All About Lily Chou-Chou

Name: All About Lily Chou-Chou
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Crime, Music
Released: July 12, 2002
Duration: 146 min
Rating: 73
Cast: Hayato Ichihara, Shûgo Oshinari

2002

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Ratings

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7.6

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7.6	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Cowboy Pictures | Release Date: July 12, 2002

Starring: Hayato Ichihara, Shûgo Oshinari

Summary: An epic story of a Japanese teenager's life in the age of the Internet.

Director: Shunji Iwai

Genre(s): Drama, Thriller, Crime, Music

Runtime: 146 min

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Critic Reviews

100

David Sterritt

Iwai's ambitious drama is strikingly shot, poignantly acted by a splendid young cast, and enriched by surprising use of Debussy classics on the soundtrack. Read full review

Michael Atkinson

It's a uniquely lonely film, and one of the year's most memorable. Read full review

Wesley Morris

Awash in strangeness, a poem that details what it's like to be 13 at the end of a millennium. Read full review

Derek Elley

For all its digressions and occasional flat moments, Iwai's movie is a remarkable, acutely involving one, working on an emotional level that can only really be expressed through music -- a strong component in all of Iwai's pics. Read full review

New Times (L.A.) David Ehrenstein

There's an eerie coolness to this film that's quite unsettling and un-Oshima-like. Rather lengthy, it requires patience. But adventurous moviegoers aren't likely to mind. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Maitland McDonagh

Shunji Iwae's film began life as an interactive online "novel" and unfolds in a series of achronological vignettes whose cumulative effect is chilling. Read full review

Jonathan Rosenbaum

The concept was interesting and charming in "Love Letters," up to a point, but here it quickly becomes repetitive, obvious, and dull. Read full review

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User Reviews

ChadS.

Jul 11, 2006

After "All About Lily Chou Chou" pulls a switch-a-roo with its principal protagonist, and gives us a second boy to carry us down the stretch, it does take some time to adjust. A potentially great film is watered down slightly by a purposeful lack of clarity, which seems unnecessary because After "All About Lily Chou Chou" pulls a switch-a-roo with its principal protagonist, and gives us a second boy to carry us down the stretch, it does take some time to adjust. A potentially great film is watered down slightly by a purposeful lack of clarity, which seems unnecessary because we already have the on-screen text to give the film a diffusive quality. But the soundtrack saves the day. "All About Lily Chou Chou", unlike any film I've ever seen, pins down the sacrosanct relationship between alienated teenagers and their music. Told with a little more convention, without necesarily sacrificing any narrative sophistication, this film could've been the equivalent of "The 400 Blows".… Expand

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