What is it? - 2004 comedy film adaptation of a light novel. Didn't do amazing in its original run but now deservedly has a cult following. Director Nakashima's other famous film, Confessions, is also a novel adaptation that deals with teenage sociopathy.
Kamikaze Girls is the greatest romcom of all time but the central "couple" aren't officially romantically connected. It follows two high school girls: Momoko, who's obsessed with the Lolita fashion subculture* and Rococo France*, and Ichiko, a "yanki" (Japanese youth subculture associated with being in motorcycle gangs and dyed blond hair). The first thing you'll notice about the film is how good the two leads look together - I called them the "best couple in film aesthetics wise" in my letterboxd log for my first watch and my recent second watch only solidified that notion. There's just something with how their different unique fashion styles complement and contrast each other that makes them an utter joy to watch in stills and in motion, even disregarding how much chemistry they have in their dialogue. Throughout the movie, it becomes clear that the two have a similar dynamic personality-wise, with Momoko hiding a strength and resilience behind her cute clothes while Ichiko has a deep vulnerability behind her rebellious counterculture fashion. But really, the real highlight here is the pure visual mastery on display, with absolutely propulsive editing and vibrant colors and immaculate costume design all creating a blissful, dreamy haze of a film. Go watch it!
*-fashion style focused on "cuteness", popular in the 90s-00s in Japan. This film helped boost the popularity of the look at least a little bit. It's often seen as a reaction to the extreme conformity required by Japanese society. The name is of course dumb, being based off of a very bad reading of Nabokov's masterful novel Lolita, but it stuck so now we all get to sound dumb
*-era defined by excess within the upper classes, though the extravagant displays of course only served to highlight the massive wealth disparity between social classes and eventually led to revolution. Interestingly reflected with how Momoko doesn't care about other people at the start of the film, doing anything to achieve her aesthetic desires, though she's of course changed by her "girlfriend" later.
LENGTH - 102 minutes
Score - 8.4/10