Kamikaze Girls (2004) User Reviews

Clever, Unique and Charming Movie with a Misleading American Title

[jmaruyama · 8/10 · 5 February 2006]

Nakashima Tetsuya's wonderful "Shimotsuma Monogatari" (Shimotsuma Story) is quite a unique and charming film. I had my doubts at first but the film turned out to be a refreshing surprise. Mixing anime, quirky narrative, inventive storytelling, outrageous comedy and Japanese Pop Culture charm this movie is a really endearing movie.

Stylistically, as others have noted, it does recall movies like "Trainspotting" and "Run, Lola, Run" but I think "Shimotsuma Monogatari" is much closer in style to Yaguchi Shinobu's "Swing Girls" and "Waterboys", both of which are also really wonderful.

J-Pop singer/actress Fukuda Kyoko is infectiously cute as Momoko, the "Lolita" fashion obsessed girl with a naive yet surprising take on life. Her French 17th Century (Rocco) styled fashions are at times oddball and avant-garde and yet surprisingly cool looking that it's little wonder why American Pop Singer Gwen Stefani has drawn inspiration from this fashion trend for her L.A.M.B. fashion line and to dress her Harajuku Girls.

Anna Tsuchiya is also a wonderful surprise as Ichiko/Ichigo, the tough talking "Yanki" Sukeban with a heart of gold. She has most of the best lines in the movie and is also quite a cutie (behind the Sukeban makeup).

The only criticism I have for the film is the stupid American title "Kamikaze Girls". It really doesn't do justice to the film at all and is a real turnoff as it brings to mind a "Yakuza" film or perhaps a war picture in a stereotyping tongue-and-cheek way. Why not just call it simply "Momoko and Ichigo" (i.e. Peaches and Strawberry) or some other title that is a bit more relevant.

Other than that this film is a pure joy and delight and a welcomed change to Japanese cinema.

Comes on like a Japanese Ghostworld only 10 times more outrageous !!!

[theNomadz · 8/10 · 20 December 2004]

Watched this gem of a film just a week before xmas 2004,,,and mighty glad I did,,as apart from maybe Eternal Sunshine and 2046 nothing really as stood out in 2004 for me.

I'm not saying this film's perfect it does go way too dreamy and slips a lot into teen angst a little too much,but for a hugely entertaining wild ride you gotta see it as nothing for along time comes close to this on the fun scale.

Included are show stopping camera angles/tricks and odd moments of surreal nonsense all wrapped around story of a pair of female teens (Kyôko Fukada & Anna Tsuchiya who both look and act awesome) finding their own individual identities,add some great gags on modern life's consumerism and you've got a sure fire cult maybe even worldwide hit on your hands.I can hear teen girls ripping their posters of N-Sync and Westlife down from their walls and putting up Momoko & Ichigo one's.All in all hugely recommend to fans of Japanese culture i'd give this a super fun 8 maybe adding an half for the fun anime sections...

reminiscent of the young girls on the bridge at Harajaku, Tokyo

[christopher-underwood · 8/10 · 27 February 2009]

Wonderful, colourful and amusing tale of two young girls whose personalities clash in the country of culture clashes. Anna Tsuchiya who played the prostitute in Sakuran, here plays a cool and very crazy bike girl from a gang of 'yanki's' and the cutie doll faced, Kyoko Fukada plays the frilly dress wearer, reminiscent of the young girls on the bridge at Harajaku, Tokyo.

This non-stop extravaganza takes in teenage angst, the clash between the traditional and the western styles, the passion for costume, the need or not of friends and so much more. And all in such a bright and infectious manner. A joy for all.

Lolita and Japanese moped gang fans

[whatdoes1know · 29 August 2004]

The story is about a girl who goes to Tokyo to buy her Lolita clothes, and the moped gangster girl she very unwillingly befriends. This movie is funny cute and sexy. Laughed a ton, and then got misty eyed too. A great Thelma and Louise kinda female bonding movie. Haven't seem T&L though, so don't take my word for it. The camerawork and cinematography, wait, the entire storytelling is funky and pop, but it's such a good story. Glad to have caught the last showing. The climax is surreal. But so is everything else. it's a movie driven on fashion, but the plot is knit tightly :) And still I wouldn't care, these two girls are both incredible. Very hot, very hot. A classic for Japanese pop culture conoisseurs. A decent story for all others.

Original, Surreal, but too Related to the Japanese Sub-Culture for Youths

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 29 December 2013]

Momoko Ryugasaki (Kyôko Fukada) is the daughter of a smalltime gangster (Hiroyuki Miyasako) that forges Versace brand and a lowlife woman. Momoko is smitten by the Rococo period and dresses in a Lolita style, with frilly dresses and embroidery bonnet. She is raised by her father since her mother divorced him to marry her gynecologist, and he has taught her how to perfectly embroider.

When Mr. Ryugasaki includes the Universal Studios brand in his products, he is forced to move to the rural Shimotsuma with Momoko to live in the house of her grandmother. Momoko decides to sell her collection of forged Versace and Universal Studios to make money to buy her expensive clothing. The rebel "yanki" Ichigo Shirayuri (Anna Tsuchiya) visits Momoko to buy clothes and soon they begin the most unlikely friendship.

"Shimotsuma monogatari", a.k.a. "Kamikaze Girls" is an absolutely original and surreal movie. The definition of department stores and groups in the Japanese pop culture is awesome. Unfortunately I found this movie too related to the Japanese sub-culture for youths, very different from the Western one, and I did not enjoy as much as I expected. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Effervescently vivid direction makes magic out of a simple story

[LARSONRD · 9/10 · 21 February 2006]

A completely enchanting and engrossing comedy-drama about two 17 year old girls, vastly different from each other (one a self-absorbed dreamer with a love for Rococco period fashion and behavior; the other a rebellious biker chick), who become friends and change each other's lives. The film makes the most of this simple plot line, and it's the compelling personalities of the characters, beautifully overplayed by Kyoko Fukada and Anna Tsuchiya, respectively. The film is told through a color-saturated visualization and stylish direction by Tetsuya Nakashima, who adopts a manic style not unlike that of Jean-Pierre Jeunet in AMELIA or Tom Twyker in RUN LOLA RUN, with jump-cut flashbacks, bizarre cut-aways and edits; the effervescent vitality of Nakashima's direction coupled with the performances of the lead and supporting cast really make this film a fascinating and repeatedly watchable experience. Also of note is a terrific score, which varies from J-Pop to American hard rock and punk, to classical (one fight scene is set to Strauss' Blue Danube) and really sets the film's aural tone and pacing; Yoko Kanno (MEMORIES, ESCALFLOWNE, GHOST IN THE SHELL: STANDALONE COMPLEX, and Nakashima's previous SUMMER TALE) is responsible for the underscore and several of the songs.

charmingly funny

[Supergrass · 7/10 · 8 July 2005]

This is one of the better Japanese films i've seen recently. Kyoko Fukada perfectly embodies a 'lolita-heidi of the alps' shibuya gal who lives in her own delirious world of baroque Europe. Anna Tsuchiya is OK as her butch sidekick who rides beat-up vespas.

Rapid-fire, color saturated scenes are spliced with cartoon sequences - leaving a syrupy sweet depiction of some of the Harajuku/Yoyogi park girls in japan.

If you've been yearning for a near mindless, yet amusing look at Japanese female counterculture with the editing, cinematography, and style of Trainspotting (sans drug use) and Run Lola Run, this might be your cup of tea.

Amelie meets Thelma & Louise meets Excel Saga

[blindg · 9/10 · 25 December 2004]

Simply absurd, imaginative, unreal. A naive Kyoko Fukada in Lolita shape, fan of embroidery and Rococò and its fabulous lacy dresses , meets a bad-to-the-bone female thug that will change her life. The story is the quintessence of pop culture's exaltation, a movie so coloured that makes Cutie Honey a faded charcoal, a demential opera as much as Excel Saga, a reflection on the true importance of friends and dears.

Kyoko Fukada's acting is perfect, she makes what she does better: an ingenuous little girl. Anna Tsuchiya is a very talented actress, can't wait to see her on the new Katsushito Ishii..

Unfamiliar imagery, yet hilarious.

[oktjabr · 6/10 · 25 September 2005]

Kamikaze girls - while its western genre might not be one of my favourites - is an exceedingly refreshing film. This was perhaps even multiplied by fact that it was among the last films I saw on a film festival that mainly featured films with dark, sad and/or violent stories.

While some greater details vanished due me not understanding the Japanese (teen) culture and especially because the translation was occasionally lacking (probably because there was too much stuff to cram into subtitles), the overall mood was efficiently conveyed and I felt myself immersed into the strange (and obviously vastly exaggerated) Japanese teen film.

The basic story wasn't really that special, but this was compensated with excellent acting and photography. While perhaps not an artistic masterpiece, it was definitely an excellent piece of entertainment and more than surpassed its western counterparts in the field of comedy.

Shimotsuma Fairy Tale - A coming of age tale

[Oskado · 9/10 · 22 January 2006]

This a well-done girls' coming-of-age tale, like a Japanese 21st-century Alice in Wonderland - one Lewis Carroll would probably have liked. And I presume whoever gave the Kamikaze Girls title to the American edition would have titled the Alice work Kamikaze Alice. The underlying themes are independent thinking, the value of friendship, and the need to pursue one's creative impulses while critically evaluating surrounding people and opportunities.

Most the adult figures in the film are - in one way or another - failures. Though seen in an exaggerated, humorous, or empathetic light, they serve as guideposts to the two girls who come to realize that salvation (or "sallvation" as Ichigo misspells it for emphasis) lies not in following the crowd, not in seeking leaders' approval, but in following one's own dreams - as much as they can be realized in this limited, 3-dimensional, mortal world.

Early in the film, I feared it was headed to be too sweet, especially with the main characters being Momoko (Peaches) and Ichigo (Strawberries). But this sweetness is quickly counterbalanced with the challenges and adventures they face.

This is a fun and very unique film, good for people of all ages. In ways, it's set in a society that seems closer to the U.S. of the 1950's - around the "beat" and the James Dean eras, when youth could be wild without police being called, and yet neighborhoods could leave front doors unlocked without fear and kids could even hitch-hike - an age of greater homogeneity when America had some cultural unity and - with exception of its black-white scar - was not afraid of itself.

I obtained this film, by the way, in VCD format (not the best, but adequate), I believe, from HKFlix. I couldn't find it anywhere in DVD format.

lolita and the yankee

[LunarPoise · 7/10 · 31 July 2011]

Momoko lives for the designs of the Rococco period, more commonly known as 'the Lolita look' in Japan. Her washed-up chinpira Dad, estranged Mum, and eccentric Gran, added to her fashion sense and inaka existence, make for a lonely, isolated life. And that's just the way she likes it. Unfortunately, change is thrust upon her by the arrival of bike-gang thug Ichigo, brash and violent, and an unlikely friendship is formed.

An incongruous female pairing of cutesy twee and ballsy loudmouth has been seen before in 'Nana', but director Testuya Nakashima gives it more verve here. The fast-cutting, schlock violence, and 'big' acting would all gel better in Memories of Matsuko, but their fledgling outing here makes for an amusing, if slightly overlong tale. Anna Tsuchiya is a real talent, displaying a range and maturity here that is the envy of her peers. Nakashima cleverly harnesses that range and ability to an actress who could not be more of a contrast. Fukuda's doe-eyed vacuity signals her limitations, but Nakashima plays to her persona here, letting her do nothing in a role where less is more. Momoko is shallow and thoughtless, and Fukuda nails the role to the floor.

The bizarre English title of Kamikaze Girls suggests someone at the international distributors needs a kick up the behind. This is a fun tale of a teenage odd couple sharing a right of passage. It is well written, acted and edited, and entertains for great stretches.

Sukeban vs. Kawaii

[the_diceman · 8/10 · 22 March 2007]

Maybe the one and only movie with a theme about Embroidery, that still can be considered "cool". Kyoko Fukada as cute Lolita-look Aficionado and Anna Tsuchia in a tough Biker-Gang Wardrobe make up a most strange, yet sympathetic pair of friends. Makes you laugh, makes you feel warm, yeah, even nostalgic. "Kamikaze Girls" is the archetypal essence of Manga-Culture come alive, pure J-Pop Fanservice in psychedelic, overbidding videoclip visuals (including one hysterical Anime story sequence), and one of those rare movies, where you don't ever want to see the credits. Also features a great entrance by my favorite Pin-up Idol Eiko Koike.

Tries Desperately to be a Japanese "Amiele"!

[Faisal_Flamingo · 6/10 · 21 November 2006]

This movie starts very good and reaches a point where it starts to go downhill until it becomes only an OK "pretty" picture to watch .. I don't know why I felt that ?? is just trying to be a Japanese "Amiele".

At least "Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain" puts you at ease .. this movie uses the same cinematography technique but in a very annoying way.

Don't get me wrong .. I'm not saying it is a bad movie .. it is just an OK watch-able movie.

Anna Tsuchiya was unconvincing sometimes .. and her character is too innocent in the other hand, Kyôko Fukada was overreacting Director Tetsuya Nakashima has done a good job .. especially with the visual effects.

Great flashy beginning but story soon runs out of steam

[EHrmns · 4/10 · 24 May 2010]

The opening of this movie certainly impresses, using different media and a riot of colours. The story also seems off-beat with a gangster world mixed with fairy tales. However after about 20 minutes the movie settles for a more linear approach and all the jokes and quirkiness disappear. The problem is that the story itself is pretty boring: biker chick wants to find herself with the aid of rococo girl. Most acting is 1 dimensional in this sometimes surreal world.

I just wish directors like this would distribute all the gimmicks throughout the length of the movie and also to keep the story interesting, I just didn't care for the characters. A lost opportunity.

There should be enough to give people a feeling of a little something different and have them leaving the theatre feeling relaxed and happy

[harry_tk_yung · 11 June 2005]

Despite its glossy packaging, I find Kamikaze Girls to be surprisingly mainstream, neither very surreal nor very cult. Rather, there's plenty of "been there", "done that" feeling. That is not to say that this is not a good movie. Quite on the contrary, KG is tastefully enjoyable.

Strip away the slightly exaggerated camera work and montages here and there, KG is in its root a human story. In this particular movie, it's a story of bonding of friendship of two girls not unlike what we see in "Baunsu ko gaurusu" (Bounce ko gals) (1997) which however has three protagonists instead.

Quite special, but certainly not original, are the reversed roles of the two girls from their outward appearance. Momoko (Fukada Kyoko), timid and fragile on the surface, is the tough one who, after surviving a parental divorce at 6, has grown to be completely self-sufficient emotionally, needing and having no friends at all. Ichigo (Tsuchiya Anna), the wild and reckless biker, is in dire need of a true friend although she is a member of a girl motorcycle gang. The friendship that starts and grows between the two is mildly bumpy, and at times quite touching without contrivance.

Although the story telling is not entirely conventional, there is nothing absolutely outrageous. For example, Momoko's earlier "flying" scenes are later explained as her own imagination. The initial collision, followed by flashback narrations, plays a little trick on the audience (but not as big as the one in "The Upside of Anger"). The movie moves along without a lot of real "happenings" but plenty of amusing anecdotes. There is a very conventional climax and heroic rescue.

All told, there should be enough in this movie to give people a feeling of a little something different and have them leaving the theatre feeling relaxed and happy.

So Very Surreal

[i_have_mental_health_iss · 9/10 · 3 June 2005]

This movie was so very surreal. That is the only word that I could use to describe it.

The contrasting personalities of the two girls was a nice element. It set up a lot of conflict. The physical humor was what made me laugh the most, and was strongly represented through Ichigo. The surreal, dreamy humor was represented mostly through Momoko.

Many people would find Momoko's fashions absurd, but, in fact, this movie is filled with absurdity, from the hairstyles of some characters to their behavior. It is like anime come alive, with only enough of an emphasis on reality to keep the story grounded.

I loved it, and I am going to watch it again many times.

A view into the Gothic Lolita Japanese movement

[ggravier · 7/10 · 31 January 2007]

It's a Japanese movie. You may find the acting a bit caricatural or extreme, but I guess this is due to the history of Noh theater strongly present in Japaneses culture. Past this possible barrier, the movie itself is entertaining. The two main characters are played deliciously by remarkable actresses (again, considering that they are acting in the Japanese style).

The movie immerses you into the Gothic Lolita culture, as the heroin is the typical representative of that movement. Lots of insights into the whys and hows of that culture. There is also a fun vision of the Japanese punk subculture, represented by the Yankis.

It's a comedy, so you laugh or smile a lot. But the above mentioned aspects also make it a very interesting movie.

I'll watch it again. More than a few times.

Crazy fun

[paul2001sw-1 · 8/10 · 17 January 2010]

'Kamikaze Girls' is adapted from a comic book; it contains some short animated scenes, but in fact the entire movie is made in a comic-book style, even when it employs real actors, with exaggerated physics and characterisation. It's unlikely story pairs a girl who dresses in rococo outfits with a tough biker chick (the supporting cast includes a man with a four-foot quiff); for those who aren't Japanese, it may come as a shock to learn, however, that the boutique rococo retailer that features in the film is actually a piece of product placement - it really exists, and there's some popularity to this bizarre style of dress. The film zips along, and there are some nice humorous touches, although it never feels deeper than a comic. But the tone is right for the material - and it's infinitely preferable to countless Hollywood comic adaptations that futilely try to tell us there's something profound in the their stories.

Very cute and very funny

[Tweekums · 9/10 · 17 December 2009]

Having recently enjoyed director Tetsuya Nakashima's "Memories of Matsuko" I was keen to see "Kamikaze Girls" so I was pleased when it was television so soon after the the other film. I was not disappointed as it was a delight from start to finish... even if the opening scene did suggest the ending would not be too happy.

The film opens with Momoko, a girl in a frilly dress, being hit by another vehicle as she rides along on a scooter, as she flies through the air expecting to die she says good bye to her friends and family before we go back in time to find out just how she came to be there. Young Momoko's father is a fairly incompetent member of the Yakuza who makes a living selling fake designer goods until he annoys the wrong people and has to leave town and live in the countryside. In order to make money to pay for the Rococo clothing she loves so much Momoko places an advert in a magazine to sell her father's remaining stock. The advert is answered by Ichigo, a biker girl who is the opposite of everything Momoko is; aggressive, violent and worst of all dressed in clothes from the local supermarket. Ichigo is most impressed with the goods Momoko is selling and is shocked by the low prices being charged. The two girls form an unlikely friendship which leads the two girls to places neither would have expected themselves to be.

Kyôko Fukada and Anna Tsuchiya are fantastic as Momoko and Ichigo bringing the viewer into their unfamiliar world. The director has creating a surreal world where the colours aren't quite natural and where flashbacks occur as psychedelic animations. The only negative comment I can make about this film is that the English subtitles on the version shown on the television weren't the easiest to read.

Best female coming of age movie every made.

[fetboy · 10/10 · 4 October 2006]

Just when I was about to give up on Japanese cinema ever producing anything good, other than a Techno-Horror, I ran across this gem at the video story.

American audiences may think that Momoko and Ichigo are extreme examples of Japanese girls, when in fact they are actually well developed profiles of 2 of Japan's most prolific subcultures. In Japan the bike riding Yankis are everywhere (and typically the women quit the gangs after getting knocked up, an example of which the actress Anna Tsuchiya followed), and the Momoko (The lolitas, but I always referred girls like her as "Raggedy Anns on crack") like styled girls can be find shops for their clothing all over Shibuya and Harajiku (The "Baby; The Stars Shine Bright" is an actual label, but quite a few of the "Raggedy Anns on crack" make their own clothes just as Momoko did).

To me the Momoko and Ichigo characters were like so many Japanese girls I have met, and the ordeals that they went through were like re-tellings of personal stories I had heard so many times before.

I loved this movie so much I had to buy it just so I will know I will always have it when my own Japanese-American daughter grows up, but this movie is a must see for anyone who wanted to know anything about Japan or wants to see a touching movie about 2 girls who come into their own.

Movies this insightful are rare, and this is the best "coming of age movie" for women I have ever seen in any language.

Mostly uninteresting spin through territory designed for specific audiences - it's no disaster but it's too lacking in anything in the long run to get excited about.

[johnnyboyz · 5/10 · 29 February 2012]

Kamikaze Girls has worn us down by its end, a film mostly devoid of any kind of stone-wall nor indeed nourishing substance, although scoring rather highly on the style content. We come away from it recalling the funky camera techniques; the colour scheme; the sporadic costumes and other things which are generally left to filmmakers whom we feel are in total control of their project and are doing what they're doing for very specific reasons, like the breaking of the fourth wall. In short, things in Kamikaze Girls do not hold together; a film I read has some sort of ground in Japanese Manga comics, of which I am unfamiliar, in spite of the fact the piece as a whole just felt very dialogue heavy to be more broadly linked to any kind of comic book. The film is, I think, a comedy; although there are very few laughs whereas the room it makes for itself to develop a heterosexual love affair between two people, place a homo-erotic tie under the microscope or indeed use a father-daughter relationship as the basis for predominant material are each sideswiped for the sorts of off kilter content one often finds infuriating when these sorts of projects just don't quite come off.

The film opens with a motorcycle accident. We've seen motorcycle accidents in films before, but not one which opens after a mock-comic book picture board of varying drawn frames as a lead character then narrates to us in slow-motion how she collided with a van carrying pineapples before hoping she'll be reincarnated in 18th Century France should she die. The as described manner about which the film goes depicting said opening ought to speak volumes. From here, a flashback to several months ago begins a host of superfluous tidbits attempting to establish where the lead is coming from. That lead is Momoko (Fukada), a young girl; a character, we feel, we would not otherwise had seen on the screen had 2001's Amelié not been the hit it was. She speaks of how she really wants to shop in Japan's capital, Tokyo, but can't and laments being stuck in the town that she is due to the tacky supermarkets which offer consumerist products and don't give provide her what she wants. Ho hum. Her parents are divorced, but this doesn't bother her; her father a sort of cash-cow to whom she goes to fund her image which she constructs around the desiring to look like a baby's doll of some kind.

It is her father's being caught selling clothes under the banner of fake labels which ends things here and sees Momoko pushed further afield to her grandmother's living of a quieter life away from shops and general bustle. Momoko sticks to the tried and tested enough to keep in the flow of things, and a biker gang inception as well as the bonding with a games arcade dwelling boy named Ryuji (Abe) sparks a love interest. Aside from anything else, the film is a depiction of a bond between lead Momoko and that of Ichigo (Tsuchiya), a would-be rough biker chick whose childhood was ridden with faults and who ended up in the clan of leather wearing, bike driving girls that she is. Momoko and Ichigo's tryst carries with it particular homo-erotic undertones, Momoko's on-off romance with Pachinko gambling Ryuji a sub-story there to mask what is ultimately a tale of two girls of such stark backgrounds coming together and realising that what they have to offer one another is more important that any sociological expectancy.

Principally, these two girls of such binary oppositions aid one another in ways neither of them envisage. Ichigo is a disillusioned young girl in need of someone frank and lateral in order to cheer her up. Similalry, Momoko has before glanced over her parents' divorce and needs an experience to have her realise how much it ought to have affected her; this exposure to a grittier way of living away from the frilly and carefree nature of her old existence with someone who has been through similar childhood hardships the required tonic. It is a shame such a dynamic is often buried under the poorly choreographed aesthetic director Tetsuya Nakashima applies to the material, that of bouncy and frilly and just generally juvenile when adult subject matter is trying its hardest to burst out from underneath. Momoko quickly becomes tiresome as a lead, her episodic life as she darts from sewing for a living to casino loitering to becoming caught up in an impending biker gang war delivered to us in a fashion that has it too much to absorb without enough bare-boned substance to keep us interested. I read it began life as a book and has since had ties to the comic book world – I've no intension of catching up on either medium depicting what I saw here but I imagine all this colour and empty spectacle looks a lot better on the pulpy pages of a Manga novel or on the pieces of paper imbued within that of a book as words and sentences play out allowing its reader to use their imagination to bring to life what's being described. Nakashima brings those words to life here in this film, but they are visual incarnations few should find particularly interesting.

Baby, Stars Shine Bright

[Mappyman · 9/10 · 11 January 2006]

A Very cute story of two 17 yr olds, both which are completely different from one another, joined by a strange chain of events. The main girl Momoko is comparable to Lizzie McGuire. Cutesy, delicate, and lives like shes a princess in the 1700s. Her father made a living selling generic clothes with multiple expensive name brand labels and winds up getting caught and kicked out to the country with her grandmother. The second girl, comparable to Avril Laviene, a dirtied-up biker gang member finds out about her clothes and even though she cant stand her style, ridicules her, and even head-butts Momoko around, shes helplessly drawn to this little girl. Together they're on a hunt to find an ex-gang member who can sew Ichigos perfect uniform for her gang member's wedding.

I loved the movie's fast pace! It was very reminiscent to that of Japanese movie Survive Style 5 and kind of resemblant to Run Lola Run. There's a few segments that are drawn anime style to show past events even quicker and more violent. Its very funny how fast paced the movie runs sometimes but there's slow moments as well that tell the story. The entire movie plays out like a perfectly drawn girls manga, with insanely exaggerated characters, even more crazy outfits, and one male character in particular, 5 foot greaser haircut! Its well worth watching for any anime/manga fan! The music composed by Yoko Kanno fits very well into this movie and has fast and slow paced music for all of the scenes.

Its a girl flick at heart but definitely one to see if you're into anime and manga. Very nice surprise ending as well!

Sudden Happiness Has Indeed Made Me a Coward

[tedg · 18 September 2007]

Teens are cinematic, both ways. They take their identities from the patterns they see. So it is very easy to show or reference those identities in film. Plus, kids think in simple arcs, and that helps the mapping of image to idea. Its almost too easy to make a movie that is about how kids hew to stylistic exclusivity and ironically make the film obsessed with the very same stylishness.

That's what this one is. This time around it is teen girls, and we're given the two poles: one girl is a frilly girlie candypop and the other is a spitting, scowling James Dean derivative in a "motorcycle" gang. Both are fantastic exaggerations and that exaggeration is most of the fun.

The story is all about the stories these girls tell themselves, and incidentally to each other. At the end, we get a rather nicely wrapped bit about explicit fiction. Along the way, we get three stories about clothes, symbols on clothes and validity. The world we see is as magically abstract as their fantasies of it.

What's rather interesting here is how sex is excluded, exorcised from the equation. Oh, its referenced and bound with love, but only as the escape from style. The second act is weak. Stick with it.

To enhance the experience, I saw this with a DVD of a Suicide Girls "Tour." This business about the hardening of femininity is pretty profound.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

a truly fine example of what cinema can be

[lastcathar · 10/10 · 1 January 2012]

Kamikaze Girls uses the Japanese fascination with all things Rock and Roll as an ideal framework for its utterly fun tale of opposites coming together. The saturated colors used throughout the film work well—as the technique did also in Amelie—to lend a sense of magic to every scene. It is refreshing to see such cinematic energy—American cinema is often bogged down by its addiction to size, resulting in season after season of movies like beached whales. Kamikaze Girls is, in comparison, like watching dolphins play. And many of them are worth keeping an eye on. Anna Tsuchiya's performance as the complex Ichigo is absolutely electric—she can be over-the-top and subtle in the same breath. It is hard to imagine a film that could fully utilize Sadao Abe's remarkable physical talent—but I hope to see it when it happens. The film is about being what you want to be… and it gets a 10 from me because it does exactly that.

Charming and quirky

[gbill-74877 · 8/10 · 10 September 2022]

"Humans are cowards in the face of happiness. It takes courage to hold on to happiness."

The story of a couple of 17-year-old girls who couldn't be more different, charmingly played by Fukuda Kyoko and Anna Tsuchiya, and told in dazzling variety of styles by Tetsuya Nakashima.

Momoko ("Peaches") wishes she had been born in the Rococo period of 18th century France, and wears an adorable array of frilly clothes throughout the movie. She shops at Baby, The Stars Shine Bright (an actual store), is reading up on how to be a Lolita, and is very handy at embroidery.

Ichiko (or really Ichigo, "Strawberry") is a tough biker girl, a yanki (counterculture delinquent) who shows up one day to buy some brand-name knockoff clothing that Momoko's father produced (some of which humorously feature two brands that have nothing to do with one another). She normally shops at Jusco (also a real store, known for cheap, bland clothes), and has a tendency to spit or dole out a headbutt when annoyed by someone. She works in a garage.

Ironically, it's Momoko who is more aloof about making friends with Ichiko, or anyone for that matter. "Humans are born alone," she says, "we think alone and die alone," a sentiment perhaps formed in the wake of her parents' divorce when she was 6. Meanwhile, Ichiko is warmer under her gruff exterior, and gets her heart broken when the guy she loves betrays her, a greaser type humorously wielding wild looks under a giant quiff (Sadao Abe, "the unicorn").

The film mixes themes of coming-of-age, finding friendship, poking fun at crass consumerism, and simply having fun with these wild subcultures in Japan. The pace and editing are brisk, and the quirky aesthetic make it a joy to watch.