swallowtail

[Martin Beck]

It's certainly great that "Swallowtail" provokes so much discussion and 
different opinions. To me that's the sign of a good film - you either hate 
it or love it; there's not much in between. 

Some more thoughts on "Swallowtail":

1) At last year's Mifed I had the chance to have a long talk with Shinji Sakoda 
(a manager for international distribution). He told me that "Swallowtail" was 
indeed a very big hit in Japan and has gathered quite a cult following. The 
Yentown Band CD "Montage" sold well over 1 million copies. The film screened at 
the 1996 Mifed but couldn't be sold to many countries. Mr. Sakoda told me that 
it was very frustrating to always hear "yes, it's a great film, but totally 
uncommercial". Pony Canyon is certainly very proud of this film and regard it as 
one of their best titles so far. At the 1997 Mifed they offered this film again 
but dropped their asking prices considerably. The result: Again nothing. I think 
the major problem with this film is that it can't be marketed very easily. It's 
very long, it doesn't stick to 1 style, it doesn't follow an easy to understand 
story pattern, nobody outside Japan knows the lead actors (safe for Andy Hui, 
who's quite a star in HK), etc. Maybe it's possible to generate a hit with 
"Swallowtail" but for that you need a really big marketing campaign. Nobody 
wants to take this risk. To my knowledge so far "Swallowtail" has only been sold 
to HK and possibly to France. Of further interest should be that Pony Canyon 
experiences similar problems with "Kamikaze Taxi". Their newest project is a 
swordsplay film called "Samurai fiction" which again promises great things but 
is already poised to financial loss. It's filmed in scope and black & white, 
plays in the middle ages yet has a science fiction touch and uses rapid fire 
cutting and a heavy metal score. I've seen some footage which looks 
absolutely stunning but again, who on earth should buy this one for theatrical 
or even video release??

2) I think Chara plays a very strong woman in the film. Yes, she gets abused, 
beaten and works as a prostitute but despite all that she still has her dream 
(the night club, being a singer) and carries on no matter what happens. To me I 
have to relate to a person to really get into a film. There's nothing more 
boring than a squeaky clean hero (or anti-hero) who doesn't change during a film 
and who offers no characteristics past the first 5 minutes. With Chara ( and 
also many of the other characters) we get a multi-faceted "hero" who is both 
vulnerable and passionate, deeply hurt and burning with determination and 
energy. I can immediately relate to her, just because she doesn't come over as a 
"film character" but first of all as a human being.

3) I can't understand why "Swallowtail" is boring. Films are boring where I know 
the ending after 5 minutes. Films are boring where I get the same old story 
telling and character treatment again and again. To be fair, when I saw 
"Swallowtail" for the first time I knew nothing about it or its director. As 
someone who is thankful for every film outside the usual mainstream crap it just 
was a revelation to watch this delirious mix of totally different genres, music, 
violence, sex, action, great actors, gorgeous images and story twists every 5 
minutes or so. In Germany you'll find nobody who even tries to take the same 
approach to filmmaking. Kudos should go to Shunji Iwai for simply having a 
vision and realizing it and also to Pony Canyon, who have put a lot of money in 
this production despite knowing the great risk of such a film. Please tell me 
just 5 American films during the last years who can be matched to "Swallowtail" 
in terms of risk taking! Maybe "Twin Peaks - Fire walk with me" comes close, but 
otherwise...

4) A very simple point: I just like the music, both the songs and the orchestral 
score. Most of the Japanese music I heard so far was either really bad heavy 
metal noise with a heavy 80s touch or far too cute pop songs. Now here we have 
some really funky grooves, good guitars and, well, Charas inimitable voice. 
Maybe it's noteworthy that Chara usually doesn't sing songs like these in 
"Swallowtail". I have heard several CDs of her and found them to be full with 
rather bland plastic pop music.

So much for now. More comments are very much appreciated.

Martin Beck
Adrenafilm