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Kamikaze Girls – Third Window Films (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Japan, 2004
Director: Tetsuya Nakashima
Writer: Tetsuya Nakashima
Cast: Kyoko Fukada, Anna Tsuchiya, Hiroyuki Miyasako, Ryoko Shinohara, Kirin Kiki, Sadawo Abe, Yoshinori Okada, Eiko Koike, Shin Yazawa, Yoshiyoshi Arakawa, Katsuhisa Namase, Hirotaro Honda

Release Date: February 8th, 2010
Approximate Running Time: 102 Minutes 13 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: 12 (UK)
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Japanese
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region Free (Blu-ray), Region 2 PAL (DVD)
Retail Price: £19.99

"Meet Momoko (Kyoko Fukada from The Ring 2 and Dolls), a self-absorbed dreamer who fantasizes about fleeing her backcountry home and living life in 18th century Versailles. When she unexpectedly meets the rebellious Ichigo (Anna Tsuchiya from Dororo and Sakuran), a rough-and-tumble biker chick, the two misfits form a unique friendship together, nothing can stop them!" - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 3.75/5

Kamikaze Girls comes on a 25 GB single layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 19.8 GB

Feature: 18.6 GB

Though the source looks clean, it is hard to ignore the digital filtering. That said, colors look very good and at times vivid, image clarity is generally strong, and black levels fare well. Also, despite the Blu-ray disc being listed as region B, it is actually region-free.

Audio: 3.75/5

This release comes with one audio option, a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix in Japanese with removable English subtitles. Though the audio sounds clean, clear, and balanced, it would have benefited from a lossless audio track.

Extras:

All the extra content comes on a second disc (a single-layer DVD). Extras on this disc include a theatrical trailer (1 minute 58 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with removable English subtitles), Anna Tsuchiya music video (3 minutes 19 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), work print footage (4 minutes 51 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with removable English subtitles), a short film titled Unicorn - Ryuji, this character appears in Kamikaze Girls (11 minutes 1 second, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with removable English subtitles), an with director Tetsuya Nakashima (3 minutes 52 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with removable English subtitles), an interview with actresses Kyoko Fukada and Anna Tsuchiya (3 minutes 19 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with removable English subtitles), and a making of documentary titled Making of Kamikaze Girls (39 minutes 8 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with removable English subtitles). Other extras include trailers for other films released by Third Window Films.

Summary:

Kamikaze Girls is a story about two girls who outwardly couldn’t be more different, while on the inside they are almost identical. Momoko is a self-absorbed young woman who dresses up in Lolita fashion (a fashion subculture in Japan that is influenced by Victorian fashion, Rococo period costumes, and elements of Gothic subculture). Ichigo is a tough as nails young woman who is part of a biker gang. Both girls come from traumatic childhoods, and by revisiting who they are through the subcultures they have become part of in many ways feels like a byproduct of the traumatic events they experienced as children.

The narrative, mostly told via a series of flashbacks, provides each girl’s backstory. Also, filling in the more important details of their part further adds to the appeal of both of these characters. Besides the two main characters, Kamikaze Girls is populated with many quirky characters, like a gangster named Ryuji, ‘the Unicorn’ (he has a most unusual hairstyle that makes it look like his lock of hair sticking out from his forehead looks like a penis). That said, there are also many characters that fall into many of Japan’s more popular subcultures.

From its opening sequence, which quickly establishes its vivid color scheme that at times literally leaps off the screen, Kamikaze Girls is a visual feast for the eyes. The most surprising aspect of Kamikaze Girls is the way in which it effortlessly mixes oddball humor with the more grounded moments of the story. Also, performance-wise, the entire cast is exceptional, especially Kyoko Fukada and Anna Tsuchiya in the roles of Momoko and Ichigo. Ultimately, Kamikaze Girls is an exuberant film that works as well as it does because of the way it puts a unique twist on universal themes that are easy to identify with.

14 years after its release, this disc's audio/video presentation is now in need of an HD upgrade, as it previously left room for improvement.