In big, glowing neon letters. this title doesn’t muck around. So I’ll just go ahead and throw ‘fairly NSFW’ out there.

Let this symbol signify all public decency, visual exploitability and fuel my eternal feud with Zeta Gundam all at the same time.

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The internet.

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On one of the most chilling movies of our time.

If you were to ask me what All About Lily Chou-Chou’s genre is, I don’t think I’d be able to answer you. Even if you were to ask me what the movie is about I wouldn’t know what to tell you.

Perhaps it’s a story about the gauntlet that is high school bullying.
Perhaps it’s a story about the maelstrom that is high school relationships. Perhaps it’s about retribution, perhaps it’s about mad inspiration from music.
Or maybe all of these things, and none of these things at all.

One can say that All About Lily Chou-Chou isn’t plot driven – not that it does not contain a driving plot, but that it is not guided by a plot at all. It’s a very sensory experience – one does not understand this movie, but feel it.

The plot is not linear but jumps from period to period, for seemingly no dramatic purpose until the very end; like a Haruhi from hell. The viewer is never introduced to the characters, never cruise into their natures and motives – AALCC makes sure to surprise and hit hard, very much like the curveball of life does. It’s this ambiguity and nonlinearity that make the film so terrifying, and it’s a very interesting sensation, this fear.

Because AALCC is so unformulaic one has no way of knowing what would happen next; many probably attribute that feeling of unease they experience to this. AALCC made me realize I actually find security in tropes; that the tropes strung together to form a fictitious construction define the construction for me and allow me to dissect something familiar.

This movie leaves one’s comfort zone while not being in the least subtle about a culture of gangs, abuse and violence that permeates the youths lf all over the world today.

Though addressing the most extreme of these possibilities, to one still within touching distance of this culture such as myself this film is almost too real to be viewed as a fabrication.

Again, I can’t divulge the events that transpire in the movie without my words causing it to sink comfortably into predefined shadows of more prominent films – it is very much a depiction of real life, where causality has no plot and characters are much more likely to lose than win. The personae in AALCC are people; they’re teeming with flaws, have weak senses of selves and never overcome their drawbacks.

The protagonist is of course an extremely introverted bullied youth; but though a dynamic character, nothing greatly altering occurs to his persona. The climax of his life mellows out into a crime with no consequence. I’m again reminded of Jerzy Kosinski writing about how the ‘real world’ appears as a sluggish form of the depiction seen in television.

He’s not even a character you’ll entirely sympathize with; once you learn of everyone’s lives and circumstances, even the bully’s, you can only feel empathy for the viscera that is modern youth culture.

AALCC is less a movie that elicits pity or questions of ‘what is this world coming to’, and more one where the question of ‘is it simply our nature to be like this’ leads to the realization that human life has thrived on malice since the very beginning. This youth culture is not a new development, only a new form.

The web forum plot device was also played brilliantly. Astonishingly ironic, it paints a portrait of the fast paced anonymity of the internet, even nine years ago. A beastly example of Chekhov’s gun that ties together perfectly in the end. You’ll just have to watch it.

But really, I could write three posts alone about this movie. A thousand words hardly does it justice.

Finally, where would AALCC be without mention of the titular popstar, Lily Chou-Chou? The friend who recommended the film to me said the soundtrack was excellent, and by all hell was he right.

First and foremost Salyu’s music is very theatrically fitting – the surreal, even psychotic tune of the soundtrack powerfully augments the visuals of the film. I’ll even go as far as saying it’s an excellent sound even out of context, because of one very familiar auditory aspect: The Beatles.

Lily Chou-Chou is said to draw inspiration from Claude Debussy, but at least two of her songs ring true to very surreal, late 60s Beatles’ psychedelia to me.

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Fast forward to 1:15 and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Or listen to it all, right?

I mean, it’s easy to write that off as just me, but listen to these and tell me there isn’t something.

Of course, when it comes to such inspired music, everyone probably hears something different.

It’s no secret that Salyu didn’t write the music for All About Lily Chou-Chou, and only sang it. Does this diminish the value of the songs? My first reaction to knowing this fact was thinking that such a shame – why? It’s more ‘genuine’ when writer and performer is one and the same. Or maybe it’s simply a conditioned purist view.

Oh, but I actually do have questions for you. On this vein, and since you probably already have some scope of AALCC; should it be critically acclaimed? Should all such movies? AALCC isn’t enriching in the conventional means of the word – it does not leave one comfortable, it does not reinstate one’s faith in humanity.

AALCC presents a very bleak narrative without much room for interpretation: people are raped, people commit suicide, people are killed. There is no optimism to be had. We say that execution is the deciding factor of excellent theater, but stripped of all symbol and metaphor, AALCC is just our own shortcomings being listed out to us.

The entire middle of the film is shot in low quality emulating a ‘home video’ style, from the perspective of the protagonist’s camcorder.

What happens after this scene is a perfect example of Iwai Shunji’s mastery of dramatic irony.

Do our movies need morals? Of course not, we say. But isn’t ‘we need to show everybody the darker side of the coin’ the exact argument for such films as AALCC? If not, why would films like All About Lily Chou-Chou be made?

Do you like bleak, pessimistic films? Do you believe they serve a purpose? Do we desire melancholy by nature? What are your thoughts?

Ningyo

If Meiling rejects me, of course. And she won’t. My serenade to a goddess, my love letter to Persona 4.

MASSIVE SPOILER IMAGE Oh Nami If only you were more playable…

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