In Shunji Iwai's Swallowtail Butterfly, young Ageha (Ayumi Ito) is first a caterpillar who can do little else but crawl. During the course of this 145-minute film, however, she is able to dash against her limitations and, like the butterfly, explode into a million colors. Spoken in three different languages (Chinese, English, and Japanese), Swallowtail Butterfly is a futuristic drama, a fish-out-of-water absurdist comedy, a coming-of-age story, a gangland caper, and a musical odyssey. Popular in Japan, but virtually unseen in the West, it is a whirling cacophony of images and sounds that celebrates the immigrant as a romantic figure in Japanese life.
Conceived when the "yen was the most powerful force in the world", the film speculates about a time in the near future when Tokyo is overflowing with immigrants looking to cash in on the economic boom. "They came in search of yen, snatching up yen", the narration states. "And the immigrants called the city Yentown". Residents were also known as Yentowns so the film is the story of Yentowns in Yentown. Set in the slums and back alleys of outer Tokyo and shot entirely with hand-held cameras, Swallowtail is an ambitious film about immigrants who are bonded by their dream of making quick money in the economic boom and then returning to their home country.
The film's colorful characters are easy to identify with. They include: Ageha, a 16-year old orphan, Glico (Chara) an ex-hooker turned popular singing star, Fie Hong (Hiroshi Mikami), a poor opportunistic immigrant from Shanghai who runs a junkyard, Arrow (Shiek Mahmud Bey), a former boxer, and Ran (Atsuro Watabe), a Yazuka gang leader with heart. After a young Chinese orphan identifies the dead body of her mother, she ends up with a Chinese prostitute named Glico who gives her the name of Ageha (Japanese for butterfly) and sends her to work in a shantytown outside of Tokyo. There she works in a junkyard full of shady characters that shoot out people's tires so they can sell spares to them at double the cost.
When a yazuka "john" is thrown out the window and "squished" by a passing truck, the group burying him in the woods discovers a tape of Frank Sinatra singing "My Way" farcically sewn into his stomach. The tape contains a computer code that can multiply their money which they set about doing. With enough money to open a nightclub and start a band, they hire Glico as the main singer and she is able to begin a singing career which propels her to stardom. In reality, she is the immensely talented Japanese pop singer Chara (real name Sato Miwa) and her songs: "My Way", "Sunday Park", "Mama's Alright", "She Don't Care", and "Swallowtail Butterfly" in the film were released in a successful CD called the Yen Town Band.
Not long after the club is open to paying customers, however, the yazuka gang led by Rio Ranki (Yosuke Eguchi) comes after the money-making tape and the police close in on Glico's friend Fei-Hong. Nearing the end of his life, Fie-Hong acknowledges that he has regrets but, in a dream sequence, he pictures a banner labeled Yentown being sprung up over the city and remains upbeat:
And now, as tears subside, I find it all so amusing... To think, I did all that, and may I say, not in a shy way Oh no, oh no not me, I did it my way
As the Yentown Club disintegrates and the Yentowns go their separate ways, the power that held everyone together disappears and what is left is a loss of innocence and a money burning ceremony that provides an anti-capitalistic exclamation point. Meanwhile, Ageha impresses some local delinquents with her boxing skill and becomes their "boss", transforming herself from a withdrawn child into a mature leader of neighborhood toughs. She also has a poetic side seen when she reminisces about her childhood as an underground doctor (Mickey Curtis) tattoos a butterfly on her chest. Like Ageha, Swallowtail allows us to playfully soar like a butterfly and free the dreams within our heart.
Conceived when the "yen was the most powerful force in the world", the film speculates about a time in the near future when Tokyo is overflowing with immigrants looking to cash in on the economic boom. "They came in search of yen, snatching up yen", the narration states. "And the immigrants called the city Yentown". Residents were also known as Yentowns so the film is the story of Yentowns in Yentown. Set in the slums and back alleys of outer Tokyo and shot entirely with hand-held cameras, Swallowtail is an ambitious film about immigrants who are bonded by their dream of making quick money in the economic boom and then returning to their home country.
The film's colorful characters are easy to identify with. They include: Ageha, a 16-year old orphan, Glico (Chara) an ex-hooker turned popular singing star, Fie Hong (Hiroshi Mikami), a poor opportunistic immigrant from Shanghai who runs a junkyard, Arrow (Shiek Mahmud Bey), a former boxer, and Ran (Atsuro Watabe), a Yazuka gang leader with heart. After a young Chinese orphan identifies the dead body of her mother, she ends up with a Chinese prostitute named Glico who gives her the name of Ageha (Japanese for butterfly) and sends her to work in a shantytown outside of Tokyo. There she works in a junkyard full of shady characters that shoot out people's tires so they can sell spares to them at double the cost.
When a yazuka "john" is thrown out the window and "squished" by a passing truck, the group burying him in the woods discovers a tape of Frank Sinatra singing "My Way" farcically sewn into his stomach. The tape contains a computer code that can multiply their money which they set about doing. With enough money to open a nightclub and start a band, they hire Glico as the main singer and she is able to begin a singing career which propels her to stardom. In reality, she is the immensely talented Japanese pop singer Chara (real name Sato Miwa) and her songs: "My Way", "Sunday Park", "Mama's Alright", "She Don't Care", and "Swallowtail Butterfly" in the film were released in a successful CD called the Yen Town Band.
Not long after the club is open to paying customers, however, the yazuka gang led by Rio Ranki (Yosuke Eguchi) comes after the money-making tape and the police close in on Glico's friend Fei-Hong. Nearing the end of his life, Fie-Hong acknowledges that he has regrets but, in a dream sequence, he pictures a banner labeled Yentown being sprung up over the city and remains upbeat:
And now, as tears subside, I find it all so amusing... To think, I did all that, and may I say, not in a shy way Oh no, oh no not me, I did it my way
As the Yentown Club disintegrates and the Yentowns go their separate ways, the power that held everyone together disappears and what is left is a loss of innocence and a money burning ceremony that provides an anti-capitalistic exclamation point. Meanwhile, Ageha impresses some local delinquents with her boxing skill and becomes their "boss", transforming herself from a withdrawn child into a mature leader of neighborhood toughs. She also has a poetic side seen when she reminisces about her childhood as an underground doctor (Mickey Curtis) tattoos a butterfly on her chest. Like Ageha, Swallowtail allows us to playfully soar like a butterfly and free the dreams within our heart.