The second feature from female director Shindo Kaze (Love/Juice), Princess in an Iron Helmet (a.k.a. Korogare! Tamako) is a bright and colorful youth film about a quirky young woman's reluctant coming-of-age journey. Tamako (Yamada Maiko) is 20 years old, lives at home with her mother (Kishimoto Kayoko) and teenaged brother, and simply refuses to grow up. Ever since her father (Naoto Takenaka) left the family, she's stopped trusting people, and now lounges around in her own small, claustrophobic world. Wearing an iron helmet whenever she steps outside, she ventures only to her mom's beauty salon, the mechanic shop, and the bakery - the source of her greatest joy in life, sweet buns. Her world is static, insular, and safe, and there's no need to change - that is until her cat runs away, the bakery closes, and her mom falls in love with another man.
Chinatsu and Kyoko are two close friends who live together and share pretty much everything, makeup, spoon and even their bed. They are so inseparable as to be almost a single entity. Yet they are neither a couple in the conventional sense, or in any other sense, since although Chinatsu is professedly gay, Kyoko is to all intents and purposes straight.
Chinatsu and Kyoko are two close friends who live together and share pretty much everything, makeup, spoon and even their bed. They are so inseparable as to be almost a single entity. Yet they are neither a couple in the conventional sense, or in any other sense, since although Chinatsu is professedly gay, Kyoko is to all intents and purposes straight.