Friday, October 16, 2009, 7:30pm
Place: 125 Frick Fine Arts Building
Kamikaze Girls/Shimotsuma Monogatari (2004)
Speaker: David M. Desser, Professor Emeritus, Cinema Studies, Comparative Literature, and EALC Research
Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
"As exciting for its beautifully specific and honest portrayal of teenage girls and their friendships as it is for its dazzling visual and narrative style, "Kamikaze Girls" is a glorious blend of kitsch, grit, humor and uplift that borrows freely from various Japanese subcultures and films such as "The Outsiders" and "Kill Bill" to tell the picaresque story of Momoko, an emotionally repressed teenager with an active fantasy life who learns to open herself up to friendship from Ichigo, a "Yanki" biker on a tricked-out scooter. Gorgeously visual and energetic, "Kamikaze Girls" captures the appeal of the fashion subcultures of aesthetes and misfits, re-creating a rarefied atmosphere in which identity creation is a thoughtful, idealistic art." -- Carina Chocano, LA Times
In Japanese with English subtitles
Directed by Tetsuya Nakashima
Screenplay by Tetsuya Nakashima
Based on the original novel by Novala Takemoto
Funding is provided by: Toshiba International Foundation, Japan Iron and Steel Federation and Mitsubishi endowments at the University of Pittsburgh
