All About Lily Chou Chou

Directed by Shunji Iwai

I decided to watch this film for my unit on Postmodernism through Japanese film. I should say, it was quite bizarre- as many postmodern films are. The film is great for high school students. It touches on the modern phenomenon of teenagers who desire to live through the computer and social media more than real life. The movie title leads you to believe it will be about Lily Chou Chou, who turns out to be the pop star the film is centered around. In reality, you actually see her very little throughout the film and she exists more through the stories of her teenage fans. The film jumps back and forth in time quite a bit, showing the past and present of 2 boys, Hoshino and Yuichi. The film is depressing and heavy in parts, but it touches on very real problems for teenagers including bullying and isolation. I will use this film to look at postmodern concepts and structures, but also to create dialogue about the cyber world that so many of my students seem to exist in more than reality.