Foreign Lands

Lonely Swallows (2011) - Tsumura, Nakamura
 
I always gravitate toward documentaries that feature young people regardless of how they are made (in this case, poorly from a technical standpoint). With Gu Su-yeon's Hard Romanticker, this year's Japan Cuts highlights some of the trials and tribulations of the ethnic minorities in a very homogenous society. Lonely Swallows, made by Kimihiro Tsumura, a college professor with the help of Mayu Nakamura, chronicles 5 young Brazilian-Japanese who are the children of migrant workers, living in the city of Hamamatsu, from 2007 to 2010. Their parents came to Japan in the 90s for the prospects of jobs, mostly working in factories. These children are born in Japan, but they are foreigners, they are not subjected to Japanese compulsory education system. They don't continue their study after Junior High and start working in factories. Some resent their parents and join the gang, some form a b-boy group and others try very hard to do right under very difficult circumstances. Then the recession hits Japan in 2008. Foreign workers were the first to be laid off. Many families had no choice but to leave Japan to go back to Brazil. For the children who are teens now and was born and grew up in Japan, this is an earth-shattering, life changing experience.

The filmmakers unevenly follow their journey, some turn out good, some don't. It's heartbreaking, devastating and hopeful. The doc doesn't concentrate on the unfairness of the system. Rather it concentrates on these individuals and it's a welcoming move. It shows the resilience of these young people. One can immediately think of Michael Apted's Up Series. I really hope the filmmakers revisit these young people periodically and see how they are doing. Lonely Swallows is a small film that will probably never see the light other than in some festivals. But I'm very glad I got to see it at this year's Japan Cuts.

Lonely Swallows plays on July 28th, 5pm at Japan Society. For tickets and more information, please visit Japan Cuts website.

Hip-hop Therapy

Roadside Fugitive SR (2012) - Irie

Yu Irie (8000 Miles, 8000 Miles 2 and Ringing in Their Ears) returns to this year's Japan Cuts with Roadside Fugitive SR, the third installment of his sleeper hit debut, 8000 Miles. The lovable losers from Saitama- Ikku (Ryusuke Komakine) and Tom (Shingo Mizusawa), are back, still dreaming of that big break at hip-hop stardom.

But the film starts with Mighty, aka Bro(ccoli) (Eita Okuno), the third member of Shogung last seen in the first film, leaving for Tokyo with a more promising rap group, Gokuakucho. Now it's been two years, with a chubby, nagging girlfriend Kazumi in tow, his stint as a construction worker by day and an errand boy for Gokuakucho by night ain't exactly a career he had in mind.

He gets a chance to prove himself at a local freestyle MC battle and is promised a spot on stage with the rest of the group if he made to the finals. Mighty proves his dexterity in rhyming and destroys his opponents with his rapid verbal assault one by one. But to his dismay, when he actually makes it to the final, he is told to take a dive, because his opponent is a wealthy friend of Gokuakucho. Humiliated by the defeat and non-stop abuse, Mighty reaches the boiling point and beats up one of the group members and runs away to Tochi-Gi, a suburb of Tokyo. There he gets involved with a seedy local gang of car thieves and human traffickers.

Ikku and Tom's path crosses with Mighty's in Tochi-Gi, as Shogung auditions for the outdoor festival, arranged by Mighty's boss Norio. After the near disastrous audition, Shogung and the local band Supreme Shogun (members consists of Three Monkeys and Sleepy Cat) decides to combine their talents and perform together after finding out Norio is charging 50 thousand yen for the entering fee per each group and with their shared admiration for the legendary Saitama DJ, TKD (Takeda-sama).

Mighty just can't get a break though. Flat broke, Kazumi opts for turning tricks at the urging of a local club owner. He goes ballistic after he finds it out and knocks the club owner cold with an ashtray. Furthermore, Gokuakucho is in town, invited by Norio to perform at the festival.

It's really fantastic to see Irie mature as a filmmaker with each of his new films. But Roadside Fugitive is a truly giant leap forward. His preferred long takes are well served in two pivotal, dynamic handheld tracking scenes to its thrilling height : one is where Mighty is being chased by angry Gokuakucho gang at night in the rain. You can feel the urgency and desperation of Mighty as he sprints for his life. Then there is the film's climax where Mighty tries to flee his predicament one more time while trying to settle the score with Norio, the gang, the world and himself, rampaging through the outdoor concert venue at night. These prolonged scenes are just as good as any Michael Mann's expensive elaborate getaway set pieces.
But it's Irie's passion for music (in this case, hip-hop) that I'm most impressed with. While skillfully contrasting Ikku and Tom's innocent dreamers with Mighty's desperado, by the end, Irie manages to elevate the film above its seemingly silly material. As with his previous films, music works as a therapy that transcends all the world's problems. Roadside Fugitive SR is a great crowd pleaser that has a lot of heart and passion. Definitely one of the my favorites so far this year.


Yu Irie Interview

Ringing in Their Ears Review

8000 Miles Review

8000 Miles 2 Review

Outsider

NYAFF/Japan Cuts 2012 Presents:
Hard Romanticker (2011) - Gu

There is an old saying about the Japan-Korea relationship my grandfather once told me that is very revealing. Apparently it's really easy for a Japanese to pick out Koreans among them because Koreans stink of garlic. For a Korean who grew up under the Japanese Occupation and educated in Japan, this derogatory remark stayed with my grandfather as long as he lived. To say the least, for Zainichi Koreans (Koreans who are living in Japan as ethnic minorities), life hasn't exactly been wine and roses.

Based on his semi-autobiographical novel, director Gu Suyeon tells a story of fictional Gu (Shota Matsuda, younger brother of Ryuhei Matsuda and son of Yusaku), a lowly member of a local Korean gang in Shimonoseki, the southernmost seaport city of Japan's main island Honshu and the home of the largest concentration of Zainichis. Donning platinum blond, chain smoking Gu is an anomaly. He doesn't really abide by gang associations and gets into fights with just about anyone. He even beats up his superiors at a glue sniffing orgy to save one of the girls from being gang raped. A diligent cop (Atsuro Watanabe, Love Exposure) and marauding gangs on his tail, Gu, ever so nonchalant, gets a job as a manager at a fancy club in the neighboring city, Kokuro, not knowing his boss is also the boss of the rival gang. Not that he cares about any of it. While on the run, he even romances a leggy High school girl. In his absence in Shimonoseki, things get blown over and his stern grandma personally delivers the message that his close friend has died. He has to go back and face the music.

As one of the sons of famous action star Yusaku Matsuda who was hailed from Shimonoseki and a half-Korean, it's not a coincidence Gu chose Shota for the role. He is a revelation here, exuding badboy sex appeal, the younger Matsuda with his deadpan humor and devil may care attitude, has more in common with Masatoshi Nagase in Maiku Hama movies (which was said to be heavily influenced not only by Mikey Spillane novels but by Yusaku's 70-80s TV/movie personas) than his pretty boy brother Ryuhei.

Rather than making a broad social commentary about jingoistic society where a country doesn't recognize its dark past and the consequences, Gu's view is limited to a very personal storytelling that, at times can be viewed as nihilistic fantasy. Maybe it's possible that the world of Zainichi is completely separate from the rest of the 'normal' Japan (as indicated in a comical sequence where street gangs are asking around in every nooks and crannies of Shimonoseki, "Have you seen Gu?" and someone responds, "What is a Gu?"). Hard Romanticker also has that distinctive 70s feel, including rampant misogyny and violence against women. The cellphones and video games are the only visible evidence that it takes place in current times. Endlessly entertaining, Hard Romanticker is a fast paced, visceral gangster film with plenty of hard-knuckle fight scenes that will surely garner cult-status in the near future.