Perhaps this explains the rambling disjointed quality of this film. Director Shunji Iwai developed this film from an ongoing online soap opera he launched several years ago in Japan. Through it all we’re introduced to such secondary characters as Kuno ( Ayumi Ito) the fellow outcast and Lily-philiac Yuichi has a crush on and Shiori (Yu Aoi) whom Hoshino has coerced into prostitution.
Ichihara’s Yuichi would rather turn his pain inward than stand up for himself Oshinari’s Hoshino chooses to pick on others the way he was once picked on. Both feel like outsiders but it’s what they do with that feeling that drives their lives. He’s not altogether an unsympathetic character as we’re given glimpses of his life and what might have caused him to be so cruel. Oshinari gives an interestingly multi-layered performance as the abusive bully. There are moments where he just stands there and your heart breaks. One only needs to look at his downcast expression hunched shoulders and shuffling walk to know exactly what he’s feeling: the pain of being an outsider and not knowing what to do about it. This turns out to be the beauty of his characterization. Over this way-too-long film Ichihara says maybe 10 words–he’s so introverted he can barely look at people when they speak to him. Through it all the only thing that comforts him is Lily and her fansite. Yuichi is alternately witness to and victim of Hoshino’s grievous wrongdoing. Once a bullied kid himself Hoshino has become a handsome smart commanding and ultimately sadistic gang leader who delights in victimizing his classmates in ways that lead to rape suicide and murder. Next we get to know Hoshino Yuichi’s best friend until the tragic events of one summer in Okinawa destroy their friendship for good. He’s so obsessed about Lily and her ethereal trance-pop that he even manages her fansite which is the only place he can express himself and communicate with others. First we meet the angst-filled lonely Yuichi who finds solace from his pitiful life in Lily’s music. It’s a tough story to follow and is quite open to interpretation but here’s the gist: Told over several years the story follows two schoolboys growing up in middle-class Japan–the bullied Yuichi (Hayato Ichihara) and the bully Hoshino (Shugo Oshinari) who are both fans of a sort of Goth-like alternative Japanese singer named Lily Chou-Chou.
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