Director – Katsuhito Ishii – 1998 – Japan – Cert. 15 – 108m
*****
Arresting and highly inventive thriller is out as a standalone Blu-ray release in the UK from Monday, April 14th 2025, also on digital, having previously appeared as the first disc of the three disc release Katsuhito Ishii Collection from Third Window Films just over a year ago (when the following piece was written for All the Anime).
Deriving its odd title from a literal translation of the leads’ surnames, Katsuhito Ishii’s highly original gangster movie from 1998 is based on a familiar plot: a man runs off with the mob’s money, and a lady companion. Or, as pioneering French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard once put it: all you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun.
Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl has much the same strengths as Godard when he’s on form. Ishii demonstrates a similar flair for taking actors or actresses and having them do what they do on camera so that it’s completely absorbing to watch: look no further than the extraordinary title sequence which starts about five minutes in and consists of little more than names and images of all the major cast members against a white background with overlaid black line animation images. These resemble less the familiar style of anime and more that of comic artist Jamie Hewlett (Tank Girl, 1988-95), accompanied by a high octane, two-minute, soundtrack burst of punk thrash overlaid with a frenetic guitar solo. Or the sequence about two-thirds through the film where Asano Tadanobu keeps appearing from behind changing room curtains in a series of outlandish, jarring outfits until he picks the perfect one, a sharkskin suit and red shirt, not unlike the sequence of Peter Falk trying on a series of hats in Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, 1987).
First-time director Ishii also demonstrates a gift for rendering mundane conversations compelling… [Read the rest at All the Anime…]
Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl is out on Blu-ray release in the UK from Monday, April 14th 2025. A further movie starring Asano Tadanobu (The Box Man, Gakuryu Ishii, 2024) is released on Blu-ray and digital on Monday, June 30th.
Trailer:
Trailer (The Box Man): :