When obsessions collide... Kuriyama Chiaki's gear new '60s music flick "GS Wonderland!"

On Myspace yesterday, I friended what I thought was either a strange new band or the return of some old musical combo called the Tightsmen (but they haven't friended me back). I took one look at their crazy pageboy haircuts and knew this was something for me. The keyboardist... this striking femininity about his face actually caused a few confused feelings... but there was something very familiar about him... I'd seen him somewhere before...

Then I realized it was none other than Kuriyama Chiaki styled up for the candy-colored mod milieu of '60s Japanese pop-rock known as "group sound."

GS Wonderland!

As you can see from the trailer, her new movie features pop/op art kitsch, lots of period nostalgia, with styles accurately and lovingly recreated. And an overload of screaming girls in Canarby Street Twiggy-inspired looks. As a super-fan of Chiaki, Japanese pop culture and '60s rock- especially groups like the Beatles and the Kinks- this is the new movie for me. One of those rare flicks I know I'm going to see in the theaters although I'll only understand about 10% of the dialogue. The retro audiovisual experience and the fierce presence of Kuriyama Chiaki as she works her way through her gender-bending boy rock idol life will be more than enough to keep me riveted.

Now if only the Tightsmen would friend me back, Japan would swing like a pendulum do!