Bounce Ko Gals (Japan, 1997)
Directed by: Masato Harada

Starring: Hitomi Sato, Yasue Sato, Yukiko Okamoto, Koji Yakusho


Japanese filmmakers understand the teenage wasteland the way most of us haven¹t since we were 16, and director Masato Harada wears his heart on his sleeve in this flick about kogyaru: schoolgirl hookers who sell their underwear and their bodies for spending money. This is the sex craze that inspired those infamous vending machines that dismissed soiled schoolgirl panties, and it¹s those machines that inspired Harada to make the film. “It made me so depressed that men of my age had become that rotten,” says Harada.  And a movie was born. 



Lisa, on her way to New York and looking for easy money, sells her school uniform during her Tokyo layover and gets scammed out of her savings at a balloon porno shoot (don¹t ask). With 24 hours to earn back her nest egg, she hits the streets where she¹s taken under the wings of two kogyaru who regard her plight as a challenge. Streaking through the neon-scorched Shibuya summer night, ripping off customers and wielding a stun gun like a magic wand, they go all the way through the darkness hoping to come out on the other side. Along the way, an assortment of strange angels provide moments of respite, while a larger army of human demons chase their tails. 



Made in 1997, the movie has never been shown in New York City and is a personal favorite of every member of Subway Cinema. Existing in a strange state of grace, this movie is the best film about friendship ever made, but it never puts on rose colored glasses. As Harada says, “I left a notebook in a cinema where viewers could write their opinions about the film. One kogyaru wrote that I had said everything that she wanted to say but couldn't. Then she left her telephone number.”