JAPAN: Kamikaze Girls (Shimotsuma Monogatari) 2004

Director: Tetsuya Nakashima
Stars: Kyôko Fukada, Momoko Ryugasaki, Anna Tsuchiya, Hiroyuki Miyasako, Ryoko Shinohara
Release date: May 2004
Length: 102 mins

SYNOPSIS from film bio.
Momoko is an ordinary girl, living an ordinary life. Ordinary, that is, if you define ordinary as wearing elaborate lolita dresses from the Rococo period in 18th Century France. A complete fish out of water in her rural and sleepy Japanese town, where everyone buys their clothes (and everything else) at the same store and no one understands her, Momoko's life is one of sugared sweets and frilly treats. Desperate to make some money to pay for her expensive indulgence, Momoko tries selling bootleg Ver*ace and Uni*ersal Studios clothes left over from her Dad's yakuza (gangster) days. However, when punk girl and self-styled 'Yanki' Ichiko comes calling, her days as 'ordinary' are most certainly numbered... Road movie, buddy comedy, deeply insightful and surprisingly touching, the surreal world only further highlights the all too real friendship that brings these two unlikely girls together.

It's only the 3rd film from this 47 yr old director & it couldn't be anything more different than what one would expect from someone that age, but then again, it is a Japanese film & they do controlled insanity better than anyone. While the Japanese version has been around for a few years (w/o English subtitles), it has just been released on DVD this month in Korea & the USA with subs. Looks delicious.

• Website
• DVD@Amazon USA
• DVD@YesAsia Korean version