As of today it's been a couple of weeks since me and some friends dragged our lazy asses to the local arthouse theater to check out "All About Lily Chou Chou", which (oddly enough with only 10 prints circulating) happened to be a part of our annual small as hell Asian Film Festival. And two weeks later, I'm still thinking non-stop about this film. It's taken over my mind completely through a mix of perplexing questions and complete and utter awe. The very first frame that blazes onto the screen was beautifully shot, and it just kept my jaw on the floor for it's entire two and a half hour duration.
Lily Chou Chou was the first movie to be filmed with the 24 Progressive Digital Video Camera, and there are sections mixed in using Standard Handycams as well. The contrast of the gorgeous and bright Digital film with the shaky cameras held by the characters lend an unsettling mood to these scenes, even if more than a few moments seemed out of place.
The film opens with chat room style type running across the screen, trading off obscure messages about Lily Chou Chou and how she is the "ether" that connects everything. If you weren't confused at the start of the film, then you probably weren't watching. But everything (for the most part) eventually gets pieced together. We are first introduced to Yuichi, our lead character, who is as introverted as you could possibly imagine, speaking a few handfuls of lines throughout the film's run. He reminded me of a live action Shinji Ikari, at least through his personality. But that's a really nerdy comparison, so I'll leave it at that. He is picked on a bit, and he manages to strike up a few friendships, but all in all it seems that he sticks to himself.
At night he scours the afore-mentioned "Lily-Philia" website, and chats it up with numerous faceless names, like Blue Cat (who he is closer to than he realizes). It's all fairly reminiscent of any basic chat room or message board like KFC, but instead of obsessing over Takashi Miike, all of the subject matter is about Lily Chou Chou. When I say they obsess over Lily, I'm not exaggerating at all, They call her the Ether among a boat load of other weird ass unexplainable dialogue. So Yuichi is finally meeting some people he can connect with and wax poetic about his favorite topic. Everything's gravy;
Eventually Yuichi befriends the young boy Hoshino. Hoshino excels in almost everything. He is great at Kendo, and he represents their incoming Freshman class. The catch is, everyone pretty much clowns him for this. After rolling with Yuichi and his few friends, they all run into an opportunity (by this I mean through jacking someone's wallet) to vacation on the beautiful island of Okinawa. This is an odd section of the movie, both in the way it was filmed, and the general content. It's so insanely realistic, in that the handycam captures what it feels like during their entire vacation, and it almost seems like nothing was edited out. There were a few tedious aspects to this scene, but all in all it served an important purpose to ushering the story along.
While in Okinawa, Hoshino almost drowns. This seems to trigger something in his mind. Upon their return to school, he is a different character altogether. Once the victim, he now bullies and steals. He pimps out one of their classmates, makin' some cheddar on the side. Everything about him is just evil. The confusing part about this is the way the film jumps around. This is already occurring during the first third of the film, and the second third chronicles Yuichi meeting Hoshino, with the last part returning to a chronicle of Hoshino's bastard ways. So you have a Middle/ Beginning/ End set up that wasn't apparent to me at first and the odd flow of the movie nearly caused one of my friends to have a mental breakdown. Yeah, the best part of the movie was probably counting how many times my friend said "what the fuck?" with his hands in the air.
Okay, okay, enough with the pseudo-synopsis. I really don't want to explain too much. Sounds like an excuse to cover up the fact that I don't fully understand it, eh? While that may be partially true, I think half the fun of this film was leaving everything open to your own interpretation. It also didn't hurt that I had never heard a word about this film prior to peeping it. It's a really good movie to sit around and talk about after the fact. I wager that if you go and see it with a couple homies, no one will say the exact same thing about it afterwards. Unless they all hate it, then you can go off on 'em Ichi the Killer style.
So we all know now that the story is completely off the wall, maybe not in concept but in execution. The coolest part is how it all got started. Shunji Iwai, after running into initial disagreements and problems with the Lily Chou Chou script and whatnot, started a website about the fictional pop idol. He ran it under the name Satie, and invited net-nerds to come chat about Lily Chou Chou, after setting up some fictional info regarding her. He ended up with what he wanted, as visitors started spouting out terms like "ether" regarding the singer, and the final inspiration for the film was complete. Basing a film off of something like this is a unique concept, and the final product definitely echoes the strangeness of its conception.
As far as direction goes, Shunji Iwai manages to pull out some of the most gorgeous images I have ever seen on the big screen. Everything is blindingly bright, and each scene is splattered with vivid imagery. Even the darkest moments of the film have slight tinges of beauty to them, making some scenes all the more shocking. The handheld slight unsteadiness to the shots generate another added sense of realism. The only problem I had was with the way the movie flowed at times. I felt that more often than not that it's disjointed nature added more to the already overflowing boiling pot of confusion. It was great for style, but damaged the overall narrative by a small fraction. Seriously, it's a small complaint. And for you point watchers, that's the reason I subtracted a half point from the score, so no one can bitch now.
The cast was good. I can't really register their acting that well, but as far as the emotions, which were a huge part of the film, the actors pulled everything off nicely. The only downside is that there are a lot of random characters to keep track of, but watch closely and you should manage.
Another point I should make about Lily Chou Chou is the excellent, excellent soundtrack. I need to buy this badly. A lot of Debussy thrown in (which is where Lily got her inspiration from) some Chou Chou originals, and then some. Overall the music is one of the more phenomenal aspects of the movie. It adds to the mood, and couldn't have been more fitting.
It all boils down to me requiring that everyone reading this review sees this film as soon as possible. Do it however you can, but try your damnedest to support the film and pay to see it. The only DVD out now that I know of is a Japanese release with no subs, what a shame. I can't guarantee that everyone will love this film, but I can guarantee that you will all take something unique away from seeing it. It will be a little long for some people, but go into it with patience and curiosity. It is an experience that comes with something higher than a recommendation from me, I'm issuing a demand that you all watch it. Then you can hit me up and tell me what you think. Damn, I think I might have Lily-Philia too. Go to this site AFTER you see the movie!! I'm out.
Must see site: http://www.lily-chou-chou.com
