Linda Linda Linda (2005)
Genre: Comedy / Music
Duration: 114 minuten
Alternative title: リンダ リンダ リンダ
Country:
Japan
Directed by: Nobuhiro Yamashita
Stars: Yuu Kashii and Aki Maeda
IMDb score:
7,5 (6.379)
Releasedate: 23 July 2005
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
Linda Linda Linda plot
"High school girls sing the blue hearts!!"
At the Shibazaki School a music competition is imminent and a band explodes. Co-founder Kei decides on the spot to ask Korean exchange student Son as a singer. Son is not familiar with the songs they are going to play, by the Japanese punk pop band The Blue Hearts from the eighties. In fact, she doesn't even speak Japanese yet and they only have three days left.
Actors and actresses
Son
Kyoko Yamada
Kei Tachibana
Nozomi Shirakawa
Rinko
Moe
Nakajima
Koyama sensei
Makihara
Kazuya
Reviews & comments
BBarbie
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- 12893 messages
- 7675 votes
I am not entirely charmed by this film about a rock band cobbled together in a few days to participate in a music festival. It is a slow film with little development or noteworthy scenes. The scenes that are worthwhile are mainly thanks to Doona Bae, who observes the wondrous world around her with wide eyes. I find Swing Girls (2004) much more enjoyable, especially since I associate the title song "Linda, Linda" more with noise than with music. A matter of taste, of course.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Onderhond
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- 87715 messages
- 13127 votes
Meh.
Somehow, I already had a feeling that this wasn't really going to be my cup of tea. Still, I have nothing against Japanese high school dramas otherwise, but when music is involved, it is often a step down. It is usually quite bland and poor, a bit like Yamashita's entire direction, actually.
Visually it is quite ugly, the acting could have been a bit better, and the focus is very often on the music, which is simply unbearable. Pale rock, without punch or drive. And very poorly executed on top of that.
Furthermore, the drama fails to really grab you, making the running time a problem as well. Almost two hours is too long for this film. It is quite strange that it has such a positive reputation, because anyone looking to watch Japanese dramas can easily pick 100 better ones—a genre where films are not exactly few. This one is actually rather substandard, but perhaps it was a bit more enjoyable and fresh in 2005. Although I have my doubts, otherwise I would have watched it back then; this isn't exactly a very obscure film.
2.0*
Translated from Dutch · View original
Mr_Marty
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- 289 messages
- 239 votes
School band drama! Just before the performance at the big school festival (multi-day! I have to say: it looks fun in a nice, quaint way), Kei (Yuu Kashii) and Rinko have a blazing row. No one knows exactly what it was about, but that’s how it always goes with those two. And to make matters worse, guitarist Moe (Shione Yukawa) has broken her finger. Bassist Nozomi (Shiori Sekine) and drummer Kyoko (Aki Maeda) manage to convince Kei to come back, and she will switch from keyboard to guitar, an instrument she doesn't play yet. As a singer, they recruit Korean exchange student Son (Bae Doona), even though her Japanese is very poor and they want to play the Japanese-language power pop classic 'Linda Linda' by the Blue Hearts. The first rehearsal is so dramatic that everyone bursts into laughter. Three days of practicing day and night follow, during which close friendships are formed.
Linda Linda Linda has quite a reputation as a feel-good coming-of-age cult classic, and I can attest to that after watching it. It is a familiar premise—the last carefree days of youth with summer evenings that seem to last endlessly and friendships that seem to last forever but quickly turn out to be oh so temporary—but Nobuhiro Yamashita tells it with delightful dry wit, with bone-dry humor; the scene in which Son rejects an admirer in an extremely matter-of-fact way after the necessary confusion because she doesn't know the Japanese word for 'incinerator' is cringe comedy at its best. Yamashita also has an eye for a beautifully still image, a bit as if Ozu had made a high school movie.
The characters really do feel like girls in a band. All four actors perform well, but it is Bae Doona who really steals the show with her sense of comedic timing. A good punk singer, too.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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