Summary
An odd little premise that never quite gets up off the ground, but like the titular character, quietly sneaks up behind you and works its way into your conscience.
Not to be confused with the Ippei Endo film of the same name, director Yu Irie’s outing is a much quieter film. Despite the low-key facade, it deals with a the massive issues of xenophobia and local government corruption. Sounds like a job for NINJA GIRL (シュシュシュの娘).
The titular girl is Miu Komaru (Saki Fukuda), who lives in a small town on the fringes of Fukuya City in Saitama. Despite working for the council organisation that is introducing a new anti-immigration bill, she is an outcast due to her bedridden grandfather Goro (Shôhei Uno) vehemently opposing the proposed legislation. Only Miu’s coworker Koji Mano (Arata Iura), who went to school with Miu’s dad, is able to get close to the cantankerous Goro (Shôhei Uno).
Yet when Mano suddenly kills himself following a visit with Goro, implying a cover-up at work, Miu’s grandfather reveals their family secret: they come from a long line of ninja. Tasked with uncovering some incriminating files that Mano has secreted away, Miu embraces her legacy — and her innate skills of being very quiet and blowing darts.
Irie has come a long way since his early erotica, not least of which is the Memoirs of a Murderer remake. There is nothing so overtly dramatic in NINJA GIRL, a film which decidedly marches to its own beat. While no shurikens are thrown, Irie’s film lives up to the title through Miu’s black cloth outfit and a penchant for sneaking up on her ‘targets.’ (They are primarily the green-jacketed xenophobes who are ostensibly promoting the new bill, but also violently target business owners for hiring foreign employees).
Fukada embodies this downbeat vibe, reacting her way through a series of seemingly random encounters that sort of all lead to Rome in the end. When she’s not skulking about and listening to conversations, she’s having random boogie breaks and trysts in the back of a van with her co-worker. Despite rarely moving from his bed, Shôhei Uno (recognisable from countless series) plays a character who is a surprisingly dab hand at computers.
NINJA GIRL may not have anything revolutionary to say about the issues it tackles in its brief running time, but it does at least peel back a few layers on small town racism and government corruption in a lighthearted way. The chaotic ending is a barrel of fun as well, with the film living up to the title and giving our diminutive hero a minor victory.
2021 | Japan | DIRECTOR: Yu Irie | WRITERS: Yu Irie | CAST: Saki Fukuda, Mutsuo Yoshioka, Ryoka Neya, Shohei Uno, Arata Iura | DISTRIBUTOR: NYAFF 2021 | RUNNING TIME: 88 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 6-22 August 2021 (NYAFF 2021)
