Kamikaze Girls: Special Edition (Review)
Wednesday, 10th February 2010, 18:15

Page 1 Page 2

Extras
The main feature disc gets things off on the right note with some nicely animated menus. That’s all you get though, as the extra features are all on disc 2 of the DVD Special Edition (The Blu-ray is a single disc release).

That featurette from the original disc makes the transition to this release, and it’s still the 7-minute interview with Kyoko Fukada (Momoko), and Anna Tsuchiya (Ichigo).

New to this release are the following.

The Making of Kamikaze Girls is a 39-minute featurette that takes us behind the scenes of the film, and offers interviews with the cast, crew and director.

There is also a separate 4-minute interview with director Tetsuya Nakashima.

The workprint footage lasts 5 minutes, and is combination deleted scenes, gags and bloopers.

Unicorn-Ryuji is an 11-minute short film featuring the guy with ‘the hair’, telling the story of his first love, and how he came by that particular tonsorial elegance.

There is a 3-minute long music video featuring Anna Tsuchiya.

Finally there is the original Japanese trailer for Kamikaze Girls, and 16 trailers for other Third Window Product.

It isn’t quite up to the Japanese special edition, which also has a couple of audio commentaries, but then again, the Japanese releases aren’t subtitled in English. In terms of the English-speaking universe, Third Window Films has leapt to the top of the tree in terms of features, especially with the Blu-ray.

Conclusion
Movies about teenage friendship and bonding are two a penny these days, and opposites have been thrown together against adversity ever since the days of The Breakfast Club, yet Kamikaze Girls is like nothing I have ever seen before. Having seen director Tetsuya Nakashima’s subsequent award winning Memories of Matsuko, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised at the anarchic freewheeling Technicolor tone of Kamikaze Girls. But when the story begins by Momoko narrating the story of her life, from birth, and we see that birth from the baby’s perspective, then it becomes clear that Kamikaze Girls is unconventional to say the least.

It’s the unconventional friendship that forms between the epitome of all things frilly and sweet, and a tough as nails biker chick that lies at the heart of this film, although the story is told from Momoko’s perspective, with the fourth wall collapsing early on in the film. It’s tongue in cheek, played for laughs, filled with ridiculous and bizarre characters, yet manages to be heartfelt and heart-warming at the same time. Despite their idiosyncrasies and eccentricities, Momoko and Ichigo are utterly engaging and sympathetic characters and it’s easy to care about their friendship.

Given the number of DVDs that pass through my hands, its rare that I get to rewatch a movie in short order. In fact, I find that for most films, years pass before I give them a second viewing. But I’ve had reason to watch Kamikaze Girls three times in the last 12 months, and that has cemented its place as one of my favourite films. It’s just delightful from beginning to end and I take yet another opportunity to wholeheartedly recommend it. It’s great to see the film finally get the release that it deserves, and while the standards conversion is a small bugbear, the anamorphic picture, the surround sound and the copious extra features certainly aren’t. Besides, if the image quality does bug you, it should all be resolved by getting the Blu-ray release, where such crass terminology such as PAL and NTSC doesn’t even apply.

Now if Third Window Films gives Tetsuya Nakashima’s Memories of Matsuko the same upgrade, all will be right with the world.

Previous Page