Sailor Suit and Machine Gun is perhaps best characterized as coming-of-age constructed around a yakuza archetypical story. Those expecting a Yakuza film with action and bloodshed are going to be disappointed, as this film at its core is an understated story of self-discovery and agency, one in which the notion of family is recontextualized and grafted onto a crime syndicate's notion of family. Wielding this particularly subversive story, Sailor Suit and Machine Gun's gender politics are perhaps a cause for concern to some, but I personally don't see much merit to such assertions, as what Sailor Suit is really doing is excavating the core tenet of love (empathy), in which a young girl's experience - her innocence and youthful naivety - haven't been corrupted by the harsh realities of living. She isn't the only malleable entity here, and how she engages with these yakuza men becomes poignant in some respects. At its core, what I think stands out about Sailor Suit and Machine Girl is how it embraces that "coming of age" is not linear nor quantifiable due to the singular nature of experience and perception. In its denouement, Sailor Suit and Machine Gun acknowledges the pervasive effects this hyper-masculine violent lifestyle will have on this young woman while simultaneously not devaluing the underlying affection it manages to capture. The amorphous tone never feels like a burden to the film's effectiveness but an opportunity. Sailor Suit and Machine Gun is just another salient example of how strong Sômai is as a stylist. His visual tableau is continuously entrancing, particularly his use of composition. I often find myself so immersed into the mise-en-scene and general aesthetic that rapturously enlivens this film which frankly will feel slower paced to some. Likely the worst film of Shinji Sômai's oeuvre I've seen to-date but one of his films has to be!
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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