Momoko (pop idol Kyoko Fukada) yearns to live in the Rococo period and loses herself in the dreamy, doll-like fashions of the "Lolita" scene. She makes religious trips from her hometown of Shimotsuma to Tokyo in order to visit her favorite Lolita design house "Baby The Stars Shine Bright." In order to pay for her expensive lifestyle she often presents sob stories to her father about ailing friends on the brink of death.. if only they had a little more money of course. Eventually, in a change of conscience and realizing that her father isn't making the money he used to selling fake Versache, she decides to try to sell off his remaining stock of counterfeit goods. Momoko pulls an ad out in a magazine advertising the sale of some Versache goods, and fate intercedes. Her advertisement catches the eye of super-rebel Ichiko (Anna Tsuchiya), a member of a motorbike gang. These two self-directed trendy girls find themselves taking different paths down the same road. Somewhat against their will, they slowly develop a strong friendship as they share their feelings on the odd world around them.

This is definitely one of the strangest buddy flicks you'll ever lay your eyes on, and quite possibly one of the best. It comes as absolutely no surprise that this movie has been nominated for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Newcomer of the Year by the Japanese Academy Awards. While the plot may not be entirely original, two girls from different worlds initially clash but eventually find they weren't so different after all, its everything in between that makes the story so great.

The off-beat story follows Momoko and her over-active imagination as she trudges through life. A girl who seems perennially indifferent about life, who didn't shed a tear for mass deaths of animals she saw on TV, or the break up of her parents, and ultimately her life with absolutely no friends.

In one scene, Momoko's mother is seen explaining the upcoming divorce with her father, to which Momoko replies that happiness is often difficult to find and at her mothers age (33) it might be her last chance to find true happiness. Momoko continues her lecture about people being cowards in the face of happiness and suggests her mother get breast implants and enter a beauty contest. During this conversation it's also revealed that Momoko would prefer to stay with her deadbeat father because it was more interesting. An abrupt cut to a scene in which Momoko and dad are sitting at home, Dad gets up and asks Momoko if she sees anything coming and promptly farts at her face. Be prepared for interesting cuts like these which makes Shimotsuma Monotagari so darned interesting. The scene ends as Momoko and mother walk outside, and Momoko flies away while telling her mother that everything will be okay.

Momoko's charmed life without friends is promptly shattered when the aforementioned Ichiko barges in looking for a deal on Versache clothing. Ichiko, a member of a biker gang and self-annointed rebel, also has an interesting backstory she used to be a complete nerd with no friends until she decided to imitate the biker gang leader she idolized and eventually joined. It's almost as if their back stories were flipped upside down, and that might be why both these girls get along so well. As Ichiko spits and headbutts her way into Momoko's life, they get united by their shared interest in embroidery. Don't get me wrong now, Momoko enjoys embroidery but Ichiko wants her gang colors embroidered for a special message to her retiring idol of a gang leader, so you won't find Ichiko embroidering anything. It's not one of those stories, save that for the Gilmore Girls.

Shimotsuma Monotagari is completely over the top, and every trick in the book is used for fuel. From Momoko talking directly to the camera whenever she finds one of Ichiko's back stories to be dull to just glazing over a story with pure animated goodness. The colors used in the film are simply wonderful and crisp, the editing is rapid fire (something not seen often in Japanese movies where many scenes seem to drag), and the film makes sure you remember that a lot of it is just the fantasies of lead girl Momoko.

Do not make the mistake of assuming the movie is a gimmicky anime-wannabe, even with all of the camera tricks, odd special effects, and bizarre characters. This movie has real heart, and every character comes off as being a real living being, definitely one of the reasons this film picked up so many nominations for the actresses in the film.

The film is also filled with pop-culture references, such as Momoko's evaluation of her hometown being obsessed with finding good deals at the Jusco which can be compared to The Gap or Old Navy here. Momoko also observed that in her former hometown, people were born in tracksuits and died in tracksuits and the entire town was full of sleaze who either were Yakuza or aspired to be. Her displeasure for the human race seems to help ease her absorption into the world of Lolita fashion.

Overall this is definitely a movie worth watching for so many reasons. You not only get a better glimpse into the odd Japanese culture you might have only seen flashes of in Lost in Translation, but you also get to enjoy a great movie. You get to see two great Japanese actresses who don't overact or have character roles that seem to trivialize or undermine the story, with one who also happens to be a huge J-pop star. There isn't much to complain about as far as the story goes. Both characters have decent screen time and there isn't any plot holes to speak of, even if there are absurd things happening all around them. You'll be entranced by the story from beginning to end whether you're the biker-gang type or the Lolita type.