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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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Kamikaze Girls (2005)

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Lolita on Wheels

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Kamikaze Girls on DVD.

Like the recent Cutie Honey, Tetsuya Nakashima's Kamikaze Girls dips into a manga fantasy world and drags it into full-color, live action glory. Momoko (Kyôko Fukada) is an adorable teenager living in a small town, where everyone shops at the soul-sucking Jusco. She prefers to buy her baby-doll clothes at Baby, The Stars Shine Bright, which is just a few short hours away by bus. Momoko has vowed to live a "sugar and spice and everything nice" life, spending time on her clothes and her knitting, with little need of friends. When in need of some cash, Momoko tries to sell some of her father's discarded designer knockoff clothing items, bringing tough biker chick Ichiko (Anna Tsuchiya) to her door. Ichiko is as adorable in a biker-chick way as Momoko is in her Lolita way, and that's what makes Kamikaze Girls so fascinating. These clashing fantasy objects wind up becoming unlikely friends and bonding together during a turbulent time of gang wars and fashion crises. Nakashima never allows the story to set foot in any kind of reality, and keeps the comic book panels flashing by.

Starring: Kyôko Fukada, Anna Tsuchiya, Nobara Takemoto, Hiroyuki Miyasako, Ryoko Shinohara
Written by: Tetsuya Nakashima, based on a novel and comics by Novala Takemoto
Directed by: Tetsuya Nakashima
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Running Time: 103 minutes
Date: October 28, 2005