| | |  | Childrens & Family | Home » » Kamikaze Girls | | | | | | | Product Promotions: | | | | | Description: | | Explores the unlikely friendship between a quirky girl obsessed with frilly dresses and rococo style and a female member of a bike gang. | | | Product Details: | | | Actors:
| Kyôko Fukada, Anna Tsuchiya, Hiroyuki Miyasako, Sadao Abe, Eiko Koike | | Director:
| Tetsuya Nakashima | | Format:
| Animated, Color, Dolby, DVD, Live, Subtitled, NTSC | | Language:
| Japanese | | Subtitle:
| English | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Studio:
| VIZ Pictures, Inc. | | Run Time:
| 102 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| January 10, 2006 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 47 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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 Quite the Wild RideAug 09, 2010
When I was about 10 or 15 minutes into this movie I wasn't sure I was going to make it. It was way too hyper kinetic for me. It were as though you took a bit of Terry Gilliam, added a little Jean Pierre Jeunet and a dash of Guy Ritchie, edited it with an AK47 and over-saturated the colors. I thought "no way am I making through this entire movie." I figured I'd be blind and crazy before it was over. Well....things calmed down a bit from there and I was able to settle in some.
Momoko is a girl who feels she should have been born during the 'Rococo' era with all the frilly dresses and such. She meets up with a tough-ish biker babe, Ichigo, and the two somehow hit it off and wander through a series of minor adventures.
This movie has a good heart and the two female leads do a fine job. What is happening here is that you have these two social misfits who each fills some void in the other. They make a goofy pair to be sure and the script is smart enough to not let things get too sappy. Add to that the host of oddball supporting characters (the Unicorn is a real hoot) and things stay very lively.
It's a lot of fun with some genuinely touching moments. All the aspects of production are decent to good including the rather oddball music score. What makes this work are Momoko and Ichigo. They make for a good pair and you find yourself rooting for them in their own personal quests. I gave this 3 stars but it's really 3 1/2. I could have done without some of the hysteria and, as I watched it subtitled, some of the original Japanese voices can be more than a bit shrill. Listening to them is not unlike having a darning needle shoved through your ears.
All in all this is a good ride. Maybe not for everyone, but if your into new cinematic experiences, you might want to give this a shot.
 Warning about this DVDJul 05, 2010
This review is not about the actual movie which is phantasmagorically awesome. Instead I'm drawing attention to the awful DVD published by Viz Media. The box states "16x9 Anamorphic Widescreen" (meaning it should fill your entire screen whether you have an old 4x3 or a new 16x9 widescreen), but this is not the case.
Instead it is "letterboxed (non-anamorphic)" widescreen (meaning it's a 16x9 image shrunken down to a 4x3 frame). On a widescreen tv or computer it has a thick black border around all edges. This is compounded with the fact that the digital transfer was not so great to begin with, and the result is a DVD of lousy quality with respect to the standards of 2006 when it was released, not to mention the quality of today. If you try to zoom in to make it fill your screen it looks quite bad. Oh yes, and the English subtitles are hard coded (you can't turn them off) as well as full of errors. This product was apparently thrown together without much thought, and the false advertising is unacceptable.
With other DVD media companies, if you send them a polite email informing them of the error, they will apologize and exchange it for a reissued product or even send you a full refund since retail stores don't do refunds once a DVD is opened. This has happened a few times, and companies like Sony, MGM, etc are eager to keep their customers happy. But with Viz media (whom you can contact via their website listed on the back of the DVD) answered my email with a very curt, snooty response essentially telling me what to do with myself.
Non-anamorphic + false advertising + apathetic customer service = 0 stars. Avoid this product and avoid Viz Media which shouldn't be very hard since they're an obscure Asian company that sells mostly comic books.
I've been told that there is a UK (Region 2) version of this film which is true anamorphic widescreen, released by Third Window Films in Feb 2010. Buy this version and get a region free player (or hack your old player so it can play all regions), and you'll have a great time watching this excellent film which MUST be viewed in its full widescreen enhanced glory.
P.S. If you've already been suckered like me, try emailing Viz. If enough of us speak up, maybe they'll fix the problem like reputable media companies do. I won't hold my breath, though.
 good movieApr 22, 2010
I love this movie to bits and pieces, the only thing that is wrong is that on the subtitle ever so often there is a first letter missing to a word, but it is noticeable, and you will understand immediately what it means. So Excellent movie!!! :D
 NOT ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREENFeb 25, 2010
The box lists this DVD as Anamorphic Widescreen which this movie IS NOT! Anyone with a widescreen TV will not be happy campers. I ordered this DVD a week ago and the website stated Anamorphic widescreen. I never order DVD's unless they are anamorphic or Enhanced for 16/9 TV (You shouldn't either). Today the DVD is no longer listed on this website as anamorphic, the error has been corrected on the website (not product). It is now listed 1.33:1. Partly correct. It is 4/3 letterboxed widescreen which means black bars top,bottom,right and left. If you have an older DVD player (not HDMI) you may be able to zoom it. If you have a new DVD player, blu-ray or HDMI DVD, too bad.
The movie was excellent, imaginative, and magical. Nothing like I expected. It gets a 4 1/2 rating. The musically score really adds to the movie.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
An odd and Quirky filmDec 28, 2009
Kamikaze Girls DVD was a struggle to watch, hence the medium review. There was so much on screen to see that to read the subtitles was not as easy as other Japanese movies - An odd and Quirky film.
The cinematography and costumes were very good, the acting was good, but i was just unable to get into the film. The story was quirky, 2 opposites becoming friends, interspersed with laughs and a great twist at the end.
Its an ok film which needs to be watched on several occasions
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