Review of Kamikaze Girls

Kyoko Fukada as fashion-obsessed Momoko isn't enough to salvage this farce. Abundant narration ensures little time is "wasted" on anything that Momoko hasn't already developed facile explanations for. There's a "sideways" mode on the DVD to fill you in on Japanese culture references. Some of the gags are funny, but most devolve into "Kung Fu Hustle"-style slapstick, gross-out humor, or "Family Guy"-style humor, where characters and reality are one thing one minute and something else the next. That doesn't gel with the attempts to create genuine character moments, and there's little framework that can support characters that have enough pathos that you could care about them. You can't be both bent on trivializing and ridicule at any opportunity and seem empathetic. Momoko's biker pal can't both repeatedly head butt her because its funny and seem like someone cautious Momoko should befriend. Packaging such things into more palatable 'inserts' like 'worst case scenarios' or 'wildly exaggerated interpretations' is one thing, but suspense and concern built in one reality simply dissipates when reality is changed whenever its convenient, leaving a cheap, manipulative feel. I most related to a scene in which Momoko's father gleefully goes off about the mutilation and scarring that occurs in fights between female bikers, oblivious to her reaction. That and the silent footage of the stars goofing around while the credits rolled looked a lot more fun than the film itself. For one of Kyoko Fukada's better roles, see the series "Yama Onna, Kabe Onna."