Kamikaze Girls

A film about a friendship set in the Japanese countryside. Momoko lives in a small town called Shimotsuma. She considers herself to belong to eighteenth-century France; she keeps up the style of dress called Lolita, wears lace and frills and looks down on everyone in the town. Her father sells counterfeit branded clothes. To clear his stock she places an advertisement, and one person answers it: Ichiko, who belongs to a girls' motorcycle gang. Short hair, an embroidered jacket, spitting as she talks. The two are nothing alike, and that is exactly why they start spending time together. Ichiko has a problem with her gang and the only thing Momoko can do is embroidery. The form is fast: the narrative keeps stopping, turning back, cutting to pieces of animation, and a narrator breaks in to explain. The source is Novala Takemoto's novel. Kyoko Fukada plays Momoko and Anna Tsuchiya plays Ichiko. Tetsuya Nakashima directed; he went on to much darker films, and this one shows his colourful side. A lively production for anyone who likes Japanese subcultures and formal play. For a viewer expecting a calm narrative, the film shouts constantly and never stops.