水手服与机关枪

This week’s discussion prompt exactly explains why I don’t quite like this film. Although Izumi is the only main character in this film and the core of all the plots, I could not find a specific and powerful identity from her. In other words, the constant fluidity and ambiguity of Izumi confuses me and block my potential emotional resonance with her. I don’t agree that there is a unilateral or unidirectional change in her characters, not simply transforming from immature to sophistication or from coldness to sensational. It is a very complicated process. Steinberg discusses about the transformations and mixes of medias in the readings. It is interesting to read the books and the films as commodities “without substance.” This permits certain kind of “void” in these media. This film certainly constructs a sufficient commodity micro-environment though fascinating mise-en-scene, peculiar but beautiful lighting and compositions etc. On the other hand, the ambiguity belongs to Izumi.

The opening of this film forms a hilarious contrast and “malposition.” Izumi does not appear at the beginning of the movie. Instead, it shows the members “inviting” a vet to help their dying boss. The dialogue and their actions immediately remind me of “manzai”. The foolishness and their naivety seem to refer to slapsticks, which is a genre being completely different from the Yakuza films. (Definitely not like Suzuki) However, the following sequence shows Izumi and her classmates as a kind of Yakuza group. She always stands out from other three male students. She does not cry and sign on her father’s death. She even once acts as a Sumo player. She looks very calm and even cold to the audiences. These should be the characters of the killer, the Yakuza. Later, when Izumi and boys bow in front of her father’s memorial tablet, this ceremonial scene is analogical with the Yakuza ceremonies as well. Therefore, at the beginning of this film, Izumi shows a kind of stiffness and coldness as the Yakuza member. However, this kind of personality gradually disappears. After she was taken away by Medaka members, Izumi shows more characters as a normal girl. She becomes the boss only because she does not want the members to fight. During her first meeting with higher Yakuza groups, she pours the water of the vase on a leader’s head. This seems to be a girl’s naughty trick. Riding on a motor and dancing after drunk, these express the energy of the youth. However, after the first death of the member, Izumi gradually becomes sophisticated as a boss. She thrusts into the enemy’s base and questions about the death of her group member. Her gestures are very mature. Although I could not detect the nuances between different accents and word-usage in Japanese, I am still wondering whether there are such changes of language in different periods of Izumi through the film. The climax of the film shows Izumi holding the machine-gun. The slow-motion shot materializes her steadiness and courage. Izumi seems to be a professional killer at that scene. Therefore, there are lots of twists in her character.

Finally, this seemingly strange ending actually jumps out from an illusionistic narration. Personally, I will view the ending shot as an element of meta-film, establishing Izumi as a student who just plays all the roles before in this film. In other words, all the changes of the characteristics are kind of games. After walking on the street as an ordinary student for a while, she suddenly leans on the wall and acts like smoking a cigarette. There is no cigarette in her hand. It is a form of acting, which could be identified by the audiences. After meeting with several kids, Izumi starts to act as shooting the machine-guns. As this gesture basically symbolize the Yakuza life experienced by Izumi before, connecting this action to the small kids on the streets seems to be a form of disenchantment. It yells to the audiences: Izumi does not really become a Yakuza. It is only a kind of play. The acting and the complexity dissolves in this sense of childishness and innocence. Disregarding the attention paid from the passers-by, Izumi is not Izumi anymore. The figure standing in front of the audiences is the idol, a film star. Just as the lecture says, the popularity of these idols may originate from the sense of girls. Therefore, at the end of this film, this specific character which grants commercial success is summoned out. This is a declaration: Izumi is still a young student with cuteness and simplicity. The violence before becomes a childish play, acting by small kids. The absence of the properties in her hand diminishes all complicated personalities before.