Funny but Encouraging! : Kamikaze Girls

Kamikaze Girls

The story is: Momoko is an ordinary girl, living an ordinary life. Ordinary, that is, if you define ordinary as wearing elaborate Lolita dresses from the Rococo period in 18th Century France. A complete fish out of water in her rural and sleepy Japanese town, where everyone buys their clothes (and everything else) at the same store and no one understands her, Momoko's life is one of sugared sweets and frilly treats. Desperate to make some money to pay for her expensive indulgence, Momoko tries selling bootleg Ver*ace and Uni*ersal Studios clothes left over from her Dad's yakuza (gangster) days. However, when punk girl and self-styled 'Yanki' Ichiko comes calling, her days as 'ordinary' are most certainly numbered... Friendship brings these two unlikely girls together. (from IMDb)

One more description is: Momoko is ultra-sensitive and feminine, picturing herself as a pampered French princess while meticulously embroidering frilly clothes. Ichigo is a member of a girls' biker gang who hides softer emotions and dresses like a feisty boy. When the two young people are thrown together, each helps the other develop new skills for survival—and for living as a whole woman. Artist Kanesada continues Takemoto's story by writing and drawing an additional episode in Ichigo's maturation, then concludes with a tale about a schoolgirl who falls in love with an older man in the garment industry. The book is more character-driven than much manga, and the page layouts do an unusually good job of weaving together different levels of the action, as readers can simultaneously see what the characters are doing, saying and thinking. There's something creepy about young girls calling themselves "Lolitas" and imagining that having sex with a grownup will transform them into grownups, too. Still, there's also a genuine sweetness about these stories as the characters grope uncertainly with new roles and take chances that can pay off wonderfully. (from Amazon.com)

They are perfect. It is no need for me to add more sentence about the story. The below video is the trailor of the movie from YouTube.

Ichigo and Momoko

Shimotsuma, the setting of this funny story, is a real city in the countryside of Ibaragi Prefecture, northen Tokyo.

"BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT", a lolita fashioin shop which Momoko really loves, is also real. 

http://www.babyssb.co.jp/overseas.html

And surpriseingly, a supermarcet "JUSCO", which is drawned as the object of teasing and joking, is real, too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JUSCO

I admire JUSCO as accepting to use the name: However, thanks to JUSCO and others for cooperating the filmmaking of the movie, it became to clear the peculiar and funny existence such as lolita and yankee girls on thier ordinary and regular lives. 

The movie was directed by Tetsuya Nakashima in 2004. Momoko is acted by Kyoko Fukada known as an idol in Japan. Ichigo is acted by Annna Tsuchiya, a famous Japanese model. But now both of them are quite active in the  film industry. 

"Kamikaze Girls" is based on a novel in 2002 written by Novala Takemoto. You can get it from amazon.com.