Princess Raccoon

82-year-old wild child, director Seijun Suzuki, goes bananas with this love-or-hate-flick which takes off in a classic, Japanese folk tale, only to explode in an insane mix of opera, Noh, Disney, hip hop, arena rock, yakuzas, swordfights and musicals.From Castle Grace, the vain Lord Azuchi Momoyama (Mikijiro Hira) rules his kingdom, but when he learns that his son, Prince Amechiyo (Jo Odagiri, of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Bright Future) will become the most beautiful in the country, he banishes him. The prince ends up in a forest run by the Tanukis (an Asian animal that resembles a racoon), and stumbles upon their princess (played by Chinese megastar Zhang Ziyi). She possesses the ability to take the shape of either tanuki or human, and soon things get... well, “kinda crazy”.Princess Racoon is both silly and funny, stunning and original. You haven’t seen anything like it. The film is shot almost entirely on a soundstage, and has a theatrical quality to it; it explores music that streches from Brodway-esque songs to glam rock anthems; it makes fun of all kinds of religions; it is The Wizard of Oz as much as it is Romeo and Juliet. In short, you just have to see it to be able to grasp it.ELIN LARSSON

Premiärstatus
Nordisk premiär: Orig. titel
Operetta Tanuki Goten: Medverkande
Ziyi Zhang, Jô Odagiri, Mikijiro Hira: Producent
Katashima Ikki & Satoru Ogura; Nobuyuki Tohya(executive.prod), Seijun Suzuki (executive prod.): Manus
Yoshio Urasawa: Foto
Yonezo Maeda: Musik
Michiru Oshima & Ryomei Shirai: Talat språk
Japanese, Mandarin