The website <http://www.shimotsuma-movie.jp/> is the official website of the film _Shimotsuma Monogatari_ [Shimotsuma Story, which has somehow received the English title of _Kamikaze Girls_]. Shimotsuma is the name of the boondocks in the middle of rice paddies where the heroine Momoko Ryugasaki -- a high school girl devoted to rococo dresses <http://www.babyssb.co.jp/order/op/op.html> -- lives. Momoko feels she is triply exiled. Exiled from her hometown Osaka (the second largest metropolis in Japan), from which her good-for-nothing father (a failed yakuza-turned-businessman who sells designer-brand knock-offs) and she flee after his shady business venture collapses (her mother had run off with her gynecologist a long time ago). Exiled from Daikanyama, Tokyo -- the mecca of Japanese fashion -- from which Shimotsuma is two and half hours away by train. Exiled from good people of Shimotsuma, who are content with buying cheap, prosaic, and nondescript clothes from local Jusco <http://www.shimotsuma-movie.jp/location_guide/location_06.html> (cf. <http://www.union-network.org/UNIsite/Sectors/Commerce/Multinationals/Jusco_pass_Ito-Yokado.htm> which is like Wal-Mart and Target in America). Momoko's fashion is an expression of her consumerist-existentialist soul: "We are born alone, live alone, and die alone," says Momoko. Wishing to acquire more yen for her outlandish fantasy fashion that allows her to live in her own world despite (or because of) the stares of her neighbors that it courts, she comes up with an idea of setting up her own risky business making use of merchandise left from her father's failed business -- the business through which she meets Ichigo Shirayuri, a working-class biker, the leader of an all-girl gang. Then the two girls -- both loners -- develop an unlikely friendship and embark on a joint quest for a legendary embroiderer to adorn the biker girl's signature Tokkofuku (originally a right-wing affectation modelled on the Kamikaze pilot look, but now often adopted by working-class bikers regardless of their political views), and Momoko discovers her talent for embroidery and pachinko.
The spirit of the film is not unlike shojo manga (graphic novels for girls) + Tim Burton (_Edward Scissorhands_) + Hal Hartley (_Trust_) + John Waters (_Hairspray_).
Working-class girls and women doing the Lolita fashion (which is not favored by rich girls) are dedicated to performing fantasies of aestheticism -- part Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde and part Teddy Boys riffing on the British Edwardian style -- rather than trying to lure a would-be Humbert Humbert .
Novelist Novala Takemoto astutely notes a self-conscious mixture of cute and grotesque in the "Lolita" subculture of aestheticism, repellent rather than attractive to boys and men:
<blockquote>Takemoto has high cheekbones and wild hair. He could be a good-looking guy or a pretty woman. Asked to describe himself, he says: "Well, I am a male and heterosexual. When a heterosexual man is like this (infatuated with feminine objects), it's often said that it's due to the influence of an older sister. But I don't have an older sister. No one influenced me. I guess I am a mutation."
Dressed in a mixed Vivian Westwood, Comme des Garcons outfit, he serves iced tea in Alice in Wonderland glasses, setting the beverages on strawberry-patterned coasters.
Takemoto, who will not reveal his age-a ploy to keep his mysterious aura intact-joined the literary crowd with his first novel "Mishin" in 2000. It is the tale of beautiful Lolita punk band vocalist, Mishin, and the high school girl who adores her.
Though Takemoto was nominated for the Yukio Mishima Literary Prize for "Emily" and "Lolita" in 2003 and 2004 respectively, it was "Shimotsuma Monogatari" (Shimotsuma story) that made him a celebrity. A movie based on the book was a huge hit in Japan this year. It is scheduled for release as "Kamikaze Girls" in seven countries including the United States, Italy and Spain.
Known as a novelist with the heart of an otome (maiden), Takemoto says the Lolita sense of beauty is the most important aspect of his writing and his life. In Japan the word "Lolita" conjures up images of girls decked out in outlandishly frilly garb, but he says it is as much a way of living as a fashion statement.
"Lolita is a form of aestheticism. I think Lolita is a condition in which two conflicting elements co-exist without contradiction, for example, something grotesque as well as cute," he says. "A Lolita loves Alice in Wonderland because the chaotic situation in Wonderland is very Lolitalike." (Miyuki Kondo, "Do Your Own Thing: 'Lolita' Novelist Touches Lonely Hearts," IHT/Asahi, July 24,2004, <http://www.asahi.com/english/lifestyle/TKY200407240146.html>)</blockquote> -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>