All About Lily Chou Chou (I will use AALCC to refer to the title for this post) got released all the way back in 2001, but only gained popularity starting somewhere around 2020. When the movie was released it wasn't nearly as known as it is today (especially outside of Japan) and it's all thanks to social media.
Scenes from the movie started gaining attention on platforms like Tiktok for its beautiful cinematography and aesthetic. However, many people misunderstood the movie or simply took the viral clips out of context (for example, romanticizing Yuichi and Tsuda's situation and commenting 'us' even though they have no idea what the characters are going through and what their dynamic is). Obviously, the media attention is well deserved because AALCC is truly an amazing movie (I might go more in-depth on its significance in a future post) but the art isn't properly appreciated and people are completely ignoring the message.
On Tiktok there are many people saying that the movie was 'boring' and 'not worth the hype', and I couldn't disagree more. The boring part most likely has something to do with a so-called attention span but I honestly don't think you could call this movie boring. The characters have a lot going on and are developing throughout the movie. Japanese movies from the 2000s are usually quite subtle and nuanced, which might not be everyone's cup of tea, so I guess it's all personal preference in the end. I think the big difference between the people that liked it and the people that didn't is if they understood the movie or not. Despite it being a little bit complicated or vague sometimes, it's pretty clear that we are watching a group of troubled teens that are struggling with self-worth, bullying, etc. and some of which seek comfort in Lily's music and the fan community. Not only is the story beautiful, the visuals are seriously outstanding. The use of light is so brilliant, it creates these beautiful silhouettes or heaven-like backgrounds. The locations also add so much to it, the rice fields create this dreamy atmosphere and the rural hometown of the characters make it seem very simple and calm despite everything that's happening. The camerawork really gives it this perfect indie-film look and the hand held camera shots make it all look very personal and raw. And maybe the part I love most (apart from the use of light) has got to be the music. The
original soundtrack and the album
Kokyuu by Lily Chou-Chou really did their part for this movie. It fits the atmosphere perfectly and
Slayu's vocals are the perfect embodiment of Lily Chou-Chou and the Ether.
Another thing that makes everything super interesting is all the background information/lore that this movie has. The director Shunji Iwai started a project on a
BBS with some random people on the internet. They were pretty much role playing as Lily Chou-Chou fans and the whole story originated from there on. I'm assuming that Lily was made up by the same group of people (or the director made it up, idk). And so all the people in the BBS became characters in the novel. The novel is not much different from the movie but the format is very different. The novel is basically all the messages from the BBS and the last part is Yuichi explaining everything including Hoshino's death. A lot of elements from the story were inspired by events that were happening at the time, such as an economical crisis, the rise of the internet as a way for people to connect and increasing numbers of suicide by teens. The whole fictional world around Lily Chou-Chou is super interesting and cool!
If you are interested in more information about the movie, I will link a document of the 'AALCC iceberg explained' (all credits to the person who wrote it): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fh-8JJ-IRD3VzdmjpSEq9CiGVBOoKZD7l0cVJ6ZvH0Q/edit?tab=t.0
I also really really recommend reading the novel if you watched the movie, it really helps giving more clarity and it made me appreciate the movie even more: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fh-8JJ-IRD3VzdmjpSEq9CiGVBOoKZD7l0cVJ6ZvH0Q/edit?tab=t.0
Also please leave a comment if you liked this post or if you have questions, and feedback is much appreciated!
Until next time,
MoLiHua
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