All About Lily Chou-Chou (2002)

If there ever was a production that fit the definition, look and feel of a cult film then All About Lily Chou-Chou would be it. Filmed in Ashikaga in Tochigi Prefecture this film did well upon release in Japan in 2001, but it was the subsequent export, mystique and international fandom that have kept the ethereal film alive. There are many ways to describe 'Lily Chou-Chou Is Everything' (Riri Shushu No Subete in Japanese) and none of them would point to anything remotely mainstream or Hollywood-esque. It is a feel-bad movie that is nihilistic to the extreme, original and catches one off-guard and, independent of that depiction, there is a reasonable debate (in my mind anyway) as to whether it is good. The story revolves around the fanatics of the mythical artist Lily Chou-Chou whose art, to her fans and members of a website whose chat room message are integral and elucidating, is beyond anything merely terrestrial and is often described as embodying the 'ether.' Her fans live and breathe within the ether firstly because she is that sublime and secondly as an escape mechanism from the toll it takes to be a teenage high school student of fourteen in modern Japan. The students are perpetrators and victims of bullying, oppression, alienation, angst, prostitution, corruption and disregarded by a hopeless cadre of teachers and parents. Banish those images of Japan as an orderly and organized society with a disciplined and respectable school system. To be fair, however, whether anyone - including myself - really 'gets' this film is another matter. It comes across as lifelike, and partly due to the documentary-style camera-work which is most observable in the Okinawa and kendo sequences, but it is deliberately cryptic, open to interpretation and even ends without something as definite as one is expecting - perhaps as a nod to life in modern society in general. Incidentally, the travel to Okinawa, and its aftermath, is the most unrealistic. The money may have been procured through ill-begotten means, but what about the time, opportunity and parental permissions? Would one subsequently change so drastically? As if there was not enough confusion the film incorporates flashbacks. The pompous and simultaneously enlightening All About Lily Chou-Chou is filmed long and like a stream of consciousness and, if nothing else, will make one hate the younger generation and its enablers. I always thought striking imagery, penetrating story lines and intense music make for perfect films - think Blade Runner or Kill Bill or Lost in Translation - and this film has it all. The added element, however, is the extra disturbing content for which there is no preparation. On the flip side, All About Lily Chou-Chou's music is a success and laudable. With the film revolving around a recording artist it might be expected, but the alternative ambiance of Lily, as performed by the as-of-then unknown Salyu, is perfect for the concept of the 'ether' and for the suffocating world in which the anti-heroes live. While we are on the subject the film and Lily were inspired by Chinese singress Faye Wong. Lily/Salyu's Kaifuku No Kizu was included/mumbled in the film Kill Bill to boot. French composer Debussy's work is also prominently featured. Did I learn anything or know anything definitive from this film? Well, datsu or Needlefish is called Shijar in Okinawa. North is 'nishi,' east is 'agari,'south is 'fue' and west is iri.' Everything else is open to interpretation... On a good day Japan bewilders most people. All About Lily Chou-Chou out-bewilders the bewilderment.

The work of Japanese filmmaker Shunji Iwai is different from other contemporary filmmakers like Kitano Takeshi,Aoyama Shinji and Kore-Eda Hirokazu.His films about Japanese youth are known for their distinct visual style and arcane music.Most of his films clock more than 2 hours.In "All about Lily Chou Chou", we see that there are youngsters connected to each other over Internet.They make regular attempts to inform each other about their fictional pop star.They would like to live like her in a world where virtual reality will surely become a key feature of everyday existence in future.This is not a brief passage about a space colony.This is a brief description of things which have fundamentally gone wrong for Japanese households.Shunji Iwai does not show Tokyo as it is overcrowded.We see a small city where young people are facing miseries,sorrows and tremendous emotional pain."All about Lily Chou Chou" handles well many disparate themes such as breakdown of Japanese family system,bullying at school,rape and prostitution.The unique thing about this film is its soundtrack.You have to see this film to feel ether.

I can easily see this film as causing many viewers a lot of frustration as the facts and events are not always easy to follow but, personally, I found it to be wildly vivid and fantastically telling piece for which I felt a lot of personal empathy; the attitudes to school and education by the school children (who are the stars of the film) particularly. The soundtrack is often borrowed from Claude Debussy whom Lily Chou Chou (the popular music star by whom the star is obsessed) was heavily influenced by. There are sequences in this film I found to be completely hypnotic and I think that a good rule of thumb for whether you will enjoy it or not would be whether you are completely absorbed by the opening scenes in the field or whether you just wonder what the hell is going on.

I watched All About Lily Chou-Chou on about the end of my high school life and I must say that I was moved with the entire story and Shunji Iwai's brilliance.First off, the music was excellent - Salyu (or Lily) has this ethereal voice that haunts me every time the movie comes into mind, strengthening the entire atmosphere of the movie.It also shows the usual Japanese high school dimension of bullying which is very common, but the movie just shows a more intense depth to it.What makes the movie tick for me I guess would be that the main character (Yuuichi) although predominantly a shy and quiet boy, he developed through the various circumstances and thus leads to the end (which I will not spoil.) I can say that the pace of the movie is just enough to make you feel the emotions the characters portray given minimalistic dialogue and instead replaced by revolving BBS messages and lush green scenery.I give it a 10 out of 10 for everything - cinematography, plot, music. A movie that's so superb like this should be watched by everyone.