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.

Tokyo Gore Police

>With the release of 2008’s The Machine Girl, the United States became acquainted with the special effects gore work of Yoshihiro Nishimura. After that he was given the chance to go out on his own with Tokyo Gore Police, an equally bizarre and ridiculous film.

Tokyo Gore Police takes place in the future where a privatized police system is left to run rampant though there target is mostly engineers, a group of serial killers that can regenerate lost limbs with weapons. These range the gamut from a chainsaw to a massive penis gun and a girl that gets an alligator mouth for legs. Similar to The Machine Girl, the gore effects here are pretty terrific and often hilarious. Though there are some pretty weird moments that might make you uncomfortable, all the gore is meant to look really cheesy similar to Dead Alive. I really appreciate how the film keeps throwing out new weird kills like a man’s face getting gutted by a wine bottle and then the woman blowing into the bottle causing part of the guy’s face to fall out of the bottom.

What struck me especially the second time around is how complex the story was and besides that the rather odd juxtaposition of serious and comedic elements. This might be more commonplace in Japanese film but for an American it’s rather hard to process. For instance, when the bartender’s limbs are tied to the car it’s played almost entirely straight and is only seen as a horrific, brutal act. At another part we have the bad guy explaining his motives which are based on tragic circumstances but then get some pretty hilarious flashback footage. This might seem to be problematic, that the film does not know what to be however with this type of movie I thought it just made it more absurd and entertaining.

However, one thing that is problematic is the radical shift in film that gets used. The movie starts with some really awful digital video scenes, or what I thought was DV, where there is a fight on the roof top and it looks awful. The rest of its better, switching to a cheap film that gives the movie a visual style similar to the Power Rangers, which helped with the goofy feel of the movie but then there would sometimes be these yellow/green tinted really hi-def scenes that looked amazing that made you really want more of those. I don’t know why this was maybe they tried filming it one way first but my guess is budgetary issues.

Many will be interested in seeing this for the lead Eihi Shiina who also played the lead girl in Audition. Her character kicks ass and all but there’s zero emotion or characterization and in a movie that actually tries to have a plot amongst all the gore craziness this was a problem. Fortunately, everyone else in this movie are playing total weirdoes so it all gets balanced out. Also the running time is close to two hours, which is a bit much. While I appreciate that Nishimura was trying to do a lot more by creating a “sophisticated” splatter comedy, two hours of this stuff is too much. If trimmed down to ninety minutes this would be as good as The Machine Girl. I’m glad that Nishimura is trying to go out on his own but it might be better if he has Noboru Iguchi with him or someone else to help edit.

8/10

In the Mood for Love (2000)

Wong Kar-wai is a director that I have wanted to get into for quite some time. He’s frequently name dropped and as a fan of Asian cinema, it seemed strange that I had not yet come across any of his films. The other day at the college library, which owns a fair amount of Criterions, I came across “In the Mood for Love” a film that I had heard much about but new very little of.

In features I’ve read of Wong Kar-wai his unique style especially the way his colors are so vibrant is always remarked upon. Visually, the film is gorgeous. Kar-wai makes colors so vibrant in a way that recalls Technicolor but clearly realistic. Colors pop out but it’s nothing like “Hero” or any of those other wuxias that are powerful now. The colors are realistic but heightened in a way that makes other films look drab.

The film’s narrative follows a man and woman who both move into separate apartments on the same day. Both of their spouses are often away on business trips and the two soon realize their spouses are having an affair together. The two strike up a friendship, imagining and rehearsing how their spouses first got together, how they interact. They begin to fall for each other but the pressures of Chinese society and their desire to not be just like their spouses leave their love unrequited.

“In the Mood for Love” is one of the most honest romance films I’ve ever seen and a lot of its success comes from the filming and the editing. Many of the shots begin focused on an object and slowly pan or tilt to their destination, the camera lingers but always very abruptly with a very fast fade out and then jumping to the next scene. The camera often follows characters from behind gates of windows, panning over walls that block our view of the characters. Interestingly, the spouses if seen on camera are always seen from the back and typically through glass or a mirror. The camera is a voyeur, peering into forbidden love. Wong Kar-wai has said he sees a lot of “Vertigo” in this film and certainly the Hitchcock influences are there. The way cigarettes smoke lingers in the air recalls film noir, the beauty of shadows and light. The scene where Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung pass each other on the stairs is perhaps the most sensuous scene ever filmed and they are only walking on some stairs. Maggie Cheung is absolutely gorgeous in the film; the costume design, my god those dresses, and her hair are both pristine.

Some, even I initially, may not like the direction that the film goes but it seems to be a necessity. The discussions between the two of them over power relationships, the nature of their spouses’ affair, their context in Chinese culture prevents them from being together. The film explores the nature of Chinese society and this undercurrent of their romance. By the end, where Leung is at the Buddhist temple ruins whispering into the crack in the wall and the camera moves freely throughout the film achieves perfection.

10/10