The story of Shusuke and Yuichi is paralleled by messages posted to a Lily Chou-Chou message board which are displayed on screen. The whole quagmire comes to a head when Yuichi heads to Tokyo to see a Lily Chou-Chou concert. Things become far worse for everyone when Yuichi is assigned to supervising Shiori Tsuda, whom Shusuke has blackmailed into enjo kōsai, and another girl is raped by Shusuke's lackeys after unwittingly offending the school's girl gang. He is ridiculed and coerced into doing Shusuke's dirty work, and finds solace only in the ethereal music Lily Chou-Chou makes, and acting as web editor for his fan website. Yuichi, the confused and shy former friend of Shusuke, finds himself sucked into his now-tormentor's gang. An alternative voice, that of the character Sumika Kanzaki, attributes Shusuke's personality change to the collapse of his family's business and his parent's divorce this matches several scenes connecting the decline of Shusuke – who has had to change his name – to divorce. Back at school in September for second term, he takes his place as class bully and shows his newfound power by ruining the lives of his classmates. Once there, Shusuke has a traumatic near-death experience and his personality changes from good-natured to dangerous and manipulative. The kendo club summer camp training is tough, and Shusuke, Yuichi and some other first-grade boys decide to take a trip to Okinawa. Yuichi mistakes Shusuke's attractive young mother for his sister. Shusuke's family is wealthy in comparison to Yuichi's family. Shusuke and Yuichi meet and become friends when they join the kendo club, and Shusuke invites Yuichi to stay over at his house. In elementary school, Shusuke was one of the best students in school, but was picked on by his classmates. The film has a discontinuous storyline, starting midway through the story, just after the second term of junior high school begins, then flashes back to the first term and summer vacation, and then skips back to the present. If you’re not used to foreign language cinema then you should definitely not start with this one, but if you’re feeling a bit ’emo’ and want something to dwell on then this is perfect.All About Lily Chou-Chou follows two boys, Shūsuke Hoshino and Yūichi Hasumi, from the start of junior middle school when they first meet, and into the eighth grade. This is not a film that will leave you with a big grin on your face, but what it will do is intrigue your mind so you are thinking over what was going on in those teenagers’ minds for a long while after the film has ended.Īll About Lily Chou-Chou is a lengthy film with a jigsaw narrative and many characters with similar looks and names, so it can get pretty confusing but if you’re willing to do the work you will be rewarded for your time and effort. The characters all just seem to be so terribly unhappy, and this is either taken out on others with horrific bullying, even of former close friends, or shown in the other characters’ passive acceptance of the bullies’ orders. It’s certainly not for the faint-hearted and I am quite surprised in retrospect that it only has a 15 certificate as I certainly wouldn’t want my impressionable 15 year old sister watching this!ĭespite the shocking scenes, the film is clearly not just aiming to make waves – it also really makes you think and empathise with the characters as there are some incredibly heart-wrenching moments. However, it is an interesting and unusual film which was never boring, but if you are looking for an insight into Japanese teen culture you may want to look elsewhere as this film creates a pretty negative and depressing picture and includes scenes of rape and suicide. It’s a rather confusing film and I had to read the plotline on Wikipedia and IMDB before I fully understood what I’d seen. The film is mostly about the boys and their other classmates, particularly the objects of their respective attraction, Kuno and Tsuda. The film focuses mostly on two boys, Hasumi (later being known by his second name, Yuichi) and Hoshino, who become friends at school and share a love of Lily. This is not the Japanese version of Josie and the Pussycats, in fact it couldn’t be much more different. Lily herself makes no appearance in the film, except for on some big screens near the end, and her music is not what I’d call poptastic – it’s way too serious for that. However, I must warn you to keep your mouse away from Amazon, at least until you’ve read my review, because all is not as it seems. On hearing that this film was about a group of Japanese teenagers obsessed with a pop star named Lily Chou-Chou, you will not be surprised to learn that I ordered it straight away and many of you may be tempted to do the same.