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No other film elevates a movie soundtrack to the level that Shunji Iwai’s 2001 cinematic masterpiece, All About Lily Chou-Chou does. Not only did the director help produce the soundtrack and its lyrics, he also created lore surrounding the project a year ahead of the film’s general release in 2001, crafting a detailed online chat room supposedly written by “fans” chronicling the fictional universe of “All About Lily Chou Chou”. 

The soundtrack of “All About Lily Chou-Chou” is an aspect of the film that simply cannot be separated from its overarching narrative.

The narrative of the film is rather simple: we follow the story of two young boys, Yuichi Hasumi and Shusuke Hoshino, as their relationship begins, develops, and collapses over the course of several years as they progress through middle school. What connects both Yuichi and Hoshino, although unspoken to one another, is their complete dedication and admiration for Lily Chou-Chou.

Yuichi himself serves as an admin for the fan website titled “Lilyphilia,” under the name “Philia,” while Hoshino’s role in the online-based BBS plot unravels as the film progresses. Both of these boys, as well as the additional characters that surround them, are in one way or another critically impacted by Lily’s music, as well as the prevalence of the “Ether” that cocoons and encapsulates their entire being.

Each character, however, has their own unique perspective on Lily and the power her music has, and their interpretations of her sounds and lyrics lead them to blissful as well as disastrous ends. The events of this story culminate into a climax that is less satisfying than it is heartbreaking, only to slowly dissipate and end in a hopeful moment of piano-backed bliss in a sun-filled classroom. 

THE ILLUSION OF REALITY

In June of 2000, on the Japanese music variety show Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ, a new face in the industry by the name of Lily Chou-Chou performed one of her debut singles, “共鳴 (空虚な石)” [Resonance -Hollow Stone] for the first time.

The song, just over two minutes in length, is an emotional and passionate ballad with lyrics detailing a vague but raw look into the pained heart of its singer, evoking imagery of a hollow stone forming within her heart as she contemplates her place in the universe in the face of a broken romance. Of course, this is only a single interpretation of the lyrics, but the song is nonetheless powerful to the listener, and it'd be clear to any viewer of the programs that Lily is a promising young artist to keep an eye on at the start of the new millennium. 

New and eager fans began to search the internet for a space to relay their thoughts, feelings, and reactions to Lily’s music, only to come across a fan website already created, by the name of Lilyphilia. The website features a Bulletin Board System [BBS], in which fans can freely post whatever they want for others to see, with only a single rule being designated by the site’s admin, Philia, in order to participate: that you have to “love Lily.” However, as fans begin to flock to Lilyphilia and make posts themselves, there seems to be a conversation between two users, Philia and Blue Cat, that spans for months prior to Lily’s TV debut. Philia and Blue Cat have sporadic but extensive exchanges regarding their strong feelings for Lily, their intimate connection to the “Ether,” and how the troubles of their everyday lives are piling up at a rapid rate.

It is clear to the site’s newcomers that these two users were going through a truly devastating part of their lives behind the screen, although the details of which are left ambiguous and cryptic. At some point, around the end of 1999, the messages from Blue Cat and Filia abruptly stopped, and a new admin named “Pascal” took over the website, reviving it as Lilyholic for all present and future users.

At this time, under the site’s “Media” page, two newspaper articles from the Teito Shimbun were posted that detail a horrific accident that took place following a Lily Chou-Chou concert on December 8th, 1999. The first article relays that a crowd of Lily fans outside the Shibuya-based venue collapsed, during which 10 people were injured and one, a 15 year-old by the name of Shusuke Hoshino, was seemingly crushed to death under the other fans. The second expands on this incident, detailing that an autopsy report on Hoshino revealed that he actually died from a stab wound, and the suspected murderer had not yet been identified. The article also references the history of death associated with Lily’s name, as another fan of hers commited suicide earlier that year. 

Following Filia and Blue Cat’s disappearance from the BBS, Pascal posts a front page note to all users of the Lilyholic website detailing his new position as admin and that he intends to “revive” the fan site in line with its former glory. Pascal also makes a stark announcement that will forever change the reality of the site’s users: that his real name is Shunji Iwai, and he is making a film about Lily and the events that led up to the deadly incident outside her concert hall in 1999, which is to be titled “All About Lily Chou-Chou.”

THE MIND BEHIND THE FILM

This reality-bending prologue to “All About Lily Chou-Chou” only manages to be the tip of the iceberg in regards to the film’s multi-textual nature. In reality, the Lilyphilia/Lilyholic sites that fans managed to find on the early-internet sphere following Lily’s musical “debut” were almost entirely manufactured by Shunji Iwai himself. Iwai created the sites as well as the characters of Philia, Blue Cat, and Pascal all on his own in order to create an “online novel” that would serve as the basis for his upcoming cinematic venture. The film itself serves as an extension of the BBS conversations featured on the website as well as the artificial newspaper postings.

The users, such as Philia and Blue Cat, are actually matched with characters in Iwai’s film, and their interweaving plots conjoin around the identity of Lily Chou-Chou, who is revealed to be an entirely fictionalized musician. However, this is where the threads of Iwai’s master plot begin to settle into place, as while Lily herself is simply a name associated with a collection of songs used as the soundtrack to Iwai’s project, her presence and music are used in a way that no other film has managed to quite achieve. In essence, the ways in which Lily Chou-Chou is presented and received, both in the real world and the universe of the film, manages to transform the soundtrack - a tool usually used to fill in the space of a film’s events or enhance emotional beats - into a character entirely of its own making, and dons the viewer with a sense of participation in a story that is out of their control, making the lasting effects of the film all the more intense, heart-crushing, and contemplative.

WHO IS LILY?

Truthfully, Lily Chou-Chou is a musical project created by Iwai, producer Takeshi Kobayashi, and singer Ayako Mori, who would go on to have a successful career under the stage name Salyu a few years after the film debuted. Lily would not only be used as a pivotal character in the plot of the film, in line with its title, but the songs created under her name would be used as the film’s soundtrack, blurring the lines between Lily’s reality and unreality. On its surface, the film itself is a simple albeit gruesome look into the lives of several young children living in the Japanese countryside in the latter years of Japan’s “Lost Decade.” As the 1980s, one of the country’s most prosperous and luxurious eras in its contemporary history, came to a close, the 1990s became a time of economic and emotional decadence after the recession of 1991.

With news-spanning headlines detailing a massive increase in youth violence and suicide during this decade, young people living in the country saw themselves on a road to nowhere, standing at a crossroads of misdirection and loneliness, not far from what Yuichi describes as the “age of grey” within the film. To make things worse, complicit or even abusive adults catalyze the unhealthy behaviors of the children we see, representative of the lack of societal assistance or guidance during this complex and isolating time in Japan. However, when these systems fail and young people stand at a crossroads of confusion and apathy, All About Lily Chou-Chou’s answer to help guide those in need is quite simple: music. 

Within the film, the titular musician, Lily Chou-Chou, is seen by her fans as a god among mortals, a mystical and magical provider of calm, belonging, and purpose at a time when such feelings are seemingly out of reach in the real world. Through her music, Lily is able to access and share the “Ether,” an omni-present yet invisible force that surrounds and comforts those who choose to listen and dedicate themselves to her music, with Yuichi and our cast of characters themselves acting as dedicated followers of Lily’s word and sound. The film, however, takes this form of idolatry to its extremes, as characters interpret Lily’s lyrics in ways that are both completely comforting as well as downright tyrannical. This film displays the spectrum and extremes of fandom, and how the words of an artist that so many people love and adore can be twisted and morphed to inspire violence and betrayal. This concept is even touched upon in the movie itself, with several characters referencing the hidden duty of all supposed Lily fans: “don’t spoil the Ether.”

Outside of Lily’s real-life “artificiality,” she has an in-universe backstory that plays an important role in both the sound of her music as well as how fans become connected to her through her lore, affirming or twisting the idealist images they have of the musician. Within the film, Lily used to be the lead vocalist for another band, “Philia,” which broke up in 1997 just a couple years after their debut. Another member, Katuro Kayama, went on to lead a major-label band under the name “Yellow Fellows,” for which Lily wrote lyrics. Following the start of Lily’s solo career, rumors and gossip spread throughout her fanbase that tainted her image, as non-fans accused her of ghostwriting those songs as well as having been boosted by Katsuro’s newfound success. At the scene of the concert in the last leg of the film, a fan waiting in line reaffirms this rumor, and as a result several fans around him begin to beat him up in defense of Lily and the “Ether” - a realistic representation of a devoted fan base lashing out at those who stain their idol’s name.

The existence of an in-universe backstory on top of Lily’s real-world origins adds to the illusion of her existence, and yet emphasizes our own participation in the events we witness on screen. When it comes to any musician or idol, fans desire to know about their history, story, and personality through their own experiences in order for that idol to become more relatable and “down to earth.” While this may not always be the case, dedicated fans will look into the lives of their idols as a way of humanizing their status and create a connection that lets them become closer to the art being created, as well as the idol themselves. In a modern context, we know this all too well as parasocial relationships, wherein fans dedicate their time and interest to Lily and her music, while Lily herself is simply a person who happens to create art that appeals to a great number of people without knowing them personally. Within this exchange, Lily’s humanity becomes reduced as fans begin to form and distort their own perceptions based on her music, history, and controversy. Even in 2001, Lily Chou-Chou stands as a golden example of a  contemporary concept in the age of online interaction and connection that forces idols, musicians or otherwise, to have their own sense of reality or authenticity stripped by their own fame and public perception. In this sense, the question of Lily’s “authenticity” as either a real-world artist or artificial idol begins to lose its footing, as fans themselves are able to validate or dismantle her humanity on their own; Lily, like many in the music industry, stands as a figure entirely formed from the hands and minds of her fans.

I'm izzy, and I am an engineering student based in melbourne, australia!

this is my studyblr that i do try to stay active on, as it's hopefully going to provide some study motivation, which I severely lack.

Some fun facts about me:

my favourite colour is purple but since thats kinda hard to pair with stuff my whole colour scheme for everything is blue/greens and neutrals :)

i am studying civil engineering at uni!

favourite music artists: new hope club, one direction, louis tomlinson, vansire, yot club, conan gray :)

sports I like: i have like zero hand-eye coordination, so I swim (competitively) and run (casually) :)

gay! yippee

favourite books series is the magicians by lev grossman

favourite tv series is DC's legends of tomorrow

I draw sometimes (I'm not very good but it is fun)

I will add more if I think of more :)

25.01.22