All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001)
"Riri Shushu no subete" (original title)

Life isn't easy for a group of high school kids growing up absurd in Japan's pervasive pop/cyber culture. As they negotiate teen badlands- school bullies, parents from another planet, lurid... See full summary »

Director:

Shunji Iwai

Writer:

Shunji Iwai

Stars:

Hayato Ichihara, Shûgo Oshinari, Ayumi Ito

4 wins.

Cast

Credited cast:
Hayato Ichihara	...	Yûichi Hasumi
Shûgo Oshinari	...	Shusuke Hoshino
Ayumi Ito	...	Yôko Kuno
Takao Osawa	...	Tabito Takao
Miwako Ichikawa	...	Shimabukuro
Izumi Inamori	...	Izumi Hoshino
Yû Aoi	...	Shiori Tsuda
Kazusa Matsuda	...	Sumika Kanzaki
Ryo Katsuji	...	Terawaki Shioske
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Takako Baba	...	School girl
Yuki Ito	...	Kamino
Tomohiro Kaku	...	Yuichi's friend
Hideyuki Kasahara	...	Kyota Shimizu
Masumi Okamura
Tetta Sugimoto

Storyline

Life isn't easy for a group of high school kids growing up absurd in Japan's pervasive pop/cyber culture. As they negotiate teen badlands- school bullies, parents from another planet, lurid snapshots of sex and death- these everyday rebels without a cause seek sanctuary, even salvation, through pop star savior Lily Chou-Chou, embracing her sad, dreamy songs and sharing their fears and secrets in Lilyholic chat rooms. Immersed in the speed of everyday troubles, their lives inevitably climax in a fatal collision between real and virtual identities, a final logging-off from innocence.

---

Plot Keywords:

school | japan | bully | song | murder | 

---

Taglines:

If you scream and no one hears you, she's there for you.

---

Genres:

Crime | Drama | Music | Romance | Thriller

---

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese Ryukyuan

Release Date:

6 October 2001 (Japan)

Also Known As:

All About Lily Chou-Chou

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$2,280 (Hong Kong) (27 December 2002)

Gross:

$24,846 (USA) (14 March 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Rockwell Eyes

Technical Specs

Runtime:

146 min 157 min (original cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ayumi Ito spent weeks training on the piano in order to do all of her scenes without a double. She became so obsessed with Debussy's "Arabesque No. 1" that she made it her cell phone ring tone.

---

Quotes

Yuichi's friend: That's so lame!

---

Connections

References The Matrix (1999)

User Reviews

sad , long, emotional experience into the teenage years

Lilly Chou-Chou is quite a perculiar movie experience, there is no over riding message, there is no moment to reflect, everything that this movie expresses appears in an instance and then is lost again in the great 'ether'. Throughout I felt lost, not merely due to the disjointed narrative but the pacing and overall premise did not register to me as 'a movie'. Trying to find meaning in Lilly Chou-Chou is similar to attempting to find meaning in ambient electronic music, as we watch the movie we are detached, the story, so to speak, unfolds gracefully but the audience can not relate to the characters, but can only attempt to make sense of it all.

Lilly Chou-Chou is in my opinion a great achievement of movie making, interms of acting, editing, sound mixing and visual flair, fans of cinema are treated to something entirely fresh, but there is the overall feeling of dissatisfaction, I wanted more from the story, I wanted to see more of the characters, more of their lives and their interaction with one another. Yet the director withholds much of this from the viewer, choosing to present the characters relationships with one another in small doses, leaving the visuals and sound to complement the rest. And this I feel is one of the dissapointments of this movie, so much is conveyed yet so little is actually on screen, the watching of this movie requires a level of understanding of emotions, and the viewer is called upon to make sense of it all.

This would be the movies strongest point, and one of its weakneses. I urge anyone with a curiosity for this movie to watch it.