Kamikaze Girls
(Shimotsuma Monogatari)
103 minutes,
Japan (2004),
Average user rating 
(4.8 / 13 votes)
(4.8 / 13 votes)
Two very different Japanese girls, one a boyish biker, the other a fragile daydreamer become fast friends over their mutual love of fashion
Director:
Kamikaze Girls (Shimotsuma Monogatari) Review
Two very different Japanese girls, one a boyish biker, the other a fragile daydreamer become fast friends over their mutual love of fashion
A light and bright film about friendship, Kamikaze Girls is an endearing and unusual look at the lives behind the front of Japanese extreme fashion castes.
Momoko (Fukada) is a Rococo girl wearing elaborate frilly dresses and bonnets in the styles of 18th century Versailles. Rococo girls adopt the outlook of that time as they understand it, embracing hedonism, selfishness and vanity. Momoko floats around her family home in the countryside, only traveling in to the city to buy her clothes from the boutique Baby The Stars Shine Bright.
Ichigo (Tsuchiya) is a Yanki. Looking like an American 1950s rocker she's obsessed with motorbikes. Taking on the character of her clothes she is aggressive and outspoken. Momoko found her fashion in the wake of her parents' divorce. Ichigo was saved from bullying at school by a Yanki girl gang. When Momoko starts selling fake Versace on the internet to fund her shopping habit Ichigo is her first customer.
Kamikaze Girls explores the chicken and the egg quandary of fashion - wondering whether the clothes or the personality come first. In Japan young people join fashion troupes by choosing to wear a certain style of clothes - Lolita and Gothic Lolita being the most well-known. The clothes are like costumes, and they adhere to the strict codes of their caste. The experience of fashion is exaggerated, emphasized, with their style shaping how they behave. As Momoko says, "Fashion was my teacher; it taught me how to live."
Momoko (Fukada) is a Rococo girl wearing elaborate frilly dresses and bonnets in the styles of 18th century Versailles. Rococo girls adopt the outlook of that time as they understand it, embracing hedonism, selfishness and vanity. Momoko floats around her family home in the countryside, only traveling in to the city to buy her clothes from the boutique Baby The Stars Shine Bright.
Ichigo (Tsuchiya) is a Yanki. Looking like an American 1950s rocker she's obsessed with motorbikes. Taking on the character of her clothes she is aggressive and outspoken. Momoko found her fashion in the wake of her parents' divorce. Ichigo was saved from bullying at school by a Yanki girl gang. When Momoko starts selling fake Versace on the internet to fund her shopping habit Ichigo is her first customer.
Kamikaze Girls explores the chicken and the egg quandary of fashion - wondering whether the clothes or the personality come first. In Japan young people join fashion troupes by choosing to wear a certain style of clothes - Lolita and Gothic Lolita being the most well-known. The clothes are like costumes, and they adhere to the strict codes of their caste. The experience of fashion is exaggerated, emphasized, with their style shaping how they behave. As Momoko says, "Fashion was my teacher; it taught me how to live."
"Fantastic to look at and full of intriguing suggestions"
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