All About Lily Chou-Chou

Aroview: Vogue Japanese dir. Shunji Iwai renders the contemporary teen malaise with poignancy and despair in this haunting commentary on the perils of adolescence in an internet age.

Pitched on a series of tragedies that evolve from an eighth-grader’s fanaticism with the fictitious, Bjork-like J-Idol ‘Lily Chou-Chou’ (via a pre-MySpace online sanctuary he frequents), Iwai bides his time between devastation and lyricism, before bringing disparate characters and events to a heartbreaking close. A lingering, quietly compassionate youth movie further distinguished by its unique use of chatroom dialogue and expressive Debussy score.

NZ International Film Festival 2002