All about lily chou chou rev free#

The camera angle is such that you are totally submerged in the scene you see no future and are entirely focused on the boy and his inner world, so far from everything and everybody else. The scene feels ethereal and one can imagine oneself standing there as him with the headphones on caring about nothing and everything at the same time.

The film opens with Yuichi standing alone head down on a large rice field with his headphones on, seemingly cut off from all the rest of the world. Moreover, as this is a true film of the Internet age, any contemporary teen growing up in society that is increasingly virtualized, will have a good understanding of what Yuichi is experiencing. As this is something inherently human any viewer will automatically connect with these feelings. The main protagonist Yuichi just wants to belong, and be loved unconditionally but he doesnвЂ™t know what he has to do to get it. He is the one who starts out as a benign good natured boy but after his meeting with death and adulthood he becomes increasingly violent and manipulative. His change perhaps is one of the most important narrative arches of the whole film. He is as broken as Yuichi, and like Yuichi, he too is constantly changing throughout the story. But deep inside him Hoshino really needs to punish the people he knows for not being such as he wants them to be, for not understanding him, for hurting him so much. On the surface Hoshino only wants power and control. At one point he has lost himself and the ideals that he values to such a degree that he just gives up and begins to do what Hoshino tells him to do, including crime. But he is also on a downward spiral towards becoming more and more disconnected and resigned from his own being. Throughout the story he is constantly changing and becoming more like an adult.

All about lily chou chou rev free#

But to do that Yuichi needs to be free and decide for himself. In that sense Yuichi just wants to have a sense of belonging.

We see how young people struggle to become adults the tensions and sacrifices one makes sometimes one kills something in oneself. He feels the existential void and lack of meaning that many have felt. Here is a boy who is about to become an adult. The theme is woven into the film by presenting people in a real and recognizable way that is understandable for anybody. This film is about the contemporary postmodern age of the Internet where everybody is connected but feels more and more disconnected from their daily lives. At odds with their nihilistic aimless lives these children try to escape their pain on the Internet. This is a film about looking for salvation and sanctuary, a feeling of true love and devotion to some transcendental beauty. She liberates our thoughts, she sublimates and transcends, reaching the transparent beyond, as put by one of the boys. Lily Chou-Chou the rock star IS the Ether personified. This happens in an environment where the Internet is the only solace for these young people of whom many can feel the Ether. The film revolves around the theme of coming of age in a cruel world where sincerity is lost and good natured, intelligent, and initially well intentioned children are changed by their experiences in the society into bullying manipulative controlling abusive adults. The stakes are high it is nothing short of life of death for this teenage boy in angst and pain of teenage life, and there is real risk that Yuichi might not make it. But one fears though, that Yuichi might just kill himself, just as he confesses to his online friend Blue Cat. One hopes that Yuichi finally does stand up for himself and becomes free. The main tension is whether Yuichi manages to become free, or does he surrender and kill himself. YuichiвЂ™s life is meaningless and controlled by other people he is in a downward spiral towards killing himself. For Yuichi there are two worlds that exist simultaneously вЂ“ school, where he is beaten and harassed by his schoolmates, and the ether (the Internet), where he is known as philia, the site manager of fan chat room for Lily. Set before a backdrop of cruelty and psychical abuse at school, YuichiвЂ™s only interests are Kuno, a beautiful talented schoolmate, and Lily Chou-Chou, an alternative rock star with a huge underground fan following. Just about as quiet and introverted as anyone could imagine, he passes his days never making a connection or even speaking to anyone. Directed by Shunji Iwai, this is the story of Yuichi, a 14 year old Japanese boy in the rural area of Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture.