Kamikaze Girls tells the story of Momoko -- a Japanese teenager who lives in a tiny rural town some three hours away from Tokyo, who has an obsession with the Roccoco.
The basic story is one that any teenager growing up in the provinces can identify with. The locals are nice enough, but they all shop in the local Mega-Mart which sells everything. Momoko aspires to something rather more for herself, and so she buys her Lolicon outfits at a Tokyo designer store, The Stars Shine Bright. Oh sure, that stuff is expensive, but she's been making a few thousand yen on the side, selling her Yakuza father's counterfeit Versacci clothing. The Versacci/Universal Studio line in t-shirts is a particularly big seller.
Momoko has always been a somewhat isolated girl until she finds herself getting hooked up with Ichigo, an adherent of the Yanqi subculture who is a member of a motorscooter girl gang. Although the two appear to have nothing much in common, over time, they develop an intense loyalty to each other.
This movie had been sitting around on my hard drive for several years before I finally got around to watching it and now I'm kicking myself for waiting as long as I did. The director, Tetsuya Nakashima, has a couple of other great movies under his belt, Memories of Matsuko, which I've seen and can highly recommend, and Lalopipo, which I haven't yet watched but which also gets great notices.
Kamikaze Girls blends elements of surrealism, punk, youth subculture and the Japanese pink eiga tradition -- particularly the girl gang subset -- to turn out a movie that is engaging and unique. I really can't recommend this one highly enough. If you've got any interest at all in contemporary Japanese cinema, this movie is one that you really shouldn't miss.
Four stars.
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