Ah, to be young again and experience anew the horror show that is youth. In Shunji Iwai's ALL ABOUT LILY CHOU-CHOU there is nothing redeeming about the adolescent years. It's an out-and-out war among teen peers. If viewers were shocked at the frank depiction of sexuality and violence in Larry Clark's KIDS, then they'll flip over LILY CHOU-CHOU, which is just as gritty and twice as rough.

Yuichi Hasumi (Hayato Ichihara), Shusuke Hoshino (Shugo Oshinari), and their cohorts artfully dodge a string of life-threatening nightmares and seek release through overactive involvement in cyber culture, pop music, and celebrity. Hasumi plods through junior high school guarded and mostly mute, but in the soft cocoon of cyberspace he proves to be ravenous for joyful expression. He and his classmates abide by an unwritten code that these impulses are voiced only in the stunted dialogue of a chat room dedicated to the fictitious pop star, Lily Chou-Chou. Meanwhile, the same kids spend their days sitting in classrooms run by bullies and are fed a regular diet of public humiliation, petty thievery, and straight violence.

Iwai has established himself in Japan with such films as APRIL STORY, SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLY, and PICNIC, and is known for "cool" subject matter. Its obvious in seeing LILY CHOU-CHOU that he is a clear barometer of pop trends. The ecstatic compositions and ample palette of shockingly lush colors provide a unique, private, happy ending.