All About Lily Chou Chou / Riri Shushu no Subete (2001)

Well all I can say is that Lily Chou-Chou has a lot to answer for! Hayato Ichihara plays Yuichi, an underacheiving, unnoticed and lonely 14 year old fanatical about J-Pop idoru Lily Chou-Chou. When Yuichi finds himself in the company of Shunsuke Hoshino apon entering Junior High School, his world is significantly changed and initially, all seems fun and exciting. However, Hoshino quickly reveals himself to be a bullying thug who takes extraodinary pleasure in the ritual victimisation and humiliation of anyone who opposes him. Yuichi, not being a strong character, is soon on the receiving end of Hoshino's sometimes quite violent abuse. Lacking the courage to oppose him, Yuichi soon becomes one of his gang of five supporters and proceeds to assist him in a reign of terror over their school and town.

Yuichi's escape however, is the online discussion group he moderates which, not surprisingly, is dedicated to the topic of Lily Chou-Chou. There he operates under the name of "Philia", a album title of Lily's and enjoys many intelligent and enlightening debates with "Blue Cat", a total stranger.

Eventually things become too much for Yuichi as the crimes he commits as part of Hoshino's gang, become more and more extreme. One day after leading an unpopular classmate to her rape and head-shaving at the hands of his voracious gang-leader, he finally decides that enough is enough and proceeds to avoid Hoshino at all costs. Unexpectedly, Yuichi meets Hoshino at the long-awaited Lily Chou-Chou concert. Hoshino expresses his anger at being ignored by demanding Yuichi's concert ticket and bullies him into buying him a coke. While Yuichi is waiting in a queue, Hoshino gets away from Yuichi and when he has Yuichi's full attention, proceeds to destroy the confiscated concert ticket. While Yuichi watches in despair, he is jostled by the crowd and consequently spills Hoshino's coke. He also takes a look at the green apple Hoshino thrust in his hands as he began to wend his way towards the concert hall door. Hoshino had planned to use Yuichi to meet a stranger for him and Yuichi is stunned to discover the email address written on the apple contains the name "Blue Cat".

The feelings of devastation this engenders in Yuichi (when he realises who "Blue Cat" is) compel him to meet Hoshino at the end of the concert to extract (with a deftness so expert it even defies that of Hoshino) the ultimate revenge. The end of the film sees Yuichi take the first tentative steps towards making a new life for himself based on authenticity and courage.

A study of bullying, social isolation and the miseries of adolescence generally, this film uses a number of familiar (to me) conventions to make it's point. The online discsuuion group is reminiscent of an episode of "Ghost in the Shell" and the deaths of teenagers towards the end of the film bring to mind the novels of Yukio Mishima and the film "Boy's Choir". An amalgam of a number of Japanese films, books and manga, "All About Lily Chou-Chou" either isn't that original or it reveals the fact that maybe I've been watching too much TV! Another mood masterpiece by Shunji Iwai.