Japanese Girls Never Die

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.