The other day in class we watched a movie called Kamikaze Girls. The movie surrounds two young Japanese girls growing up in their high school years. Branding and self-identity are becoming more popular as the days go by. The main characters are Momoko Ryugasaki, which is the Lolita girl, and Ichigo “Ichiko”, which is the Yanki.

Ichiko belongs to a biker gang, even though I would call her bike a scooter.  The scooter takes some of the roughness away from Ichiko as she sometimes can display affection or care even though she has a rough and edgy exterior.

Momoko on the other hand is a Lolito girl. She dresses like a baby by wearing stitched bonnets and short frilly skirts. Momoko doesn’t have any friends but her family; her father and grandmother.

The story really kicks off when Momoko’s dad quits selling his fake brand Versace clothes. Long story short, Ichiko finds Mimoko’s phone number in a catalog for the old Versace clothes. As Momoko knows the clothes are close to trash, Ichiko falls in love with the mass amounts of Versace. Ichiko instantly becomes Mimoko’s friend, but they take a while to warm up to each other. They balance each other out, good and evil and soon enough Ichiko helps Momoko find her calling for a career. With Ichiko’s help, Momoko makes new friends along her journey to become a fashion designer. Without Ichiko’s unexpected arrival, Momoko would have never found her calling.

I enjoyed watching the struggle of a normal Japanese girl striving to find what she wanted to become. Without the help of her friends and family, she would probably still be searching for a job.

The style of the film kept even boring scenes exciting. The visual affects weren’t spectacular but were unexpected and very interesting. I especially like the ward-robes of the characters as each fit into their classification.