Kamikaze Girls
Viz Media | Release Date: September 9, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
A glorious blend of kitsch, grit, humor and uplift. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
A charmingly loony tale of two young loners who form an unlikely bond, this droll Japanese import puts the predictable banality of most Hollywood teen flicks to shame. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerBill White
Fukada captures the stubborn individualism of a girl who embraces an unpopular lifestyle. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen Johnson
A silly, freewheeling, candy-colored lollapalooza, but also heartfelt. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
The yummy Japanese confection Kamikaze Girls deserves both a better title and an audience to go with it. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyScott Brown
For the Western viewer, the cultural divide acts as a saccharine filter, and Kamikaze, a cult hit in Japan, becomes a mesmerizing lesson in otherness. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterAndrew Sun
It's the kind of rollicking rebel-chick flick that should score well in venues that appreciate Quentin Tarantino films. Read full review
50
Film ThreatGreg Bellavia
Fluff. The cinematic equivalent of too much cotton candy Tetsuya Nanashima's Kamikaze Girls is a hyperkinetic fun house ride that is about forty five minutes too long. Read full review
50
VarietyDerek Elley
Wears out its welcome at 100 minutes, but could find an audience in the West as a latenight attraction at gay fests. Read full review
50
New York PostV.A. Musetto
What Kamikaze Girls doesn't have is a plot. As nice as the film looks, it soon grows tiresome -- though I could listen to the Johann Strauss II soundtrack forever. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
But it's all done with such high style and whizzes along at such an exhausting pace that you probably won't have enough time to notice how little you care. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyChuck Wilson
For this viewer, the climactic scooter-gang rumble, heavy on plot twists and empowerment speeches, felt eternal, but for many, the happy silliness of the film's first half should carry the day. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Nakashima does his best to keep the flimsy enterprise afloat, mostly through whooshing camera movements and headlong dives into the grotesque extremes of Japanese kitsch. By the end, the effect is like eating a bellyache's worth of cotton candy. Read full review
30
Village VoiceMatt Singer
If you value plausibility in movies, skip Kamikaze Girls; this is the sort of picture where getting run over by a truck gives a character gorgeous hair instead of a broken hip. Read full review
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