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Swallowtail Butterfly
Swallowtail Butterfly
	Theatrical release poster
Japanese name
Katakana	スワロウテイル
Revised Hepburn
Transcriptions
Revised Hepburn	Suwarōteiru
Directed by	Shunji Iwai
Written by	Shunji Iwai
Produced by	Shinya Kawai; Kazutoshi Wadakura; Osamu Kubota; Hiroko Maeda
Starring	Hiroshi Mikami; Chara; Ayumi Ito; Yōsuke Eguchi; Andy Hui; Atsuro Watabe
Cinematography	Noboru Shinoda
Edited by	Shunji Iwai
Music by	Takeshi Kobayashi
Distributed by	Kadokawa Herald
Release date	September 14, 1996;
Running time	148 minutes
Language	Japanese ; English ; Mandarin

Swallowtail Butterfly (Japanese: スワロウテイル, Hepburn: Suwarōteiru, lit. 'Swallowtail') is a 1996 Japanese crime film written, directed and edited by Shunji Iwai, starring Hiroshi Mikami, pop-singer Chara, and Ayumi Ito.

The film was shot on hand-held cameras using jump cuts and other visual techniques.^[1] It covers a wide array of themes and genres, from social realism to coming-of-age to crime.

A theme song for the film under Yen Town Band, titled "Swallowtail Butterfly (Ai no Uta)", topped the Oricon Singles Chart on October 7, 1996.^[2]

Plot

The film is set in Tokyo at an unspecified point in the near future when the Japanese yen has become the strongest currency in the world. This attracts an influx of immigrants, legal and illegal, to work in the city. The immigrants give the city the nickname Yen Town (円都, en to). The Japanese natives, however, despise the nickname, and in retribution call the immigrants by the homophone Yen Thieves (円盗, en tou), anglicised as "Yentowns" in the film's English subtitles.^[3]

The story centers around a sixteen-year-old girl (Ayumi Ito) whose mother has just died. The girl is passed on from person to person until she is taken in by a Chinese Yentown prostitute named Glico (Chara), who names her Ageha (Japanese for swallowtail). Under Glico's care, Ageha starts a new life.

The immigrant characters, who speak Japanese, English, Mandarin, or Cantonese, earn their living by committing petty crimes and/or engaging in prostitution. Ageha does not participate in many of these activities, but is protected by Glico and the other immigrants, including the Chinese auto mechanic scammer Fei Hong (Hiroshi Mikami), American ex-boxer Arrow (Shiek Mahmud-Bey), and the mysterious broker Ran (Atsuro Watabe). The film does not clarify Ageha's full background,^[3] though she does tell a man in the film that she is originally from Japan.

Eventually, due to a sudden twist of fate involving the discovery of a rare cassette tape (containing Frank Sinatra's "My Way") that the mob is after, as well as a counterfeit money scheme strategy, the immigrants are given a chance to realize their various dreams. But in doing so, they impair their solidarity, and have to face most of their problems separately.

The film adopts a free-flowing structure, combining many slice-of-life narrative elements with tense, thriller components spliced in between. It covers the journey of Ageha and her other immigrant companions as they bond, try to survive in the cruel underworld that is Yentown, establish their very own music club, revel in fame and money, encounter the mob, and, above all, find a true identity for themselves.

The climax of the film sees Glico chased by the mob for the location of their prized cassette tape before Ran saves her, killing them all. Simultaneously, Fei Hong is brought in by the authorities after being caught with counterfeit bills, and is brutally beaten while being interrogated. In his cell, he sings Sinatra's "My Way" before succumbing to his fatal injuries. Ageha, Glico, and Ran hold a makeshift memorial service for Fei Hong where they burn all the money they had acquired. Ran fires off a gun salute. Mob boss Ryo Ranki plans his next move on a car ride before coincidentally re-encountering Ageha, whom he saved earlier in the film when she almost overdosed on heroin. Ageha is able to properly thank him now, and casually gifts him the cassette tape with "My Way" on it that, unbeknownst to Ageha, he had been searching for this whole time. Ryo asks her for her name, which she tells him was given to her by the now-famous Glico. Ryo stands there, stunned, as he was the one who gave Glico her name when they grew up together.

Cast

Hiroshi Mikami as Fei Hong
Chara as Glico
Ayumi Ito as Ageha
Yōsuke Eguchi as Ryo Ranki
Andy Hui as Mao Fu
Atsuro Watabe as Ran
Tomoko Yamaguchi as Shen Mei
Nene Otsuka as Reiko
Kaori Momoi as Suzukino
Tadanobu Asano as Customer in club

Awards

1997 Japanese Academy Awards - Newcomer of the Year (Ayumi Ito)
1997 Japanese Academy Awards - Most Popular Film
1998 Fant-Asia Film Festival - Best Asian Film

Swallowtail Butterfly was also nominated for but did not win the following awards:

1997 Japanese Academy Awards - Best Actress (Chara)
1997 Japanese Academy Awards - Best Art Direction (Yohei Taneda)
1997 Japanese Academy Awards - Best Cinematography (Noboru Shinoda)
1997 Japanese Academy Awards - Best Film
1997 Japanese Academy Awards - Best Lighting (Yūki Nakamura)
1997 Japanese Academy Awards - Best Sound (Osamu Takizawa)
1997 Japanese Academy Awards - Best Supporting Actress (Ayumi Ito)
1997 Moscow Film Festival - Golden St. George Award^[4]

References

^ Cazdyn, Eric (2002). The Flash of Capital: Film and Geopolitics in Japan. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-2912-3.
^ "オリコンさん 1996年".
^ ^a ^b Yomota, Inuhiko (2003). "Stranger Than Tokyo: Space and Race in Postnational Japanese Cinema". In Jenny Kwok Wah Lau (ed.). Multiple Modernities: Cinemas and Popular Media in Transcultural East Asia. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 1-56639-985-8.
^ "20th Moscow International Film Festival (1997)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 2013-03-22. Retrieved 2013-03-22.