mevmijaumau Shunji Iwai's coming-of-age film All About Lily Chou-Chou is an unusual stream of melancholic images accompanied by dreamy music and overexposed imagery which renders this entire experience as a jumbled collection of fuzzy memories held together by a string of message board posts from a certain blog. It's a loose story about increasing alienation and the effects it has on adolescents, who start to escape the real world issues through the Ether, a mystical state of mind provided to them by a (fictional) pop singer, Lily Chou-Chou. The characters are as complex as they are abstract and simple. The plot is completely out of the picture. The only thing that matters here is the atmosphere.And does the film succeed in conveying an ethereal atmosphere? Well, not really. Certain scenes do hit their mark but most of the time, you feel the movie's length and the drifting, unsteady cinematic style is far too removed from the ground for its own good. Sure, there are beautiful moments here and there, as is the soundtrack, but overall the movie feels weak, watered down, incapable of building a memorable world.From: mevmijaumauREWIND

carlacryptic Although it disturbed me greatly to think that Japanese adolescents might be struggling with these issues and events (seems kids all over the developed world are in a similar boat), I am glad I saw this film. It's beautifully made, the acting is stellar, and the music is gorgeous. The fact that it grew out of a project begun on the internet, where real people's experiences and reactions were integral, just makes it more meaningful. I recommend it highly.If, however, you are a parent or other adult who shares it with younger people, make sure to discuss it during and/or afterwards. I don't think kids should be prevented from seeing films like this - the issues in them are far too close to home for them. But, I do think that it's important not to leave them hanging in the wind without a way to process the violence, sexual and otherwise, or their reactions to it, pro or con.

Simon_Cooper-1 I can easily see this film as causing many viewers a lot of frustration as the facts and events are not always easy to follow but, personally, I found it to be wildly vivid and fantastically telling piece for which I felt a lot of personal empathy; the attitudes to school and education by the school children (who are the stars of the film) particularly. The soundtrack is often borrowed from Claude Debussy whom Lily Chou Chou (the popular music star by whom the star is obsessed) was heavily influenced by. There are sequences in this film I found to be completely hypnotic and I think that a good rule of thumb for whether you will enjoy it or not would be whether you are completely absorbed by the opening scenes in the field or whether you just wonder what the hell is going on.

daniel-mkatz In a lot of ways, this movie is an indictment of the Japanese school system similar to Battle Royal. That said, where Battle Royal is a futuristic allegory, this is a brutal portrayal of what could be real life.There are two problems with the movie. One is the constant interruptions by script from the BBS that the main character is posting on. Some of these are relevant to the story, but many seem superfluous and do little to aid plot development - becoming highly tedious. The second problem is the use of hand-held camera. This is used very effectively in some places, however in others it is a bit too "amaturish" and shaky and does more to give the viewer a headache than to depict the scene it is involved in. There is also the trip to Okinawa, where the entire length of the holiday is filmed with the hand-held cameras and is so drawn-out that rather than an important segment of a film, it appears more like the actual home footage of someone's holiday.Other than that, this film is brilliant - with highly developed and unique characters, a lot of drama and a beautifully crafted storyline. I would recommend it.