All About Lily Chou-Chou

In-person:

Giant Robot founder Eric Nakamura.

Admission is free. No advance reservations. Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis. The box office opens one hour before the event.

All About Lily Chou-Chou

Japan, 2001

Japanese writer-director Shunji Iwai’s elliptic take on the internet, fan culture and adolescent trauma has come to feel ever more prescient, ever more powerful as we’ve moved deeper into the millennium. As he navigates the vicissitudes of school and endures the relentless bullying of his former best friend (Shugo Oshinari), 14-year-old Yuichi (Hayato Ichihara) finds solace in the dreamy pop music of Lily Chou-Chou and the mythology he helps construct around her on the message board he moderates. Profiled in Giant Robot Issue #68, Iwai rides emotional swells instead of narrative arcs giving the film an intensely subjective, deeply personal experience.

DCP, color, in Japanese with English subtitles, 146 min. Director: Shunji Iwai. Screenwriter: Shunji Iwai. With: Hayato Ichihara, Shugo Oshinari, Yu Aoi.