Japanese Girls Never Die
New York Asian Film Festival 2017
June 30 - July 16, 2017
A vibrant protest against the oppression of women, a provocative pop-art manifesto, and the improbably touching story of a gone girl whose life gains new meaning after her disappearance. Director Daigo Matsui’s agenda is ambitious, and Japanese Girls Never Die is one of the past year’s most audacious pieces of cinema.
As the original Japanese title (“Haruko Azumi Is Missing”) indicates, Japanese Girls Never Die is centered on the disappearance of a woman, a void around which the film revolves: 27-year-old, unmarried Haruko (Yu Aoi), stuck in a no-prospect office job and a one-way love for her oddball neighbor, is barely more than a spectator in her own colorless life—until she vanishes. Enigmatic graffiti, based on her missing person poster, suddenly decorates the walls of the suburban town, the result of two self-declared artists’ whimsical and random experiments. Meanwhile, a gang of giggling schoolgirls brings terror and violence to the streets, savagely assaulting random men. Daigo Matsui’s film throws many things at the viewer: a vibrant protest against the oppression of women, a provocative pop-art manifesto, and the improbably touching story of a gone girl, all dexterously interwoven.
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