The film Kamikaze Girls (Shimotsuma Monogatari), was directed by Nakashima Tetsuya. The comedy starred Fukada Kyoko as Ryuugasaki Momoko and Tsuchiya Anna as Shirayuri Ichigo, and was released in 2004 by Shimotsuma Monogakari Seisaku Iinkai which includes TBS, Toho, and Shogakkan. The film narrates the story of Shimotsuma, Ibaragi which is located beside Tokyo. Since Ibaragi is part of the Japanese countryside, the price of products and land is much cheaper than in Tokyo. In the movie, Momoko shows up wearing girly dresses adorned with frills. This type of attire is called “Lolita fashion,” and is an imitation of the fashion style back in the Rococo era. The Lolita fashion emerged in 1990 and by 2004 it was very popular in Japan. Momoko’s fashion influenced young girls and led to the big Lolita fashion boom in 2004.
Momoko, the main character of this movie, has a very unique personality as she shows strong admiration of the style of the Rococo era. She does not get along with her classmates because she is too different from them. One day, Momoko encounters Ichigo, a local punk, who is also very different from others. At first, Momoko is annoyed with Ichigo and tries to avoid her, but gradually Momoko begins to trust Ichigo, and treats her as a friend. This friendship is demonstrated when, because Ichigo desires to embroider her own jacket as a display of gratitude towards her senpai, Momoko instead embroiders the jacket for Ichigo. For three days and nights Momoko continues stitching and successfully finishes the embroidery. After seeing how full of joy and thankful Ichigo was because of the embroidery, Momoko finally realizes that Ichigo is very special to her. The resulting story is about how Momoko matures and changes through overcoming difficult events alongside Ichigo.
The director puts most of his effort into the first appearance of the each character. The scene where Momoko first shows up on the screen was a extremely dynamic image and gave a great impact on the audience as Momoko is run over by a car. Ichigo’s first entrance is a little different. Momoko receives a poorly hand-written letter from Ichigo and the lack of proper penmanship invites us to imagine that Ichigo is of a young age. Contrary to our expectations, while raising a cloud of smoke behind her motocycle, the punkish Ichigo comes to visit Momoko. Ryuuji has also a different kind of the entrance. When he first shows up, his hair is zoomed in on and occupies the whole screen. This may be because it is his most charming feature, but this scene is nevertheless successful in showing the fact that the saviour, Ryuuji, has arrived. Each first appearance of the characters is very unique and deeply impressive.
In its attempt to create the artistic scenes, the film incorporates several camera techniques. The first one is called the hand-held shot, which emphasizes speed within the film. This technique is frequently used when the frames are from the viewpoint of a rider on a motorcycle in order to allow the audience to experience its speed. The second technique is slow motion. Using slow motion can emphasize certain frames within a given scene, especially the artistic and beautiful scenes, to provide extra impact on the audience At the onset of the film, as Momoko is hit by a vehicle, not only herself but also cabbages and the pachinko balls fly along with Momoko for extra effect. The way that the items gradually fall from the sky was shot very much intentionally and to a very beautiful and whimsical effect. The third technique is called medium shot, and that gives us the feeling of being inside of the movie. By allowing the audience a view of the whole body of the characters, it differentiates the differences between Momoko and Ichigo due to their wildly different fashion choices. The ultra vivid colours of the landscape can considered as well. Those brightly coloured landscapes are artistic but reduce the effect of the medium shot, that is, the effect which makes the audience feel like they are actually in the movie. The super bright colours thereby reduce the film’s tension.
After watching the film Kamikaze Girls, my expectations were fulfilled due to the beautiful pictures and the perfect scenario. The highlights of the film are the entrances of each of the unique characters and the artistic camera work, which is not often seen in Japanese films. I was just as impressed with the musical score, the costumes, and the story line. The funny combination of the unique characters, a bad girl and a Lolita girl, is unexpected but very interesting. I am very satisfied after watching this movie. I strongly recommend people watch it if they want some laughs and maybe even a few tears.