Director: Shunji Iwai
Reviewed by: Hailey, Gr 11
All About Lily Chou-Chou is a 2011 Japanese coming-of-age film directed by Shunji Iwai. This film is notorious for its stunning cinematography and original movie soundtrack. The story follows Yuichi, a teenage boy in 8th grade. The movie centers a lot around music, as characters view music as a distraction or salvation from the pain and hardships of teenage life. Yuichi especially, as he worships this artist by the name of Lily Chou-Chou. Lily Chou-Chou is a fictional band that produced music specifically for this film and is used in conjunction with the plot. Throughout the film, it shows snippets of anonymous interactions in a chatroom for Lily fans. This website is called Lil-philia and is created by Yuichi himself for Lily fans. The anonymous identities become more and more obvious as the movie progresses - Yuichi is seen talking about his struggles in the chatroom believing that it’s the only place where he is understood. Through the website and Lily’s music is where Yuichi feels like he can express his feelings about real life as he struggles a lot with loneliness. He meets someone by the name of Blue Cat on the forum, and even though they haven’t met, they have formed a deep connection through the mutual love of music. Lily Chou-Chou touches on the theme of parasocial relationships, the relationship between Yuichi and the Lily Chou-Chou persona as well as his codependency on the internet and music illustrates it perfectly. I personally loved this movie, there aren’t many films that can give off this specific feeling that Lily Chou-Chou does. From the cinematography down to little details such as colour grading, so many aspects of this film are done perfectly. Bear in mind that this movie doesn’t follow chronological order and may be hard to follow at times. I give it a solid 4/5. This film would be most appropriate for audiences aged 13 and up, and I think all teens, especially ones that are struggling right now, have to watch Lily Chou-Chou at least once in their lifetime.