''Swallowtail Butterfly'' (スワロウテイル ''Suwarōteiru''), is a 1996 Japanese crime film directed by

Shunji Iwai is a Japanese film director, video artist, writer and documentary maker. Life and career Iwai was born in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. He attended Yokohama National University, graduating in 1987. In 1988 he started out in the Japanese entertainment ...

, starring Hiroshi Mikami, pop-singer Chara, and

Ayumi Ito is a Japanese actress from Tokyo, Japan. Career Ito played a supporting role in ''Tokyo!''. She also appeared in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2012 television drama ''Penance''. Filmography Film * ''Samurai Kids'' (1993) – Chizuko Kusubayashi * '' Swal ...

. The film was shot on hand-held cameras using

jump cut A jump cut is a cut in film editing in which a single continuous sequential shot of a subject is broken into two parts, with a piece of footage being removed in order to render the effect of jumping forward in time. Camera positions of the subje ...

s and other visual techniques. 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)", gained first place on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in ...

Weekly Singles Chart of October 7, 1996.

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 Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...

, legal and illegal, to work in the city. The immigrants give the city the nickname . The Japanese natives, however, despise the nickname, and in retribution call the immigrants by the homophone , anglicised as "Yentowns" in the film's English subtitles. The story centers around a sixteen-year-old girl (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 engaging in prostitution. Ageha does not participate in any of these activities, but is protected by Glico and the other immigrants. The film does not make clear whether Ageha is Japanese or an Asian immigrant. Eventually, due to a sudden twist of fate, the immigrants are given a chance to realize their various dreams. But in doing so, they destroy their solidarity, and have to face their problems separately.

Cast

* Hiroshi Mikami as Fei Hong * Chara as Glico *

as Ageha *

Yōsuke Eguchi is a Japanese actor and singer. Since 1986, he has appeared in a number of television series and movies. He is married to the singer-songwriter Chisato Moritaka (born 11 April 1969) is a Japanese pop singer who also is notable as a songwrit ...

as Ryo Ranki *

Andy Hui Andy Hui Chi-on (born 12 August 1967) is a Hong Kong singer and actor. Hui is considered one of the most successful Hong Kong singers, with an extensive list of Cantonese and Mandarin hits to his credit. Early life Hui's mother is Vietnamese ...

as Mao Fu * Atsuro Watabe as Ran *

Tomoko Yamaguchi is a Japanese actress, voice actress and singer from Tochigi. She is the lead actress for the classic dorama series Long Vacation, starring alongside Takuya Kimura. She has been married to Toshiaki Karasawa since 1995. Filmography Television ...

as Shen Mei *

Nene Otsuka is a Japanese actress. She starred in Masahiro Kobayashi's film '' Bashing'', which was screened in competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. Career Otuska has appeared in films such as Hirokazu Koreeda's '' I Wish'' and Yoshihiro Nakamur ...

as Reiko *

Kaori Momoi is a Japanese actress. Life and career Momoi was born in Tokyo, Japan. At the age of 12, she traveled to London to study dance at the Royal Ballet Academy. After 3 years, she returned to Tokyo. She graduated from Japan's Bungakuza School of D ...

as Suzukino *

Tadanobu Asano , better known by his stage name , is a Japanese actor. He is known for his roles as Dragon Eye Morrison in '' Electric Dragon 80.000 V'', Kakihara in '' Ichi the Killer'', Mamoru Arita in '' Bright Future'', Hattori Genosuke in ''Zatoichi'', Ke ...

as Customer in club

Awards

* 1997

Japanese Academy Awards The , often called the Japan Academy Prize, the Japan Academy Awards, and the Japanese Academy Awards, is a series of awards given annually since 1978 by the Japan Academy Film Prize Association (日本アカデミー賞協会, ''Nippon Akademii- ...

- Newcomer of the Year (Ayumi Ito) * 1997 Japanese Academy Awards - Most Popular Film * 1998

Fant-Asia Film Festival Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...

- 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 was a Japanese actor. He was born in Ushigome, Shinjuku, Tokyo. Starting at the Tsukiji Little Theater, Takizawa participated in a number of theatrical troupes before forming Gekidan Mingei with Jūkichi Uno. His was praised for his performan ...

) * 1997 Japanese Academy Awards - Best Supporting Actress (Ayumi Ito) * 1997

Moscow Film Festival The Moscow International Film Festival (russian: Моско́вский междунаро́дный кинофестива́ль, translit. ''Moskóvskiy myezhdunaródniy kinofyestivál''; abbreviated as MIFF) is the film festival first h ...

- Golden St. George Award

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Swallowtail Butterfly (Film) 1996 crime films 1996 films Dystopian films Films about immigration Films directed by Shunji Iwai Films produced by Kazutoshi Wadakura Japanese crime films 1990s Japanese-language films Mandarin-language films Yakuza films 1990s English-language films 1990s Japanese films