A-Z #6: All About Lily Chou-Chou

You can pick up hundreds of DVD's for a buck each - it doesn't matter. Its never about quantity, its about quality. A-Z is my way of going through my collection, from A-Z, and justifying why I own the films...

#6 - All About Lily Chou-Chou

Why did I buy it?

Initially, I watched this at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre back in my Uni Days of 2002. It was a random film that I was recommended and advised to watch at the cinema and after I watched it a close friend told me how he absolutely adored it. He truly thought it was incredible. At the time, I thought very little - I was not really aquainted with international cinema - let alone Japanese cinema but something stuck. Moreso, it stuck when I watched Kill Bill Vol. 1 and, as The Bride runs her hands across the samurai swords the incredible song by Lily Chou-Chou plays. I remembered the track vividly from the film and reawakened my interest. I bought the film from Fopp and watched it a few months later and realised how great it was.

Why do I still own it?

This is, on one-side a story about teenagers; the bullying and love-life that accompnaies a teenagers life. But, more interestingly, on the other-side, it is about music and the escapism of music. The almost spiritual experience when a song seems to pull out emotion from deep down. That buzz you get when a crescendo peaks, the warm feeling when a chord shifts - and your praying for it to be a satisfying move - and it really is - your tempted to raise your hands to some sort of spiritual plain. When you see your favourite band and they play the one track you have heard hundreds of times in the quiet of your bedroom ...

All About Lily Chou-Chou captures and explores that - and this is why it shall stay in the collection.  

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