This is the movie version of Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl, which I got in a set of the director, Katsuhito Ishii’s works from Third Window. I think this is one that I may have enjoyed (even) more if I hadn’t read the original before watching it. Because there’s a lot of cool stuff in here – the connection between this and Funky Forest is palpable in all the weird little bits of stuff present in this movie – but I don’t think it’s quite doing the same thing as the original, and I kind of miss what the original was going for. The main specific change that rubbed me wrong is that in the setup of the plot in the manga, Peach Hip Girl sees Shark Skin Man in danger in his underwear, and makes a specific choice to ram the bad guy’s car to help him, igniting the plot along with their weird intense romance. And I think you can really empathize with her character from there because of that – you saw her choose to start this surreal adventure, knowing in at least someway she was dropping her everyday life in doing so, and it makes sense why the intoxicating zaniness of the story’s adventure would be so alluring to her. In the movie though, in that same moment it’s not played the same way – she accidentally crashes the car, and while she’s unconscious, he gets in and brings her along on the adventure (they also don’t like, immediately have sex). It still keeps some of her intentionality in that now she’s already actively trying to leave her day-to-day life (I think it’s done this way to connect more with the stuff that happens at the end of the story) but I feel like it doesn’t have nearly the same effect for me, and it removes, or at least dampens, the Wild at Heart-ish whirlwind misfit romance feeling that I was talking about in the notes on the manga. I kinda feel like movie Peach Hip Girl maybe should go find some other more normal context to inhabit and not stick around with this guy. But, on the other hand, there’s lots added to the movie as well. Interestingly, it sort of flips the dynamic of the story around a bit, where the manga felt very focused on the couple protagonists and wanting them to succeed, whereas this is more about the gaggle of weirdos and villains trying to stop them. And that’s where a lot of the good stuff is. I LOVE the hotel set / location (“Hotel Symphony” I think it was called?) they spend a lot of time in for the movie. The outside is atmospheric and covered in leaves, and the interior is crimson and strange. I assume for both budget and style reasons, there’s a lot of action that is either elided where you might expect it to be, or that’s played in a very understated, diorama-ish sort of way. I think when the movie works for me, it works great. It just wasn’t getting me 100% of the time.
In general I think the additions definitely aren’t quite on the same wavelength as the manga, but of course they don’t need to be, and the movie feels like it’s dialing up much more the sort of, crime movie with odd irreverant characters and events side of the story rather than the pulp send-up feeling parts. And I think it works on that front (and I suppose really, that stuff is in line with Wild At Heart too, in a different way than the romance).