Dream Girls is a fascinating documentary about a famous Japanese theatre troupe, Takarazuka, which has a seventyfive year history. Contrary to the conventions of traditional Japanese theater like the all-male casts of Kabuki theater, the members of Takarazuka are all women. The main plot of the Takarazuka Revue, reminiscent of Broadway musicals or Cabaret shows, is perfect romance, impossible to realize in reality. The audience is comprised mostly of women of all ages, and the popularity of the actress in the male role surpasses that of mainstream pop stars. The film goes over the surface of the Takarazuka cult, revealing the structural contradictions that are present in staging the female fantasy of ‘perfect romance.’ We can only reach the fantastic world of Takarazuka revue with the aid of western objects, the notion of heterosexual love, women stars cast in men’s roles and Japanese-style modern rules. By interweaving the brilliant
 Takarazuka scenes onstage and interviews with the audience and the stars offstage, Dream Girls makes us once again question issues of gender and sexual identity, the escapism of the female audience, the contradictions facing present Japanese women and how Japan, views the culture of the West. Called the Japanese version of Paris Is Burning, Dream Girls was awarded the Best Documentary Award at the 11th Créteil Women’s Film Festival. (KWON Eun-Sun)