Shinjuku Swan (3 Stars)

As my regular readers already know, Sion Sono is my favourite director. I love every film he's made. In recent years I've been disappointed that not all of his films have been released with English subtitles. The problem is that he's been making too many films for English distributors to keep up. In 2015 he made five films, of which only two ("Love and Peace" and "Tag") have been released in England. Of the other three films I managed to find *cough* an illegal version of "Virgin Psychics" online, which immediately became one of my favourite films. Yesterday I found "Shinzuku Swan" online. Now all that I'm missing is "Whispering Star".

I apologise profusely for downloading illegal copies of films. It's something that I don't usually do. Apart from the few films that I watch on Netflix I've bought all of my films on DVD or Blu-ray. I only download films when the English distributors are too stupid to release a film.

Having said that, of the four 2015 films I've seen so far this is the weakest. The usual Sion Sono madness is missing. This is a conventional gangster film. Apart from that, the plot doesn't seem to go anywhere. It veers in one direction and another, with the supporting characters randomly coming and going. I suspect it's because the film is based on a manga comic with the same name which has run for 116 issues so far. I haven't read the comic, but it looks like Sion Sono has compressed too many issues into a single film.

The film takes place in the red light district of Shinjuku, a commercial area in Tokyo. Tatsuhiko is a young man who arrives penniless in Shinjuku to find his fortune. He's hired as a scout by the Burst Scouting Agency. His job is to talk to girls on the street and persuade them to become prostitutes. If they agree his agency sends them to a brothel and Tatsuhiko is paid a commission. He's successful in his work, but he gets caught up in a turf war with a rival agency, Harlem Scouting Agency. He finds himself being used as a pawn in the battles, and the pressure on him is only relieved when the two agencies agree to merge peacefully.

That's only a small part of the plot. Lots of things happen in the film which only partially relate to one another and don't necessarily contribute to the film's conclusion. Tatsuhiko's relationship with Ageha, pictured above, begins late in the film, but it's already over before the film ends. I would rather have seen them remain together because I love happy endings, but I guess that isn't what happened in the comics. The comics can't possibly have a happy ending because they haven't ended yet.

I find the seedy life of prostitutes distasteful. What I dislike in the film is that the lifestyle isn't criticised. If anything, it's shown in a positive light. It's something that girls do to make money, and the girls on the street are thankful to Tatsuhiko for getting them into the business. A few of the girls have problems, but most are contented.

Obviously I'm in the minority in considering this to be Sion Sono's weakest film so far. It was a big commercial success in Japan, and in 2017 a sequel, "Shinjuku Swan 2", was released. I'll watch it, if I can find it online, but I hope it'll be a better film.