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Bookmark this pagePrincess Raccoon (2005)
Director: Seijun Suzuki
Movie review
From Time Out London
A cult favourite thanks to delirious, inventive, expressionist-tinged ’60s gangster flicks like ‘Branded to Kill’ and ‘Tokyo Drifter’, the now octogenarian maverick director Seijun Suzuki came out of directorial retirement with the idiosyncratic ‘Pistol Opera’ in 2001. For his latest extravaganza, he places a modernist spin on the fairytale, offering a sometimes bewildering and visually stunning tale of young romantic love between Ziyi Zhang’s ‘spiritual’ titular princess and the banished son (dreamboat Jo Odigari) of gloriously fearsome Mikijiro Hara’s Lord of Grace Castle.You have to admire the veteran’s energy. Much of the action here is staged against beautifully designed lithographic backdrops – think Syberberg on LSD – with Yonezo Maeda’s swooping camera often descending from the gods like in a Busby Berkeley musical. Kabuki and Noh theatre vies with rock’n’roll musical and rap opera; balletic mise-en-scène with camp Jarmanesque anachronisms as medieval court figures fight and make out with mythic beasts, shape-shifting spirits and demons.
The kitsch spectacle of ‘Princess Raccoon’ dazzles the eye, though the emotions are little engaged, while the intellect gets slowly frazzled.
Author: Wally Hammond
Time Out London Issue 1871: June 28-July 5 2006
Cast & crew
Director: Seijun Suzuki
Cast: Zhang Ziyi, Joe Odagiri, Hiroko Yakushimaru, Mikijiro Hira, Taro Yamamoto, Gentaro Takahashi, Saori Yuki full cast
Genre(s): Musicals
Rated: PG
Duration: 111 mins
UK Release: Jun 30 2006
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