Blu-ray release - Kamikaze Girls (Third Window Films) available on 2/8/2010
Posted by Kevin Ouellette on Tuesday, October 6, 2009 EST at 3:40pm
Filed under: Comedy, DVD/Blu-ray releases
UK label Third Window Films will be coming out with a new release of Tetsuya Nakashima's Kamikaze Girls (Shimotsuma Monogatari, 2004) on Blu-ray and 2-disc Special Edition DVD on February 8, 2009.
Plot: 17-year-old Momoko (Kyoko Fukada) lives in a small country town near Kobe, but would much prefer to live in Rococo-era France. To escape her mundane surroundings, she dives into the world of "Lolita" fashion, consisting of 18th-century dresses and eccentric lacy accents. She idolizes Akinori Isobe, a well-known designer of her favorite clothing line, and often travels all the way to Tokyo to spend every last penny she has on these name-brand clothes. To fund her passion, Momoko sells designer knock-offs supplied by her yakuza father. One day, a rebellious biker girl named Ichigo (Anna Tsuchiya) answers an ad placed by Momoko and the two strike up an unlikely friendship. Ichigo needs a coat embroidered for the leader of her biker gang and brings Momoko on a quest to find a legendary embroiderer in Tokyo.
Region-free Blu-ray (source), anamorphic widescreen. Japanese Dolby 5.1 audio with selectable English subtitles. Features include:
- Interviews with director Tetsuya Nakashima, Anna Tsuchiya, and Kyoko Fukada
- Short film: "The Birth of Unicorn Ryuji"
- Making-of (40 min.)
- Workprint footage
- Anna Tsuchiya music video
- Trailer
- Trailers for other Third Window releases
Available at the following retailer(s) on February 8, 2010:
Related Entries:
Tags: anna tsuchiya, eiko koike, haruo mizuno, hirotaro honda, hiroyuki miyasako, kamikaze girls, kanako irie, katsuhisa namase, kirin kiki, kyoko fukada, mayuko fukuda, ryoko shinohara, sadao abe, shin yazawa, tetsuya nakashima, third window films, yoko maki, yoshinori okada, yoshiyoshi arakawa, yuichi kimura
Comments
Judging from interviews I get the impression she’s genuinely a pretty strange, abrasive person and it translates to most of her roles. The main exception I know of is The Taste of Tea. She was normal in that, but it was a minor role.
God bless Third Window! Where would we British fans of Asian cinema be without them? I am slightly gutted though that the movie will now be on blu-ray (having already shelled out on the DVD!) But good luck to Third Window who have also secured the rights to Sion Sono’s ‘Love Exposure.’ I can’t wait for that one!
You’re right about Anna Tsuchiya, Katie. I enjoyed Sakuran enormously but agree she relies too much on her unique physiognomy. However, Kamikaze Girls is great fun and she is suited to her part in that perfectly (though how easy is it to look like a dangerous rebel when your riding a rather ludicrously modded motorscooter?) Top movie though.
The release is region free, so it’s save to import :)
http://forum.blu-ray.com/2884733-post11.html
I never quite know what to make of Anna Tsuchiya. She’s gorgeous to look at of course, but it sometimes feels as if the uniqueness provided by her genetics is doing a lot of the work for her in music and movies. She sure can express a wider range of emotions, but they lose their effect after a while. Perhaps I’m reading too much into her huge level of celebrity, and should just enjoy her - not inconsiderable - ability to entertain.
Anyway, this article has convinced me to go out and buy Kamikaze Girls on DVD.