Both the title and the poster for Shinji Somai's Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (1981) are eye-catching, featuring a young girl wearing a school uniform brandishing a machine gun with blood splatter on her cheek. As provocative as the advertising is, the actual film is much less so, more of a a surreal coming-of-age drama than a straight yakuza film.
Bubbly high-schooler Hoshi Izumi (Hiroko Yakushimaru) has a normal life, hanging out with her peers and studying for tests and schoolwork. Her father unexpectedly dies and his unstable mistress Mayumi (Yuki Kazamatsuri) moves in with her. As a final blow to Izumi's childhood innocence, it turns out that her father was next in line to take over the Medaka yakuza gang and due to his passing she is the only surviving family member who can take on the responsibilities of boss. She is hesitant at first, but over time she starts to warm up to the idea, eventually becoming embroiled in the politics of interacting with rival gangs.
The tone of the film is initially light-hearted, with Izumi playfully prancing around not taking her yakuza boss role seriously. The first third of the runtime feels like a satirical take on the yakuza genre as a whole. At the halfway point, however, the tone shifts to a much more serious one as various members of the gang get murdered or grievously injured and Izumi is forced to grow up and harden her resolve. At its heart Sailor Suit and Machine Gun is about the way adulthood can slowly creep up and inject sorrow and death into a child's life and the different ways they can deal with it.
Hiroko Yakushimaru is fantastic in this role, with her wholesome demeanor that slowly morphs into a more solemn and calculated persona. Izumi ends up more like a surrogate mother to her underlings than a boss and they grow to love her unconditionally. While the middle of the film has a grave tone, as it transitions to the third act, it shifts into truly bizarre territory, with a legless evil scientist that has a landmine fetish who kidnaps Izumi and ties her to a crucifix.
Given the contradictory nature of the title of the film--juxtaposing a young school girl and a machine gun, it is not surprising that tonally the film is all over the place. At the end, the atmosphere becomes wistful, following Izumi as she walks down a busy street in bright red heels, and it seems that she has finally flowered into a confident young woman ready to take on future challenges in her life.
Arrow Special Edition:
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentations of the Original Theatrical Version and the 1982 Complete Version (kanpeki-ban) re-issue of the film, restored by Kadokawa Pictures from a 4K scan of the original negative
Original uncompressed Japanese mono and 5.1 audio
Optional English subtitles
Girls, Guns and Gangsters: Shinji Somai & Sailor Suit & Machine Gun, an exclusive new 50-minute documentary featuring actor Akira Emoto, film scholar Chika Kinoshita, Somai biographer Tatsuya Kimura and Sailor Suit assistant director Koji Enomoto discussing the making of the film, its director and its legacy.
Original Trailers and TV spots for both versions
Image Gallery
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Michael Lomon