This movie brought me back to a happier time in life before work became all
consuming. I was a Foreign Exchange student going to Kansai Gaidai University in
Osaka, Japan and learning Japanese. At the end of the school year, there was a
school festival with lots of food, games, and entertainment. Whatever your interests
are there is a club for you. I started out checking out the Classical Guitar club,
then moved on to the Jazz/Blues club, and finally ended up in a Japanese Death Metal
club. I never thought I would hear death metal in Japan, but I was wrong. I would
play guitar with those guys. It was cool.
Also, at the school cafeteria, there was a stage set up with drums and different
instruments. It easy to put a band together. You just have to get on stage and start
playing.
Which brings me to Linda, Linda, Linda, a Japanese movie directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita about punk music and
friendships in Japan. It starts out by introducing the three girls who used to play
in a punk band together, Kei, Kyoko, and Nozomi. Something happens between a fourth
girl who was the lead singer and is replaced by Son, a Korean exchange student,
learning Japanese. Son has to learn to commnicate in Japanese and sing songs.
The movie showed what the school festival is like at the high school level. It also
showed how committed the four girls, who are the main stars, were to making it work
and operating as a solid unit.
They stayed up all night and day just to learn 3 songs, whereas other people in
different countries would probably just wing it and hope for the best.
Linda, Linda, Linda starts out slow but it does increase little by little until the
rocking finish. The pace of the movie didn't bother me at all. What I liked about it
was the day-in-the-life quality it has. It's not just about being a Japanese student
going to a Japanese high school because there's more going on. I think it has
universal appeal because it shows things that every student goes through, like the
need for friends, spending time with friends, everyone working together toward a
common goal, crushes that work and go nowhere, and the sense that senior year will
never happen to you again, so you have to make the best of it.
The soundtrack is one of my favorite parts of the movie. I love the Blue Hearts now.
During the ending credits you can hear their song "Owaranai Uta" which has a driving
beat and fun punk quality to it.
I don't think you will be disappointed in this film unless slow pacing bothers you.
Sometimes life is like that, it has those wonderful slow moments.
"The Asian Aperture" is ©2009 by Jason Fetters. Webpage design and all graphics herein (except where otherwise noted) are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2009 by Nolan B. Canova.
