Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl

Against the background of a surreal mountain landscape, we see the young Toshiko race off in her car in an attempt to escape from her mad uncle Sonezaki. Suddenly she sees a man running through the woods in his underpants. She can't see the car that is chasing him until a collision is inevitable. The half-naked Samehada is being pursued by trigger-happy gangsters who want their stolen money back. Samehada takes the wheel from Toshiko, who is now unconscious, and races off. Uncle Sonezaki meanwhile hires the crazy nerd Yamada to trace his missing niece. Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl turns into a chase thattakes the spectator to a comic, violent, tragic and ritzy world filled with kinky sex, spectacular locations and haute-couture clothing, largely the creation of fashion designer Takeo Kikuchi who was responsible for the (under) garments of the spoilt Yakuza kid Samehada. This role is played by Asano Tadanobu, a great star in the Japanese cinema who is also acquiring fame in the West; he has played in e.g. Maborosi and Labyrinth of Dreams, both of which have been screened at the Rotterdam festival. The experienced director of commercials Ishii Katsuhito exploits his undeniable visual talent and his predilection for the perverted to give a new angle on the chase, action and Yakuza genre.