Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Bae Doona | ... | Son - vocalist | |
Aki Maeda | ... | Kyoko Yamada (drummer) | |
Yû Kashii | ... | Kei Tachibana - Guitarist | |
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Shiori Sekine | ... | Nozomi Shiroko (bassist) |
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Takayo Mimura | ... | Rinko |
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Shione Yukawa | ... | Moe |
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Yuko Yamazaki | ... | Nakajima |
Masahiro Kômoto | ... | Koyama sensei | |
Ken'ichi Matsuyama | ... | Makihara | |
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Katsuya Kobayashi | ... | Kazuya |
Keisuke Koide | ... | Abe | |
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Masaki Miura | ... | Maezono |
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Lily | ... | Kei's mother |
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Kaori Fujii | ... | Nakayama sensei |
Kôen Kondô |
Girls are friends, girls are not friends, girls come and go, but the band plays on in this film about a high school quartet with only three days to find a stable line-up, choose songs, rehearse and climb the stage at the rock music show of their annual festival. A foreign exchange student as a singer, a sullen guitarist, a shy bassist and a tom girl are a soaking wet band in a high school auditorium. Written by aghaemi
Saw this yesterday at the London Film Festival, and as a fan of The Blue Hearts, I wasn't disappointed. Four schoolgirls start a covers band so they can play at the school festival, and have to overcome a tight time-limit and personal dramas before they get there.
The film is beautifully acted and shot, and totally sweet from start to finish. At two hours it's a tad over-long, but some mesmeric camera-work and subtle humour helps it along nicely. The casting is superb, with every character believable and captivating. And of course the music's fantastic - the title song gets played to death but it's still a cool cover of a great Japanese punk song, and James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins does a brilliant job with the incidental music.
I'm so glad this film got an English sub, and considering how quickly the tickets sold out for these two London screenings, a full release would be warmly welcomed. Highly recommended.