fact that almost everyone gets his share of beating here also works for the benefit of the movie, as the outcome of the fights is by no means predefined. Lastly, that most of the fighting is done by men in costumes adds to the overall audiovisual extravaganza here.
Granted, the many episodes and characters here occasionally lead to no ending narrative labyrinths and “Shinjuku Swan II” may not be as fun as the first one, but is definitely a better film overall with the context and the drama working in its favor, all the while highlighting Sion Sono’s directorial abilities.
