I finally watched Kamikaze Girls

Okay, so I'm not sure what this blogpost is meant to be. I don't watch movies nearly enough to have enough to compare to to write a coherent review, but here ill just talk for a while about my expectations of the movie, moments I liked, and how much I was struggling at 3 am to find a way to watch it with subtitles.

Ive known about this movie for maybe the past three to four years. The earliest I remember was 11-12 year old me looking for movies with good fashion, particularly J-fashion. My initial impression of the movie years before watching was that it was mostly eye candy without much substance. (Spoiler: I was wrong.)

Finding this movie online wasn't too difficult, but subtitles were another issue. Not a ton of places have built in subtitles, so I eventually had to download the movie in its entirety and separate subtitles, and then I could watch it directly from my laptop files. A positive is that this was actually really convenient, i'll likely just end up watching more movies like this.

First off, I really, really enjoyed this movie. As I mentioned, I don't have the largest frame of reference for movies, but really am sure that this is a movie that works perfectly with my tastes. Momoko works so well for me as a main protagonist, her inner monologue and perspective is really compelling. Her actor and the writers did a really well job of portraying a character like her, her apathy wasn't treated like a weird gimmick to me if that makes sense. (side note, she is autistic to me ... and while I understand that its very unlikely that it was intentional, getting to see a character I perceive as autistic exist like she does .. it strangely means a lot?)

The shots in this movie were just gorgeous. I don't have the capabilities of properly describing with all the terminology, but the composition, colors, and character actors just work so well together to create a really beautiful film. This movie sure is eye candy, but I couldn't anticipate whatsoever how much more than that it could be. The emotional scenes hit for me, while still striking a balance between not being overtly out of tone with the rest of the movie. 

The entire film just has such a warm feeling almost, and really captures that small town feel. I obviously do not live in the Japanese countryside, but I have lived in the same small town for my entire life. Every time you go anywhere with even the slightest amount of alternative subculture, you feel like a kid in a candy store almost. Chasing that feeling is honestly what got me interested in the movie in the first place, four years ago.

The comedy in this movie landed really well. Nothing really stood out to me as a 'bad joke', as it was just ingrained in the movie. This movie wouldn't be what it was without its surrealism, (is that even the right word?) and I really want to find more movies similar to it in visual style now.

Last thing I wanna touch on is the music. Not one, but two songs from Tommy Heavenly6 were in this movie. It genuinely caught me off guard when she started playing just a minute into the movie, I had to pause for a few minutes to recompose myself (and eventually had to wait until the next day, as the subtitles struggled). I might make a separate blog post about her some day, but Tomoko Kawase is possibly my favorite solo artist (although I still love her work in the brilliant green!). The opening scene on the bike with Roller Coaster Ride playing really told me that this movie would be something else. Hey My Friend also worked great in the movies soundtrack, as well as the original score of the film.

So, basically, this movie is great. Sorry for my shitty review writing skills, but I finished the movie maybe 30 minutes ago and I could gush about it for days. It exceeded all expectations really.