Kamikaze Girls

Japanese Title: Shimotsuma Monogatari
Director: Tetsuya Nakashima
Actors: Kyoko Fukada, Anna Tsuchiya
Year Released: 2004
Genre: Comedy
See Also: Nana, 2LDK

Kamikaze Girls had been on my list of movies to see long before it was released in the US. The film was out when I was living in Japan in 2004 but I had no idea it was a movie—I thought the girls on the posters were manufactured singing stars. It seemed to fit: one of them was dressed as a gothic lolita, from a youth trend involving frilly rococo dresses and bonnets, and the other looked like some kind of juvenile delinquent with her snarling upper lip and black lipstick. I wasn't too off the mark. Both leads, Kyoko Fukada and Anna Tsuchiya, are pop stars, and now apparently actresses too.

Momoko (Fukada) is a lolita stuck out in Shimotsuma, a farming community some two hours outside of Tokyo. (The Japanese title of the film, Shimotsuma Monogatari, means "Shimotsuma Story." It makes sense that the title would be changed for Western audiences. Can you imagine a movie called Fresno Story playing well in Japan?) She's content in her own little fantasy world of sweet things and no friends until that world is invaded by Ichigo (Tsuchiya), a yanki with a chip on her shoulder the size of Shikoku. A yanki, by the way, is a biker, the name derived from the post war days when gangsters wore American ("yankee") shirts, or something like that. They're one level below yakuza—many "graduate" to yakuza status when they get old enough. Ichigo rides around on a souped-up scooter with a huge banner on the back like a samurai soldier, talks like a yakuza and likes to head-butt people, usually Momoko.

The director, Tetsuya Nakashima, made TV commercials before this, and it shows. The film rarely sits still long enough for you to register what's happening, throwing in as many pop-culture references as possible. Momoko sees herself on TV, as a cartoon—everything except in a mock music video, which may have been too close to home. There's even a nod to Kinji Fukasaku with a bit of the theme to Battles Without Honor and Humanity thrown in.

It has to be said that Kamikaze Girls was made for Japanese teenage girls. It is the story of an unlikely friendship, after all, and it's actually quite touching in an occasionally sappy way. But it's also manic, funny and surprisingly accurate in the youth subcultures it portrays. Kamikaze Girls even features the store Baby The Stars Shine Bright, the originator and still top designer of lolita clothing, in a major way. Perhaps that's because Novala Takemoto, the author of the book the film is based on, is himself a part-time lolita designer for Baby The Stars Shine Bright. So there you go.

—Adam Douglas

Otaku Alert: Eiko Koike, who plays the gang leader Akimi, also appeared in 2LDK, but she's best known in Japan as a bikini model. An extremely busty bikini model.

Comments

[Novala Takemoto @ Pacific Media Expo]

FYI if you liked this movie.

Novala Takemoto is coming to Pacific Media Expo in Los Angeles during Halloween weekend.

Mike