Genre:
Drama
Theatrical Release: 07/12/2002(USA
Release Date: 02/15/2005
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: Japanese
Sound: DD2
Run Time: 146 Minutes
Flags: Violence, Adult Situations, Rape & Sexual Abuse
Distributor/Studio: Homevision
Wildly popular filmmaker
Shunji Iwai breaks a three-year hiatus following his less than successful
April Story with this elliptical
drama about teenaged alienation, violence, and celebrity. The film centers on
Yuichi Hasumi (
Hayato Ichihara), an eighth grader who lives in a sleepy town in rural Japan with his mother, her boyfriend, and the boyfriend's son. At school he is beaten up and harassed by his former friend
Hoshino. In order to scrape up the cash to meet
Hoshino's daily extortion demand,
Yuichi resorts to petty theft and shoplifting. At home he finds sanctuary with his favorite singer
Lily Chou-Chou, for whom he has devoted a website called "Liliphilia." One day, he encounters on the net a fellow
Lily-phile who goes by the handle "
blue cat." As
Hoshino's power grows, he demands that
Yuichi tail fellow classmate
Shiori Tsuda (
Yu Aoi), who he is pimping out to older men.
Yuichi's suffocating situation at school leads him to consider suicide, something he confesses to "
blue cat" -- his only confidant. Things come to a head tragically at a long awaited
Lily Chou-Chou concert. This film was screened at the
2001 Toronto Film Festival.
~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
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