| 「下妻物語」[Kamikaze Girls]: The Review |
[Oct. 25th, 2009|08:53 pm] |
Today I decided to take it REALLY easy. That is, I did one full yoga routine to stretch out, then jumped on my treadmill for a couple of hours to watch 「下妻物語」[Kamikaze Girls]. The total of calorie burn for this week via exercise has been 6,571. SHIYES! Hehehehe.
About the movie, I will first say this:
Lu told me this: "This movie will remind you of me and you."
Really? ^_^* I'm like Ichiko?
The first thing that stood out to me was the directing. The acting was over-the-top and meant to force all characters into stereotypes, so that wasn't as interesting, but the directing was very pop-ish, campy and dramatic!camera-ish. But, given the story and type of target audience, this is the best kind of directing for it, I think. As a result, it's a solid movie.
Interestingly, however, I think I prefer 「下弦の月」 [Kagen no Tsuki - Last Quarter]. I suppose this is because that story is much more convoluted, and leaves much more to think about. But 「下妻物語」[Kamikaze Girls] is still a fun movie anyway.
The story of 「下妻物語」[Kamikaze Girls] is like so:
Momoko is a Lolita-loving daughter of an ex-Yakuza who lives in a rural area of Japan. She lies to her father about all sorts of things to get money to go to Tokyo and buy clothes from her favorite designer. She cares about no one, and nothing other than her clothes, and wishes that she'd been born during the Rococo era. Eventually her father's business (a knockoff-Versace stall) runs dry, and so she can't get money from him for her outfits. As a result she posts an ad to sell the knockoff clothing and goods, and gets a response to her ad that she didn't expect.
Ichiko is a Yanki. That is, a rough-talking biker chick, who is in a girl-biker gang. She buys a jacket from Momoko for some wedding that she has to go to, and because Momoko sold it to her for a cheap price, she feels indebted to Momoko. Eventually she starts going to Momoko's home and visits with her, and Momoko wonders all the while what the hell this girl is talking to her for. At one point, being snide, she buys a cabbage and gives it to Ichiko, and tells her, "Here, this is your new friend!" and runs away.
Because the leader of Ichiko's biker gang was leaving to get married, Ichiko wanted some embroidery put on her Yanki coat in honor of the final ride with the leader. She tells Momoko about a legendary embroiderer in Tokyo in the district where Momoko shops, and claims that because it will cost a lot they needed to play pachinko and see if they could win money to get the work done. Momoko refuses but Ichiko headbutts her and literally drags her there anyway, not taking "no" for an answer. Ichiko turns out to be very bad at pachinko, but Momoko is so skilled that they get into trouble for cheating. A low-rank gangster intervenes and defends them, and Ichiko falls for him.
Meanwhile, one of Momoko's bonnets is eaten by moths. Dismayed, Momoko fixes it by embroidering hearts on it. When Momoko and Ichiko go to Tokyo, the owner of Baby the Stars Shine Bright (Momoko's favorite Loli clothing store) sees her handiwork on the bonnet and is very impressed. In one funny part he talks to Momoko, who then faints because this man is "her god," and Ichiko runs over and knocks the man back into a pile of boxes, yelling at him, asking WTF he did, trying to "defend" Momoko, who tells her not to fight him and then passes out. All in all, at the end of the ordeal they didn't find the embroiderer, and Ichiko gives Momoko her Yanki coat as Momoko randomly decides to do the embroidery for her Yanki companion. Momoko works nonstop for several days to finish it in time. The work is breathtaking, and Ichiko is very happy. Momoko becomes bewildered because she feels very happy to see Ichiko smiling. "I, who watched emotionlessly while wild animals died?" she thought. "Maybe it was the lack of sleep." She fell over and passed out right about then.
It turns out that the biker gang leader ended up marrying the low-level gangster that Ichiko had fallen in love with.
After that, Momoko received a call from the owner of Baby the Stars Shine Bright, who asked her to do the embroidery on a dress that he was working on. She took the job but found the work to be too arduous and not as fun as buying the clothing. She'd finished it, however.
Meanwhile, Ichiko was challenged by the bikers, and had to go take her beating. She wanted to leave the biker gang. Momoko asked her ex-Yakuza father about what happens at a challenge, and when she found out how they were going to mess Ichiko up, she called the shop owner and told him that she needed to see her friend. The shop owner said that he had given everything for his work, and had no friends even now; therefore, Momoko should go see Ichiko even though the deadline that he had for the dress was that same day.
Momoko took her grandmother's scooter and hurried to the scene of the challenge. So determined was she that she was hit by a truck but just grabbed the bike, got back on and kept going. At the scene of the challenge Ichiko did her best, but was far outnumbered; Momoko finally snapped when someone threw her into the mud (thus ruining her cute clothes), and she grabbed a bat and swung at everyone in sight, freaking them all out.
(Whoa, WTF, LOLI WENT CRAZY!!!)
She spun a lie to them all, and between her and Ichiko managed to leave the scene a bit battered but still whole. She also got the dress to the designer and became a part-time designer for the company with an offer to work there full-time after she graduated, only she decided that she just wanted to buy the clothing instead. Menawhile Ichiko became a model for the clothing line, but at her first shoot beat the living crap out of most of the camera crew and wrecked the place much in the spirit of Godzilla, so she returned to her bike and her mechanic job and rode alone or with Momoko.
The end.
There are some similarities between the two main characters and me and Lu, but lots of differences as well. Still, it was a light movie. I haven't read the original that this came from, so I can't really compare the movie to other formats.
It occurs to me, however, that this movie bears resemblance to Ghost World, which is based on the graphic novel by the same name as written/illustrated by Daniel Clowes (he also wrote the screenplay).
The graphic novel and movie have many significant differences, but I love both the movie and the graphic novel quite a bit. I'd recommend this movie for anyone who likes 「下妻物語」[Kamikaze Girls]. |
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