島ぜんぶでおーきな祭-第7回沖縄国際映画祭-

The feature film by Hideta Takahata held its world premiere screening at Sakurazaka Theater Hall A on Friday March 27^th. This creative feature scores the rare duo of being both funny a realistic as depicts the lives of teens and twenty-somethings in Tokyo’s trendy Harajuku district.

Cleverly split into 5 episodes, the stories end up interconnecting and circling back on themselves. The four Korean singers from idol group Bee Shuffle play the main 4 male leads, speaking excellent Japanese, and up-and-coming star Rena Takeda shines as a police officer whose drawn into romance, and the shady side of Harajuku’s seemlier businesses.

The stories revolve around the touts that scout ‘talent, ’ attractive teenage girls walking through Harajuku, for a variety of ventures. Sometimes they are legitimate reps for modeling agencies or ad campaigns and other times they have more nefarious jobs in mind. Sometimes they just want to snap a seemingly innocent pic that will be used in false advertising or to pad a staff list that doesn’t exist. The title refers to stocking thickness and one of the pretty boy entrepreneurs on the street runs an elaborate scam where he ends up winning women’s stockings and then selling them on the sleazy market for such items.

Rena Takeda’s police officer is dragged into this scam when the offending pretty boy is hauled in and correctly guesses her stocking thickness. The episodes could be drawn directly from the streets of Harajuku as heartbreak and exploitation is rife there is also a subtle humor which infuses this multi-dimensional film.

 

The final scene where the police officer tracks down the mastermind baddie has a flurry of action, featuring Takeda. Concerning her status as an action icon Takeda told the press “I am happy to get attention as an action actress because there are none in Japan. I want to create the ‘action actress era’. For me an action actress can express everything, tears and laughter… not only actions scenes, so that is my goal.”

The actress noted she’s happy to work internationally, “It’s my goal to perform in international movies as a representative actor from Japan. I will have a shoot with Sonny Chiba in Myanmar in the next month. I am very happy to get offers from other parts of Asia.”

On the Japanese industry she observes, “I don’t know about it in detail but the Japanese TV and movie industries often only use well-known people. I feel younger actors have more opportunities overseas a can even receives Academy Awards. I hope the situation in Japan will change in that way.”

 

Harajuku Denier should push Takeda’s star even higher in the sky. It opens nationwide in Japan on May 16.