This is quite simply one of the best films I’ve seen for quite some time. A touching, hilarious hybrid of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Napoleon Dynamite, Jeunet and Carol at their best, Grease and lots of Japanese pop-culture.

Here’s what the website says about the story:

“Momoko (pop idol Kyoko Fukada,) yearns to live in 18-century Versailles than in her back-country hometown of Shimotsuma, heartland of the yakuza. To escape, she loses herself in the dreamy, doll-like fashions of the “Lolita” scene. Her idol is Akinori Isobe, chief designer of Baby, the Stars Shine Bright—her favorite Lolita design hose. She travels all the way to Tokyo to shop at their store.

One languid summer, to help fund her expensive hobby, Momoko runs a classified ad of brand-name knock-off clothes (produced by her dad) for sale. She encounters a buyer named Ichiko (the real name is Ichigo), who happens to live in her neighborhood.

Super-rebel Ichiko (model and J-rock icon Anna Tsuchiya, pictured below), is a “Yankee”-style member of the Ponytails motorbike gang, one of Ibaraki’s “Wild speed tribes,” whose teeth-rattling customized bikes are decked out with fiberglass shields and bannered backrests.

Somewhat against Momoko’s will, she and Ichigo slowly develop a strong friendship as they share their feelings on the odd goings-ons around them.”

This blurb doesn’t do justice firstly to the utterly surreal nature of the film, and secondly to the dazzling techniques used by the director to depict life in a neon drenched artificial environment. Ultimately, this is a film about friendship, and the two main characters are so endearing (and let’s face it who can resist ultra violent biker chicks and dreamy, frilly rococo fragility) and the script’s so funny, that it’ll make you wanna jack in your job and go join The Ponytails… Heartily recommended!

http://www.kamikazegirls.net/news.html