(Originally ran October 24th, 2010)
“Kamikaze Girls,” a Japanese film, was a smash hit last week shown as the third film of the International Film Series (IFS). IFS Director Steven Lombardo said, “It’s like Laverne & Shirley on acid.”
“Kamikaze Girls,” a film filled with gags, bright colors and a main character taking flight every now and then, felt heavily rooted in Japanese cultures at some points, but still earned laughs and tears from the audience.
IFS allows students, student groups and faculty to bring world cinema to campus and expose it to the community.
“These are films that do not get shown in big cinema, but are world renowned and Oscar winning films,” Lombardo said. “We have the National Honor Society presenting films, and even faculty from the History department.”
Though some may be turned off by the fact these films are shown in their original form, with no voice-overs and just subtitles, Lombardo wants students to check them out.
“Some teachers use [IFS] as a required part of a course, and for Philosophy, it has been [used] for extra credit,” Lombardo said. “Students are reluctant at first, but afterwards turn out to be loyal to the films.”
Lombardo is not the only one who helped make IFS blossom into a booming organization. Joshua Travis, the two-year coordinator of IFS, has been “highly instrumental,” Lombardo said, as well as Maria Luisa Garcia-Verdugo, who is the Interim Department Head of Foreign Languages and Literatures.
Help also came from the Philosophy Department as Instructors David Turpin and Robin Turpin picked “Kamikaze Girls.” Various other departments, such as Communication and Creative Arts, and Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, also sponsor the series.
“Kamikaze Girls,” directed by Tetsuya Nakashima, follows the story of 17-year-old Momoko Ryugasaki (Kyoko Fukada) as she travels Tokyo to further her expensive Lolita clothes, a Victorian-based fashion. She constantly runs into problems coming up with money and mooches off her gullible father. She is extremely indifferent and strange to others, often dreaming about living in Rococo-era France.
Momoko runs into Ichigo “Ichiko” Shirayuri (Anna Tsuchiya) a “Yanki,” or a delinquent teenager, who is part of a girls-only biker gang, the Ponytails. Even though they are polar opposites, a very strange, but strong, friendship flourishes. As the story continues, the audience follows Momoko and Ichigo as they go on a journey to find an infamous embroiderer. Throughout their search, they have run-ins with gambling, decorative boutiques and epic battles, all keeping the audience glued to their seats. The film ran two hours, but left the audience happy and bursting with applause as the credits rolled.
“Kamikaze Girls” came a long way, starting out as a light novel before going to the silver screen and finally creating a manga, a Japanese comic book. Though a bit of background information is needed to become even more immersed in the film, this does not stop it from getting some well deserved laughs. One such laugh came from Momoko’s reaction to a local telling her to shop at what she referred to as a “supermarket.”
The next film in the “Japanese Cinema” theme, “Unlucky Monkey” directed by the cyberpunk-styled Hiroyuki Tanaka, is Oct. 27 in CLO 110 at 6:30 p.m.
November’s theme will involve films from South America. Each week a Spanish professor will present a movie originating from Peru, Venezuela, Chile and Brazil.
Though it seems heavily led by faculty at the moment, Lombardo encourages students to throw in ideas for films to play during the upcoming months.
“Anyone who wants to suggest something is free to do so,” Lombardo said.
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