Linda Linda Linda

Saw this yesterday at the London Film Festival, and as a fan of The Blue Hearts, I wasn't disappointed. Four schoolgirls start a covers band so they can play at the school festival, and have to overcome a tight time-limit and personal dramas before they get there.

The film is beautifully acted and shot, and totally sweet from start to finish. At two hours it's a tad over-long, but some mesmeric camera-work and subtle humour helps it along nicely. The casting is superb, with every character believable and captivating. And of course the music's fantastic - the title song gets played to death but it's still a cool cover of a great Japanese punk song, and James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins does a brilliant job with the incidental music.

I'm so glad this film got an English sub, and considering how quickly the tickets sold out for these two London screenings, a full release would be warmly welcomed. Highly recommended.

I'm happy to report that the Japanese film Linda Linda Linda, which screened tonight at NYAFF (and was the first film of the festival that I was able to go see at the ImaginAsian theater) is hands-down the best movie I've seen at the festival so far. An upbeat and joyous film about a high school girls' rock and roll band, it's practically guaranteed to go straight to the heart of anyone who believes in music, and its power to save one's soul.

The plot is as straightforward as they come. Shiba High School is holding their annual Holly Festival complete with a musical talent show, and three friends - drummer Kyoko (Aki Madea, Battle Royale), keyboardist-turned-guitarist Kei (Yu Kasii, Lorelei) and bassist Nozomi (Shiori Sekine, of the real band Base Ball Bear) are struggling to get a band together. After their previous guitarist injures her finger and has to bow out, they recruit shy Korean exchange student Song (Bae Doo-Na, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) as their vocalist, and decide to cover three songs by the Clash-esquire 80's J-punk group The Blue Hearts. After weeks of staying up all night practicing, jamming until the wee hours (not to mention the fact that Song has to learn her lyrics phonetically), they are finally ready to play their music before their teachers and friends.

Admittedly, the description above probably makes this movie sound like every other movie about a band, or a sports team, or some kind of sentimental, rah-rah "Eye of the Tiger" pap. Trust me - nothing could be farther from the truth. What this movie is about is the people - the four schoolgirls that are its main characters are as quirky, and as button-cute, but also as three dimensional, as anyone you'd meet in life, and the movie's long, uninterrupted takes and improv-style acting give us a fly-on-the-wall feeling of being there. Opening with a MiniDV shot of one girl giving an on-camera interview about the Holly Festival, the movie starts out depicting its characters with shy restraint, gradually revealing more and more about their personalities, foibles, their joys and sorrows, until eventually, they literally start to feel like our friends. By the end, when the group performs their songs, we've honestly forgotten that they are characters in a film. We want to stand up and applaud.

I would honestly say that Linda Linda Linda is one of the greatest rock and roll films I've ever seen. Being a recent film, it doesn't have the legendary status of This Is Spinal Tap or A Hard Day's Night, but honestly, it's up there. This is rock and roll stripped down to its very core. No pretension, no decadence, no sex, drugs, limos, and all of that bullshit - just the three-chord structure of a song and its power to save lives. It's a truly beautiful thing to see and hear.

Describing the plot won't do it justice - it's so much more than yet another "putting a band together" movie. Every character is believable, and comes with a story making her or him alive.

There're laughs a-plenty, and at other times I found myself sitting there with a big smile on my face, from pure joy. And yet I wouldn't call it a comedy, as the laughs are not really central to the movie.

And then there's music, full of raw energy and quite memorable - many in the audience left the theater humming and whistling the title song.

I guess the best thing about this film is that it is real, there's nothing contrived or false in it that I could see. Generally I have no problem suspending disbelief and accepting the (lack of) internal logic of the world created in a movie. With Linda Linda Linda there was no need for that. It was easy to embrace the world of a high school festival and enjoy every minute of the screen time.

Hmmm... I think director Nobuhiro Yamashita's other films could well be worth watching.

I just saw this film at the Toronto Film Fest and this is what Josie and The Pussycats should have been. This charming little Japanese film will have you singing the Blue Hearts title song over and over. A group of aspiring teenage girls form a band to perform for the high school rock festival, can they get it together? Kudos to Nobuhiro Yamashita for putting together such a cute and impressive cast of young women who make up the band who are all skilled actresses. This is a sweet film that will win over any teenage girl who ever thought that they could start an indie band (but also wins over an adult crowd with it's modest charm and it's humor). Fans of Japanese female bands like Shonen Knife and the 5678s will also dig this film I think.

BAE Du-Na (Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, Take Care of My Cat) as Song wins my vote as the most endearing oddball in this film who wins you over with her big eyes and teenage awkwardness (not to mention a lot of funny misunderstandings because she is a Korean exchange student who speaks little Japanese). Generally this is a movie that will be talked about a lot I think when it gets a full release. Hands down one of the best at the Toronto fest this year (2005).

Those few people who commented this movie is 'boring' are missing the point entirely. Perhaps it is a matter of taste, what you are looking for in a movie. If you are looking for those quick pick-me-up rock'n roll flicks, with heroes/heroines get the girl/boy and fat recording contracts after performing jaw-dropping numbers, overcoming incredible odds, then perhaps this movie is not for you.

But pick you up in a bigger and more satisfying way this movie does. This movie is realistic in that it does not need artificial plot devices and major suspension of belief on the part of the audience. It just shows what ordinary teenage high school girls trying to put together a rock band in a few days for a festival would do in those precious few days of their lives. This is perhaps the last significant thing they will do before they head out to the real world (and maybe college).

Kudos to the director who sets the right pace for the scenes. In my opinion, Japanese movies in general have slower pace than necessary, but for this movie it was the right one and gives the audience the feeling that they really spent those few days with them. It is time well invested and gives the viewer a big payoff.

Of course Bae Doona absolutely steals all the scenes she is in. Not only she is an amazing talent, but these roles come naturally to her since she cut her tooth in a highly-acclaimed high school TV drama before taking on motion pictures. Look for her in the forthcoming 'The Host (2006)'(Korean title 'Gwoemul').

All in all, a very satisfying movie. And I just had to buy the Blue Hearts CDs. The songs just would not leave my head!