The Stratosphere Girl

REVIEW
Those who need their films to neatly resolve in order to enjoy them can think of Stratosphere Girl as a good starter course in the appreciation of those that don’t. Or they can watch it for the beautiful and stylish cinematic presentation of Tokyo sans a depressingly serious Bill Murray doing a poor man’s Humbert Humbert. Or, while making their best effort to forget the band Ah-Ha’s ubiquitous, ridiculous video for “Take on Me”, they can follow along with the graphic novel style parallel story drawn by the stunning Dutch star of the movie: Angela.

It’s not enough that she’s hot and blonde and just out of High School and meets a cute Japanese guy and can draw really well and has an immense imagination. No, Angela is bored with all this so, with the help of the boyfriend, she moves to Tokyo to become a “bar hostess” in an upscale brothel type thing that caters to wealthy Japanese men. She begins rooming with a group of competitive, cut-throat co-workers who immediately begin to make moves against her as her youth and beauty pose a serious threat to their livelihoods. Rumors swirl around the mysterious disappearance and, perhaps, murder of the last roommate who these girls took on. Angela begins to look into the events surrounding the story and puts them to paper. But is she recording facets of the mystery or creating them?

Evil European businessmen, ruthless Japanese gangsters and the odd hint of prostitute party sex round the story out nicely so that just when we think we’re moving in a straight line to the obvious conclusion, the illustrated world that Angela has been creating calls our perception into question. We’re left with multiple outcomes and no way of knowing which one, or if any, or if all is the way the story actually happened. Don’t let the idyllic end scene frustrate you if you are one of the aforementioned needers of cinematic resolution. Just think of it as getting more than one movie for your money.