She's Just a Shadow (2019)

She’s Just a Shadow: Directed by Adam Sherman. With Tao Okamoto, Haruka Abe, Kihiro, Kentez Asaka. A beautiful Japanese madam and her ladies. A deranged, drug-addled Tokyo gangster and his crew. A sadistic serial killer on the loose. The intersection of these stories, and the interior world of the characters, plays out against a dreamlike backdrop of ultraviolence and orgiastic sex, as everyone tries futilely to rewrite their futures and cheat death. A modern, dreamlike take on the gangster genre, She’s Just a Shadow is the action-packed story of a matriarchal crime family engaged in a vicious gang war. A deranged killer is leaving his victims on railroad tracks all over Tokyo, and the only thing more dangerous than him is the vicious love triangle within the family itself.

“The story is a blend of traditional underground crime thriller exploration of sub-culture and more experimental risque imagery circling tropes such as sexploitation and torture porn. There is heavy influences that permeate the film, most notably Tarantino and Stahelski. The synopsis and my initial description make u0026quot;Sheu0026#39;s Just A Shadowu0026quot; seem like a very exciting film. And given the cinematography and set design for a lot of the scenes, this movie has some cool moments. But…there are several flaws here.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFirst off, the story moves so freely that there is a feeling of u0026quot;lack of cohesionu0026quot; that makes it hard for any of the major plot points to sink in. The foundation starts to feel weak. It is a gritty and interesting story, and the setting and subject matter are pulp fiction candy tropes. Unfortunately there seemed to be more focus creating moments of extreme sensationalized tableauxs, than creating solid story continuity. Again, there is some really cool stuff happening in u0026quot;Sheu0026#39;s Just A Shadowu0026quot;, unfortunately it all seems disjointed and more fitting to music videos and short film, arthouse pieces.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe acting is tight, the cast do a good job bring life to these characters, there just isnu0026#39;t enough written here for them to go on. Most of the characters are two-dimensional, weakly written u0026quot;shadowsu0026quot;. So much so that inorder to give them substance you really need to grab on to the filmu0026#39;s title, and near hallucinatory asthetics and hold on for dear life. Something that helps equally with watching this one is the celebratory over-the-top display of violence and gore. There is plenty of blood flowing in u0026quot;Sheu0026#39;s Just A Shadowu0026quot;. I just donu0026#39;t know if thereu0026#39;s enough going on here to satisfy most film fans.”