Kamikaze Girls 下妻物語 by Nakashima Tetsuya (2004)
8 February 2008Wow. Let me say that again. Wow. This movie is complete insanity and so much fun it is ridiculous. Just totally off the wall, and yet a great story of friendship as well, but told so stylishly it is just ridiculous. This is a must see, and my only complaint is that the US DVD is not anamorphically compressed, so the image looks only mediocre on my HDTV. And the costumes have to be seen to be believed, they look straight out of fruits.
The movie starts with a Japanese High School student Ryugasaki Momoko (Fukada Kyoko) who is a Lilita girl, or as she say it a Roccoco girl, who dresses in insane frilly clothes, that she spends all of her money (well her father’s money) on. She is riding a scooter, and crashes into a truck, and is thrown through the air, and then cuts back to tell her story and why is rushing to meet her friend Shirayuri Ichigo “Ichiko” (Tsuchiya Anna) who is a Tanki or bad ass biker girl. First we get Momoko’s story, how her father was a low level Yakuza (Miyasako Hiroyuki) who met her mother (Shinohara Ryoko) at a club and had Momoko, but was already cheating with the obstetrician. The Father sold fake clothes, and they got so popular that he had to go on the lam, and his wife had already left in, with Momoko’s strange acquiescence. They moved the the country with his mother. Momoko has no friends, but is happy with it, and just always dressing her way, and going to her favorite story in Tokyo, but then she tries to make some money by selling her dad’s fake clothes an that brings the crazy Yanki girl Ichigo, who starts sticking around.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Momoko doesn’t want the Yanki girl hanging around, but though she acts tough, she seems lonely and enlists Momoko in a quest to get a famous embroiderer to embroider her gang outfit because her mentor is retiring and getting married. The two end up going to panchinko parlors and Momoko wins like crazy, and they get bullied, but a guy named Dame Oyaji (also Miyasako Hiroyuki) helps them and steals Ichigo’s heart. Eventually though Momoko uses her skills to make the embroidery.
Eventually though Momoko gets hired by her favorite designer to embroider, and though she finishes, when it is due Ichigo is being challenged by the new bike gang leader, so Momoko goes to help her one and only friend, and that is when she gets hit by the car, but her friendship helps her, and she keeps on going and shows up to the gang fight. There she loses it and pretends to be the daughter of a legendary gang leader, and the two kick some ass, and go out together as friends. And Momoko becomes a part time designer, and Ichigo goes out on her own, and their legend grows.
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Ridiculous fun, with animated scenes, and the most ridiculous modified scooters and clothing I have ever seen. And it is also a great story of friendship. Well worth checking out.
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