All About Lily Chou-Chou

Starring:Hayato Ichihara, ShÃ»go Oshinari, Ayumi Ito, Takao Osawa, Miwako Ichikawa, Izumi Inamori, YÃ» Aoi, Kazusa Matsuda, Hideyuki Kasahara, Tomohiro Kaku, Yuki Ito, Takako Baba, Yoji Tanaka
Director: Shunji Iwai
Studio: Homevision
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

The pain and suffering of junior high is always good movie fodder, and in All About Lily Chou-Chou the topic gets an unfamiliar and moody airing. Director Shunji Iwai takes a discursive, sometimes baffling look into the life of a bullied kid whose misery is broken by his worship of a pop star, Lily Chou-Chou. Internet chat room exchanges punctuate the film's narrative, as Yuichi and his anonymous Lily-philes share their intoxication with the "Ether"--the mystery of life that Lily's voice somehow illuminates. The film's style (and length) offer little in the way of traditional movie-watching pleasure, and the mystifying storytelling will have some viewers giving up in exasperation. Still, the portrait of adolescent loneliness rings true, and the ferocity of school bullying is laid bare. On the latter subject, this film is a little like the kill-or-be-killed apocalypse of Battle Royale, without the fantasy overlay. --Robert Horton

Description

Yuichi is in the 8th grade and worships Lily Chou-Chou, a Bjork-like chanteuse whose music is lush and transcendent - the perfect tool to escape the pain and anxiety that fills his brutal life in Japan. At home, Yuichi rarely leaves his room, spending all his time in the chat room of Lily Chou-Chou's fan website, but little by little, the reality of Yuichi's offline life becomes unbearable when he is ensnared in a nightmare of teenage prostitution, petty theft, and possible murder. A hauntingly poetic story in the vein of Battle Royale, All About Lily Chou-Chou is a disturbing look at the terror and isolation that characterizes today's youth of Japan.

Customer Reviews:

Mostly about nothing.......2006-12-07

Compiled mostly from the internet stories of Japanese kids, ALL ABOUT LILY CHOU CHOU is as visionary as it is excsssive, and equal parts riveting and excruciatingly dull. The fact that we're talking abou the same film suggests that there's a wild inconsistency in Shunji Iwai's story.

The story, as such, is remarkably simple: a bullied teenage boy in rural Japan retreats into a fannish love for pop idol Lily Chou Chou, whose ballads embody his isolation and hopelessness. The onus of bullyiing is spread on this framework - a kind of social Darwinism from which some do not escape. The details of the film cover fairly mundane, everyday life of its young characters, conveyed through a range of film techniques: wide-screen, jerky video, narrative...even a computer screen. As such, the film may come off as a technical tour de force for some.

The subject matter can be brutal, and it's up to the viewer to determine whether courage or excess is in evidence. If you're not adverse to watching scenes of gang-rape and torture, you'll to contend with stretches of the film that require a great deal of patience; certainly, the fast-forward button may be an agreeable middle ground for most viewers. But even fans admit the film's inconsistent storyline and pretentiousness. You may find yourself saying, "Do I have to sit here and watch this?" ALL ABOUT LILY CHOU CHOU offered me nothing I hadn't seen before, better, and really quite often.

Powerful, mesmerizing, and perhaps one of the most nostalgic movies around........2006-04-01

Simply put, this is a new favorite of mine. It's gone to the top of my list, and will for surely stay there for quite some time.

Everything about the movie is fantastic. The acting, the directing, the story... Especially the use of light and natural beauty. Really, somehow Shunji Iwai has conquered the impossible: he's captured some of the most beautiful images I've ever seen on film. And the best thing is, those images have meaning. The film's other highest point is the soundtrack: it's absolutely amazing. Of course, there's the instrumental music here and there, which is high quality, but the REAL meat of the soundtrack is the songs from Lily Chou Chou, the singer Yuichi worships and finds solace and peace in (despite his wretched life). The tracks we get to hear (I think there's only about four or five) are just amazingly... beautiful. They're so poetic that it's hard to describe, but Lily's voice is so... magnetic and strong. I could listen to the tracks over and over again and not get bored of them AT ALL (they're that absorbing).

The movie shows so realistically growing up is, and to quote the dvd cover, it's "viciously" honest, and they're not lyin.

If you want a true visual and emotional masterpiece, don't dare miss this film.

Incredible movie; terrible DVD.......2006-03-13

That's 5/5 for the film itself and 1/5 for this edition.
First off, this is one of my favourite movies, and while it's not for everyone, I would recommend it unreservedly, because if it works for you then the payoff is tremendous.
However, I must warn against this Home Vision version for a first taste of the film. The transfer to DVD in this version is so awful that it goes beyond mere misjudgement, and debate continues about how Home Vision -- a company with an excellent track record with Asian releases -- could have allowed its release. These aren't subtle differences only noticed by fanatics and cinemaphiles; they're huge. It actually looks like it was booklegged from a theatre with a hand-held handicam. But apparently it wasn't, and that's scary.
With regard to the video, the least serious problem is digital artifacting and loss of detail caused by squeezing a 2.5-hour movie plus special features onto a single DVD. That's a marketing decision, and somewhat understandable.
What's not understandable is the incredible graininess that has somehow been introduced into the film. Or the great reduction in contrast and brightness -- the vivid colours of the original were a trademark, yet now everything looks like it was filmed in late afternoon on an overcast day. Even the colour balance has been changed, so that skin tones have a greyish-blue look -- there are no pure whites left (another trademark). And finally, the picture actually shakes -- this is most noticable during the many scenes of typed text.
For most, this would be bad enough, but for me, the audio is even worse than the video -- the worst attempt at dynamic compression I can remember hearing in a film. Yes, the parts that are supposed to be quiet are way too loud, and the parts that are supposed to be loud are way too quiet, but most annoyingly, whenever there's a song playing it sounds like there's some 5-year old kid rapidly flicking the volume knob up

3 and 1/2 stars.......2005-11-17

Both the one star and five star reviewers here have some valid points and my advice to potential viewers is to read a number of each first. The more you know going into the movie the more you will enjoy it. You may also want to view the "making of" special feature before watching the film. (I was sorry I hadn't.) This may sound odd, but learning the background helped me greatly in ultimately understanding and (after the fact) appreciating the film. For me, the weak parts of the movie were the confusing (or little or no) plot and the tendency to keep the characters at arms length. The film's strength was its compelling visual appeal (except for the hand-held, fast-cut "vacation" sequence, which added a measure of realism while, ironically, obstructing intimacy). Worth watching.

Evocative, emotional, touching, but fatiguing and tedious.......2005-10-21

When I was younger, I couldn't stand it when reviewers spoke about the importance of caring about characters. That just seemed lazy. Now that I'm much, much older, and have thousands of movies under my belt, I totally understand it! It's the crucial issue with this movie. This movie is a combo of a Japanese sensibility and even moreso the European film style of "Postcards from a Marriage" or "Fanny and Alexander." There is no plot, just self-contained "postcard" scenes involving a general set of young Japanese teenagers: spring break on the beach and the girls met in town don't show up, sensitive boy getting beaten up by some bullies when riding his bike, teenage boy finding himself attracted to his friend's mother during a sleepover, girl getting raped in a banal fashion on way home from school and tells no one. None of these threads are picked up: they are isolated. The handheld cameras and makeshift lighting are evocative and brilliant. Some scenes are nearly perfect, such as the "going to your first big concert" and "the popular girl publicly humiliates the nice girl and the teacher does nothing." We can be deeply touched emotionally. That said, and I am a teacher of teenagers, I'm not sure how much I ever cared. Teenagers are subject to instant nostalgia: they can wax nostalgic over a spring break trip six months earlier as if they were but kids back then. But I don't do that anymore. Yes, my heart bled watching some of this stuff, but without being allowed by the film to connect to the characters in any narrative fashion, I couldn't help simultaneously admiring the film and BEGGING for it to end.

Average customer rating:

Mostly about nothing
Powerful, mesmerizing, and perhaps one of the most nostalgic movies around.
Incredible movie; terrible DVD
3 and 1/2 stars
Evocative, emotional, touching, but fatiguing and tedious

All About Lily Chou-Chou [Region 2]
Starring: Hayato Ichihara , Shûgo Oshinari , Ayumi Ito , Takao Osawa , and Miwako Ichikawa
Director: Shunji Iwai
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( A ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Last Life in the Universe
Nobody Knows
Crazed Fruit (Criterion Collection)
Dolls
Tony Takitani

ASIN: B00008YNI3

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Mostly about nothing.......2006-12-07

Powerful, mesmerizing, and perhaps one of the most nostalgic movies around........2006-04-01

Incredible movie; terrible DVD.......2006-03-13

3 and 1/2 stars.......2005-11-17

Evocative, emotional, touching, but fatiguing and tedious.......2005-10-21

Average customer rating:

All About Lily Chou-Chou

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Product Description

Yuichi Hasumi is in the 8th grade. At school he constantly gets picked on, bullied, roughed up and abused. His favourite singer, Lily Chou Chou, was all that matters to him. He manages Lily fan website and encounters another passionate Lily fan called Blue Cat. Little by little, reality has become unbearable to him. He is relieved to have Blue Cat in his life, someone who finally understands him. At last, Lily holds her special concert. Yuichi heads for the concert hall where unknowingly the final tragedy is waiting for him...Multimedia trendsetter Iwai Shunji once again takes our breath away with a convergence of music, film, and cyber/pop culture in the form of a suspense thriller.

Average customer rating:

All About Lily Chou-Chou
Starring: All About Lily Chou-Chou
Manufacturer: Phantom
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( A ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Album Description

The story - Lily-Chou is a Japanese pop idol, who must be real, since she appears in concert, but who we never see. Ironically, then, one of her songs consists of repetitions of ''I see you and you see me''. She is idolized by a student in high school who has a crush on her in real-life, a gifted pianist. Both are targets of cliques of school bullies. Directed by Shunji Iwai and starring Shugo Oshinari. All Code/NTSC/Digital Dolby Stereo 5.1. Original Japanese version with optional English and Chinese subtitles. 140 minutes. Features instant access to chapters. Panorama Ent. 2003.

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