Intensity 🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 for occasional bloody violence
Directed by Eiji Uchida and Shinzo Katayama
With a complex multi-story plot featuring an alien in a basket, a serial killer, sister assassins, a failed Yakuza strongman, and a discount ninja instructor, the BiFan showcased feature Life of Mariko in Kabukicho is a delightful slice of life in sleazy Tokyo that Quentin Tarantino could admire. The story’s complexity is grounded by the clever and stalwart young detective Mariko (Sairi Itô) who investigates all sorts of strange goings on in her neighborhood. It is intoxicating, Go see it when you get a chance.
Full admission: this movie is only remotely horror-adjacent. I will cling to that adjacency: it is important to get the word out about this fantastic zany collage of a film. It has a meat-cleaver-wielding serial killer in it. There are bloody Yakuza-hit jobs. A sister assassin showdown. And, a fated lover flaming mutual suicide. Most improbably, a glowing alien in a basket that vaporizes anyone who gets too close to its basket. And yet, what I will take away from the movie is the endearing central figure of this composition: a plucky bartender/detective named Machiko (Sairi Itô). She won me over many times over.
This slice of Japanese absurdism from the Bucheon International Film Festival (BiFan) was scheduled as one of their “Mad Maxx” features. The other films in this grouping included Alex de la Iglesia’s (Witching and Bitching, The Last Circus … a pair of my favorite Spanish horror films) Comedy Four’s A Crowd, and Quentin Dupieux’s (Rubber, Deerskin) whackadoodle Smoking Causes Coughing, so I figured this movie might be in my sweet spot. And it was.
The filmmakers, Uchida and Katayama, took their cues from the likes of Jim Jarmusch and Quentin Tarantino. Life of Mariko in Kabukicho is packed to the rim with colorful characters and spins several intertwining mini-stories of the seedy and vibrant life within Kabukicho. The interconnectedness between the characters and the city is well crafted. Each of the sub-stories is compelling enough that you start to anticipate when the next story will transition to a new tale.
For those not familiar, Kabukicho is the famed red-light subdistrict within Tokyo’s Shinjuku ward; a tourist-packed hub of restaurants, bars, nightclubs, brothels, love hotels, and theaters. Giving a frame of reference, it is akin to the Tenderloin in San Francisco, the Las Vegas Strip, the French Quarter in New Orleans, or pre-Giuliani ’70s Times Square. The masses go to Kabukicho for a good time. But caution to the unwary, because ruin or reward awaits those who play here. A place like Kabukicho operates best in a metropolis where people can achieve a certain anonymity. A hiding place. A place of secrets. And that is where Mariko comes in. Of course, you need a detective in a place like this.
In this story, there is a little bar, owned by Mariko. She is the eyes and ears of the neighborhood. She knows everybody and knows how to find anybody for a price. Her little bar has its gaggle of loyal locals, but the excitement kicks in when interested parties drop in. The FBI drops by (a bit out of their jurisdiction… but I’ll give them a pass). Also, the Yakuza comes knocking. All of this is tied together with the web of desperate locals trying to find their missing family members.
Despite her youth, she cares deeply about her little community and is a bit of a mother hen and social ringleader. She has built her reputation as an ace detective by knowing the neighborhood down to its very soul. And, what better way to know how to find people than to listen to her customers’ stories at the bar? It’s a great combination. Mariko also harbors a deep dark secret that has framed her protective instincts. This explains a lot about her motivations and only increases her charismatic backstory charm.
In the course of this plot, there are some wild stories within the story including:
- A scientist, Dr. Amamoto (Shoei Uno) is hiding in Kabuchiko with the aforementioned alien in a basket. Now the US Government and the Yakuza are looking for them. Neither party is aware that they both have Mariko to track down Dr. Aramoto for this valuable information nor are they aware of what Mariko’s intentions might be.
- Two of her regulars are assassin sisters. Sadami (Memoi Simada), the younger sister, has hopelessly fallen in love with an overly sensitive filmmaker (Yuka Kitamura). Complicating matters, the older sister Shigemi (Kanan Nakahara) is willing to use lethal means to keep her in the fold. Consequently, unwilling to let her sister’s love life get in the way of the family’s deadly business.
- Mariko’s boyfriend Masaya (Yukata Takenouchi) is a discount ninja. Masaya is a generous soul, who offers his services to a bunch of slackers in a run-down dojo in a back alley. Even though he is on the loser’s side of the balance, he remains an unofficial neighborhood watch.
- Mariko’s best friend Ayaka (Shioro Kubo) is a hopeless romantic who has fallen for a pretty gigolo (Akira Takano). Ayaka is desperately trying to generate more Yen to competitively pry him away from one of his other clients. She runs into a wanted serial killer, who she discovers there is a big bounty on. Ayaka wants to claim that reward with Mariko’s help, but it’s a very dangerous proposition for them to take on.
- A sad sack former Yakuza thug, Tozuka “The Bazooka” (Masaki Naito) has been slumming it as a janitor in a love hotel. The Bazooka is desperate to find his missing daughter before making one last attempt at making good with his mob overlords.
This film reminds me a lot of Chungking Express, Pulp Fiction, and Mystery Train. By comparison, these films are evocative of a place and stitched together multiple hyper-realized tales, and managed to have a connective through line that satisfies the discovery and conclusion of each segment. More than an anthology, this movie is about life and death in Kabukicho, and the shining center of it is Mariko who weaves in and out both physically and metaphorically through all of the segments. She was a great way to have natural connective tissue without having to force anything.
A couple of nitpicks in this movie: for the American FBI agents, they cast actors who had distinctly non-American accents, including one with a heavy Australian drawl. The FBI agents were buffoons to the level of the cops in Beverly Hills Cop. Clearly, the US did not send their A team to Tokyo. And why isn’t it the CIA? The FBI is domestic affairs only. The Japanese audience may not pick up on it, but I sure did. I also thought that Mariko, given how attentive and intuitive she is would have picked up on Ayako’s warning signs better. For someone who is a good friend, I think she would have been better at detecting signs of trouble. Again: nitpicks.
I would absolutely love to see more of this character and this place. Mariko is a detective who has honed her craft by knowing the neighborhood to her very essence. She is the soul of this sleazy sector, and what better way to pick up secrets than by listening to her customers in her bar? It is a wonderful story arrangement. The last time I saw the Shinjuku district depicted was in the narcotic dreamscape that is Enter the Void, which had an entirely darker tone. That Gaspar Noe experimental piece entranced me with the exotic, sinister, and enticing entertainment district. A neon nightmare that you still wanted to visit. By contrast, despite all the violence and occasional tragedy in Life of Mariko in Kabukicho, there is a strong thread of optimism and vibrancy that is palpable.
No rating for this movie, of course. It would be a solid R rating for multiple stabbings, gun violence, and sexual content. Currently, no streaming release date has yet been set for Mariko.
Here is a trailer… but be warned there are no English subtitles!
