Kamikaze Girls

There’s a great Stuff White People Like feature on “yellow fever” or white men’s obsessive attraction to Asian women. Though the subject of my own bouts of yellow fever are the subject of another feature it is only part of what attracted me to Tatsuya Nakashima’s 2004 film Kamikaze Girls.

Browsing the decent collection of mostly foreign films at the library I stumbled upon this and was intrigued by the Asian girl on the cover but not just because of her status as a cute Asian girl, it was because she was dressed in the elegant gothic Lolita fashion (google it but specifically sweet Lolita for this film’s style). I may have some strange elevated arousal because of this but this has mainly to do with my curiosity in all things weird and bizarre and pretty much anything having to do with Japan is pretty bizarre.

This movie too was delightfully bizarre. The film follows Momoko a 17 year old girl into Lolita fashion and incredibly self aware of the complexities of human nature. Despite her fashion driven obsession with Rococo England she is the only one grounded in reality, albeit a very cute and candy colored one. This is an incredibly wacky film similar to something Takashi Miike might do (minus the sexual perversions). For instance, Momoko is walking to the train to Tokyo to go on a shopping trip. Her purpose is questioned by a local guy who then starts to talk about the merits of the Japanese version of Kohl’s to the point where it morphs into an advertisement where all the people standing around join in and prices flash on the screen. There’s also her ex-yakuza father who ran a clothing stall that sells fake Versace cloths.

This part is incredibly ridiculous; the Versace knockoffs sell so well that her father pretty much just puts Versace, which he misspells as Versach, and goes as far to put out fake Versace Universal Studio t-shirts. What made the film work so well is that this wackiness was matched by a variety of visual styles (fairytale, anime, biker movie, even a part that resembles the trippy Mardi Gras scenes in Easy Rider). It’s a testament to the director that these various stylistic changes never felt like too much and all were essential to telling the story.

Along the way she meets a “yanki” girl who is in a motorcycle gang, despite only have a scooter. The girl Ichigo acts like a greaser’s girlfriend but whose fashion resembles something like trench coat pantsuits. Most of the movie goes toward a rather traditional story of the developing bond between the two opposites but the wacky narrative and filmic devices help to ease this a little. I didn’t care as much for Ichigo because she was so over the top and wacky, like all the other characters, that it was difficult to see genuine feeling towards Momoko. Not being able to care about Ichigo made the film suffer but Momoko is such a great character that there is still some enjoyment to be had from Ichigo just by her putting Momoko in such strange situations.

Watching this I kept thinking who the hell is this movie for? Certainly it’s very cute but also quite violent and bloody. Apparently there’s a subgroup of gore Lolita, which further boggles my mind. What would a gore Lolita be interest in? I have no idea although I would certainly like to find out. If you’re a fan of weird cinema this is definitely one to check out though.

8/10

I would post the trailer but the narration makes it seem really stupid. Avoid at all costs. Also seeing Converge tomorrow, which will be the topic of my next blog post.