Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl (1998)

You won't be disappointed!

Sorry, this movie sucks

Overrated

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Shark Skin man and Peach Hip girl is a quirky little film based on a short manga series. The premise is that shark skin man is on the run from a gang he was a part of after running off with a load of money. On his path he meets peach hip girl who has run away from the hotel owned by her awkward pervy uncle and they decide to run away together. The film its self is a mixture of dark Miike humour with many offbeat moments of awkward silences. The henchmen are very slapstick and cartoonish like in many manga adaptations. Unfortunately, it suffers from having so many characters as they appear quite 2-dimensional besides the two protagonists. I also found some of the scenes were poorly lit which was quite annoying and there wasn't much in the way of shootouts besides maybe two. What it fails in plot it makes up in humour not everyone will take to it but i found it quite fun to watch and it paces itself extremely well so avoids getting dull. so overall id say give it a watch at least once it's worth your time but its not as amazing as the hype says would benefit from a few sequels maybe. Violence 3/5 Plot 2/5 Humour 4/5 Acting 4/5 Music 3/5

Tadanobu Asano stars, but really anyone could have played any character in this film, they're all so two-dimensional. Asano has stolen money from a yakuza boss, who now, along with his comic-bookish henchmen, is out to get him. Along the way, Asano hooks up with a shy woman. The film does contain a few really good scenes. I could actually forgive it for being shallow if it were more fun than it is. Unfortunately, what makes it really bad is that, for most of its run, the film is just damn boring. Some of the scenes drag out forever. The faster paced bits are more tolerable, and this might have been cool if it were more like a Ryuhei Kitamura film. Another problem is that, while the story is mostly very straightforward, there are occasions where it becomes incoherent. Which made me lose interest even more. Skip it.

Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl was one of the best Japanese films that I have seen in a while. The fast pace, quick cuts, and awesome soundtrack made for a great movie. Not to mention the cool characters and decent plot. Tadanobu Asano wasn't as cool in this movie as he was in Ichi the Killer, but then again who could top anything from that movie. At first I didn't know if I would like the movie, being a fan of older samurai films and not much for no-plot action movies, but I'll have to hand it to this film, because even though the plot was a little main stream (man steals Yakuza money and then the gangsters go after him) the cinematography and the fact that the story wasn't really told in chronological order really made this movie stand out from the stereotypical action movie. The way the director would occasionally slow down or speed up the film, or intentionally put in serious jump-cuts, really added to the feel of the movie. I thought that it was a great movie and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys Japanese cinema.

Everything about this movie is great: funny dialogue, great action sequences, wonderful characters and superb camera-work throughout. One can see the director was influenced by Takeshi's movies: that is a compliment. Do not let the pace fool you, this is typical of Japanese moviemaking. Let's see them make movies like this in Hollywood: I don't think so.