Bounce KoGALS
バウンス ko GALS
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Kogal culture at its peak: schoolgirls monetise their uniforms and outsmart the men who buy.
On a Friday afternoon in Shibuya, schoolgirls in loose socks and bleached hair trade stories about their paid dates with older men. Maru, who has just had an abortion, picks up a man who turns out to be Oshima, a yakuza; angry that amateur schoolgirls are undercutting his prostitution business, he takes her phone and her ID. She runs to Jonko, the girls' hard-headed leader, who boasts that she never sleeps with her clients. Jonko goes to Oshima, lays out for him the whole economy of men who pay girls for their company, and wins Maru's things back by agreeing to give up the rough stuff: no more taking a man's money and running.
The same afternoon Lisa, just out of high school in Sendai, stops in Shibuya on her way to New York, where she means to study; her flight leaves the next day. To add to the 300,000 yen she saved over a year, she sells her underwear at a fetish shop run by Saki and takes a job at a video shoot of girls in school uniforms. The shoot is a set-up: thugs burst in and take all her savings. Sap, a street scout who has been following her, gets her out and is badly beaten for it. Raku, another girl from the shoot, asks Jonko for help, and Jonko, breaking her word to Oshima, spends the night taking Lisa on paid dates. She turns a stun gun on one man who wants sex; Lisa argues with an old professor who helped set up the army's 'comfort women' system in the war, which forced women into sex with soldiers, and still remembers it fondly; they rob a man who pays them to clean toilets.
The night turns. Maru tries to rob another man, who beats her so badly she loses an eye. Oshima's men catch Jonko and the others and bring them to him, at the hospital where Maru lies. He tells them the men who pay are the ones in the wrong, and gives Lisa part of the money back. Sap, bandaged, brings her the savings the thugs stole, and more. On a station platform Lisa says goodbye, and as her train pulls out, Jonko and Raku run after it in tears.
Starring
Hitomi Satoas Jonko
The hard-headed leader of the Shibuya schoolgirls, who takes men's money without sleeping with them.
Jonko’s story
When the yakuza Oshima takes Maru's phone and ID, Jonko walks into his bar and maps out for him the whole economy of men who pay schoolgirls. She takes their money without sex, sometimes their wallets too, sure they will be too embarrassed to go to the police; she wins Maru's things back by promising to give up the rough stuff. That night Raku, who had broken with her, asks her help for Lisa, a stranger robbed of her savings, and Jonko breaks her word to spend the night taking Lisa on paid dates. Oshima's men catch them and bring them to the hospital where Maru lies. Oshima rebukes her, then says it is the men who pay who are in the wrong. On the platform she runs after Lisa's train in tears.
Yasue Satoas Raku
A schoolgirl who meets Lisa at the rigged video shoot and asks Jonko to help her.
Raku’s story
Raku makes her money by passing clients on to her friends, and she has broken with Jonko, whose ways she does not like. At a video shoot of girls in school uniforms she meets Lisa, on her way to New York; when thugs burst in and take Lisa's savings, the two get away with Sap's help. Raku decides to help Lisa earn the money back before her flight. She calls Jonko and asks her, for Lisa's sake, to help, and sees Lisa off with her; later she joins them, and the three come through the night together. At the hospital she is badly shaken to find Maru brought in after a beating. Friends with Jonko again, she stands on the platform to say goodbye to Lisa and runs after her train in tears.
Yukiko Okamotoas Lisa
A girl just out of high school, on her way to study in New York, who is robbed of her savings in Shibuya.
Lisa’s story
Lisa has saved 300,000 yen over a year to study in New York, and the day before her flight she stops in Shibuya to add to it. She sells her underwear at Saki's fetish shop and takes a job at a video shoot, ignoring Sap, the scout who tries to stop her. The shoot is a set-up; thugs take her savings and nearly attack her, and Sap gets her out. With Raku and Jonko she spends the night on paid dates, and argues with an old professor who remembers fondly the wartime system that forced women into sex with soldiers. Rather than put off her flight to earn more, she decides to go with what she has. Sap, bandaged, brings back her savings and more, and from the departing train she murmurs her thanks.
Koji Yakushoas Oshima
A yakuza who sees the schoolgirls as competition for his prostitution business, and comes to respect Jonko.
Jun Murakamias Sap
A street scout who falls for Lisa, follows her through Shibuya and takes a beating to get her out.
Shin Yazawaas Maru
A schoolgirl who picks up the wrong man, a yakuza, and later tries to rob one man too many.
Why it matters
Bounce KoGALS was made when enjo kosai, schoolgirls paid by grown men for dates and sometimes sex, was sending shock waves through Japan and fascinating the foreign press, and Masato Harada shot it in Shibuya with the feel of a documentary. Its argument is spoken aloud by a yakuza, of all people: the men who pay are the ones in the wrong. The girls are clever, loyal to each other and frightened more often than they admit; the men range from pathetic to dangerous, and one old man looks back fondly on what the army did to women in the war. Critics outside Japan were divided over whether it was a clear-eyed portrait or a sentimental version of what it claimed to expose. Either way, one fact stands. These are minors, and nothing the men pay for is consent. The film's warmth is in the friendships, and that is where it places the girls' worth.