You have to respect a movie that uses projectile vomiting as a romantic device. That’s how our protagonist’s parents meet. Momoko, a young girl with a rococo fixation, tells the story of her life in one long extended flashback as she hovers in the air having just been struck by a watermelon truck. Mom is spewing neon-glowing puke and dad, a failed gangster is blubbering away in an alley. So of course they fall in love. Such is the logic of Kamikaze Girls, based on the successful Japanese comic books.
It calls to mind Jeunet’s Amelie if anything, but speaks in a language all its own. It’s clever, silly, magnetic and engagingly absurd. Asides lead to flashbacks that swirl through tangents and it somehow all makes perfect sense. But let’s start at the beginning: Momoko is a high-school girl without friends who wears frilly dresses, carries a parasol and dreams of frolicking with 18th century courtesans. She shuns everyone except her loser dad who amuses her with his animated farts and grandma – the grumpy eye-patch wearing matriarch. Then it all changes when she meets Ichiko – a moped riding gang member who’s tough as nails. It’s hate at first sight in true buddy movie fashion. The story is about a quest for a legendary embroiderer and the specter of Akimi – the woman who single-handedly wiped out a Yakuza gang…then mysteriously disappeared. But the plot doesn’t really matter. It’s simply a slickly-designed vehicle for themes of loneliness, individuality, friendship and some kick-ass fight scenes.
The film weaves together an amazing array of visual styles yet manages to make it all fit. It should be unbearably cute, but Nakashima gives things just enough weight. Like Momiko, who floats above the ground sometimes but always keeps an eye on the ground, it’s both weightless and earthbound — no small achievement
It calls to mind Jeunet’s Amelie if anything, but speaks in a language all its own. It’s clever, silly, magnetic and engagingly absurd. Asides lead to flashbacks that swirl through tangents and it somehow all makes perfect sense. But let’s start at the beginning: Momoko is a high-school girl without friends who wears frilly dresses, carries a parasol and dreams of frolicking with 18th century courtesans. She shuns everyone except her loser dad who amuses her with his animated farts and grandma – the grumpy eye-patch wearing matriarch. Then it all changes when she meets Ichiko – a moped riding gang member who’s tough as nails. It’s hate at first sight in true buddy movie fashion. The story is about a quest for a legendary embroiderer and the specter of Akimi – the woman who single-handedly wiped out a Yakuza gang…then mysteriously disappeared. But the plot doesn’t really matter. It’s simply a slickly-designed vehicle for themes of loneliness, individuality, friendship and some kick-ass fight scenes.
The film weaves together an amazing array of visual styles yet manages to make it all fit. It should be unbearably cute, but Nakashima gives things just enough weight. Like Momiko, who floats above the ground sometimes but always keeps an eye on the ground, it’s both weightless and earthbound — no small achievement
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