Of Ribbons and Bows 🎀 // A Kamikaze Girls Movie Review
Hello Folk of the Hollow!
This is a post I’m really excited to share with you! This is a review of my favorite movie of all time, Kamikaze Girls! Or, in Japanese, Shimotsuma Monogatari.
I first discovered this movie in my sophomore year of high school when I was getting really into Lolita Fashion. I can’t remember how I found out about it exactly—I imagine it was probably mentioned in one of the few Gothic and Lolita Bibles that ended up getting translated into English. I think they translated maybe 5 of them? It was too bad they didn’t translate more of them, I absolutely would have bough them!
People talk all the time about media that rewired their brain chemistry, that was instrumental in who they became later in life, and Kamikaze Girls was one of the most influential things young me consumed. It became the foundation for the person I am today and all the things that would capture my mind and heart down the road. Kamikaze Girls began life as a novel by Novala Takemoto, and I absolutely plan to do a separate review for the book, but this post is strictly looking at the movie version of the story.
Okay, I can’t wait any longer, let’s get into the review!
Kamikaze Girls follows Momoko Ryugasaki, a young lifestyle lolita exiled to a backwater town in Japan due to her father’s poor decision making regarding the yakuza (Not a spoiler, because it gets explained in the first 10 or so minutes of the movie.) Momoko is obsessed with the lolita brand Baby! The Stars Shine Bright! and will do anything to own a wardrobe of their clothes. Momoko is self-absorbed and socially isolated until she meets Ichiko, a rough-and-tumble yanki biker girl with a pink scooter. Ichiko decides, against Momoko’s will, that the two will be friends. From here, a really fun story about female friendships unfolds!
Here’s the trailer, if you want to watch it! (I highly recommend it!)
Warning: Here There Be Spoilers!
Like I said in the intro, this movie was one of the most important pieces of media that I consumed at a young age that turned me into the person I am today. Throughout the movie, Momoko daydreams about leaving her life in the Japanese countryside and living instead in Rococo-era France. I think this movie is part of why I am obsessed with the idea of romanticizing life until it feels like a far-away fantasy. It is also probably why I’m so obsessed with fashion styles, and why I have always had an affinity for princess-like styles.
The movie is wildly quirky, using little jokes and editing tricks to highlight the mood at certain parts of the movie so that no matter how many times you’ve seen it (and for me, that’s a lot) you still feel the same feelings the 100th time that you did the 1st time.
Momoko begins the story self-absorbed daydreamer content to be alone, and by the end has embraced that maybe she does need her friendship with Ichiko after all. She and Ichiko go along a similar path character-development wise, except Ichiko has never been under the illusion that she wanted to be alone. She is hugely into her yanki biker gang and is fiercely loyal, which has a positive influence on Momoko.
What I enjoy about how this movie does character development is that by the end of it you can see how the characters have changed, but can also see that they haven’t foregone their personalities entirely. They simply evolved to the next level of themselves, which is much more realistic than expecting a full heel-faced turn from the beginning of the film.
Kyoko Fukada and Anna Tsuchiya do a fantastic job as Momoko and Ichiko (respectively) and really bring the film to life. I can’t imagine anyone else being able to play Momoko and Ichiko as well as these two!
All-in-all, this movie was my favorite when I was 15 and is still my favorite now that I’m 34. I will keep going back to this movie again and again for the rest of my life, and I will never stop recommending this movie to anyone that will listen (or anyone who won’t listen, because I won’t shut up about it lmao).
I hope you liked this review and that it’s encouraged you to go check the movie out! I don’t know where you can watch it because I don’t think it’s streaming anywhere. The only reason I can watch it is because I bought the DVD when I was 15 and have held onto it ever since. It was half the reason I wanted an external DVD drive for my computer for Christmas this year—I couldn’t imagine a world in which I couldn’t watch this movie anymore.
Until next time~ 💚
