Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip GirlStyle and savvy. Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl follows two protagonists--Toshiko Momojiri (Sie Kohinata) and Kuroo Samehada (Tadanobu Asano)--who couldn't be more different on the surface, as they both struggle to escape their fates...first individually, then together. Toshiko is escaping from the hotel she works at, managed by her depraved uncle; Samehada is on the run from a pack of yakuza killers, looking to recover money he has stolen from their crime syndicate. After joining forces through a twist of fate, they are drawn together by an attraction more compelling than the need to save their own skins.
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Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl begins in earnest with a seemingly inconsequential bank robbery scene in the woodland resort community where Toshiko resides. And though her uncle has already robbed her of her savings before the thieves could, the event serves as a kind of hallmark moment for Toshiko, and maybe subconsciously, it whets her appetite for the excitement that comes with committing a crime. Fast forward two years, and as Toshiko attempts to escape, she accidentally collides her car with one of the hitmen's cars, knocking everyone unconscious. Samehada--who is fleeing in nothing but his leopard-print underwear--stops to steal Toshiko's car (won't be his only grand theft auto), but also take her with him. Even unconscious, Toshiko seems pleased by the turn of events, and clings to Samehada...and Samehada doesn't rebuke her; hardly, he seems to enjoy her company, and perhaps relates to her when she emphatically begs not to return to her uncle, and not to go back to her old life. It's not hard to see why Toshiko is so opposed to returning: not only was her previous life dull and awkward, but in Samehada, she sees a stylish, handsome man, and a chance to be free from the trappings of scrimping and saving just to have it all snatched away; maybe she wants to be the one with the gun for once. And even the hitmen after Samehada sport a style that defines each of them in a unique way. It's almost as if you can tell which gangster is higher up the totem pole by the more outlandish he or she dresses, with some of the more upper echelon members looking as though they belong on a runway, not traipsing through the woods. Even in the intro to the film, the major players are announced as though they were lining up for a fashion shoot.
Samehada may be a criminal, but a smoother one has rarely been seen. He's not above laying traps to entice his would be assassins and even commandeering a walkie-talkie to talk trash to his pursuers. And even when Toshiko's uncle solicits the aid of amateur hitman Yamada (Tatsuya Gashuin) to collect her and kill Samehada, when Yamada fails to kill Samehada, Samehada shows an unusual kind of mercy on the truly weird Yamada; Yamada's response: he develops a crush on Samehada, and becomes something of an ersatz guardian angel to the runaway criminal. Another interesting element to Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl is that many of the cliques of thugs and hoodlums share conversations with one another while waiting between peaks of action and gunfire, discussing mundane interests (like collecting enamel posters or trying to remember the title for a book on yoga) as well as some of their earliest memories of life in crime. For a film that boasts a substantial amount of background characters, this touch makes these characters far more human than just a stylish goon with a gun...although they are that, too. Samehada's former accomplice, Sawada (Susumu Terajima), is pursuing him almost independent of the other killers, claiming the need to apprehend Samehada before the others to get himself out of a bind. But the others don't really trust Sawada, and Sawada is haunted by a dream that he believes is some kind of divine message, one that drives him to action that goes against his professional code as a gangster. In this, as in so many other recognizable turns, Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl takes a page or three from modern crime films like Pulp Fiction, with unpredictable turns of events, surprising outbursts of violence, and highly colorful gangsters. While the film might appear altogether as a knock-off of works like Quentin Tarantino's, a big difference in Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl is Toshiko, who allows herself to be transformed just as we might in her shoes, tempted by the excitement of being on the run with a ton of money, getting dolled up in the height of fashion and stealing cool cars. Beats making beds at a hotel out in the middle of nowhere...until someone gets shot.
Recommended for: Fans of action and chases, stylish gangsters shooting at one another, and for those who can root for the girl who wants to escape her terrible day job.
Samehada may be a criminal, but a smoother one has rarely been seen. He's not above laying traps to entice his would be assassins and even commandeering a walkie-talkie to talk trash to his pursuers. And even when Toshiko's uncle solicits the aid of amateur hitman Yamada (Tatsuya Gashuin) to collect her and kill Samehada, when Yamada fails to kill Samehada, Samehada shows an unusual kind of mercy on the truly weird Yamada; Yamada's response: he develops a crush on Samehada, and becomes something of an ersatz guardian angel to the runaway criminal. Another interesting element to Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl is that many of the cliques of thugs and hoodlums share conversations with one another while waiting between peaks of action and gunfire, discussing mundane interests (like collecting enamel posters or trying to remember the title for a book on yoga) as well as some of their earliest memories of life in crime. For a film that boasts a substantial amount of background characters, this touch makes these characters far more human than just a stylish goon with a gun...although they are that, too. Samehada's former accomplice, Sawada (Susumu Terajima), is pursuing him almost independent of the other killers, claiming the need to apprehend Samehada before the others to get himself out of a bind. But the others don't really trust Sawada, and Sawada is haunted by a dream that he believes is some kind of divine message, one that drives him to action that goes against his professional code as a gangster. In this, as in so many other recognizable turns, Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl takes a page or three from modern crime films like Pulp Fiction, with unpredictable turns of events, surprising outbursts of violence, and highly colorful gangsters. While the film might appear altogether as a knock-off of works like Quentin Tarantino's, a big difference in Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl is Toshiko, who allows herself to be transformed just as we might in her shoes, tempted by the excitement of being on the run with a ton of money, getting dolled up in the height of fashion and stealing cool cars. Beats making beds at a hotel out in the middle of nowhere...until someone gets shot.
Recommended for: Fans of action and chases, stylish gangsters shooting at one another, and for those who can root for the girl who wants to escape her terrible day job.