Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl (199 Samehada otoko to momojiri onna

Directed by Katsuhito Ishii

Starring Tadanobu Asano (Vital, Last Life in the Universe), Susumu Terajima (Hana-Bi, After Life)

Cool, funky, hip, bizarre, all these and more adjectives can be applied to Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl. 

Samehada (Asano) is on the run from the mob with a huge amount of their cash. Toshiko is also running away, trying desperately to escape from the hotel owned and managed by her perverted uncle who has decided that he also owns her and that she will become his wife. The pair meet in slightly strange circumstances and throw their lot in together hoping to make their escape.

Closely following on the heels of Samehada are the mob, the gang hes taken the money from plus a real collection of misfits including one with bleach blonde hair who tracks people like a dog by sniffing the breeze and the ground. Toshiko is also being tracked by an assassin who has been hired by her uncle, he's a real techno geek who appears to be stuck in the 50s with both his fashion sense and technology. His job is to bring Toshiko back to the uncle and to eliminate whoever she's with, after finding the pair at a service station he follows Samehada into the mens toilet with the intention of killing him, he fails and instead ends up falling in love with his intended victim. Samehada and Toshiko escape and carry on with their flight but the mob are closing in on them.

The story rattles along at a fair pace though it's never really engaging being more style than substance. Eventually there is a huge showdown, a gunfight with plenty of death and destruction, there are also quite a few moments that would happily fit into a Tarantino movie although hes never used such a bizarre collection of characters. 

A decent cool flick, entertaining and fun with lashings of style. Although not as well constructed as Space Travellers, which is more engaging also more consistent in its plot and humour and overall a better film. 

Recommended as a piece of light entertainment with style, panache, flair but also the sort of weirdness that has become more prevalent in a lot of recent Japanese Yakuza films.

Cheers Trev.

No BBFC rating but probably a 15 because of the stylish violence.

R1 ntsc dvd available from Kino. R3 dvds available from several suppliers.