A lesson in acting

MELBOURNE, Australia – On my first Ozzie night in Melbourne, most probably due to jet lag, I had a hard time sleeping. So I channel-surfed and put the clicker down when I got a local channel that broadcast foreign art and independent films.

A Japanese flick was showing. I was staring blankly at the screen initially, reading the subtitles, but before I realized it, the movie had me sitting up and kept me wide awake.

The movie was about the struggles of teenage life in Japan. The title, All About Lily Chou-Chou, sounded rather cheesy, but it was not the usual teen flick.

The film opens with a dreamy, melancholy music, as if to prepare the audience for what was to come. The setting is in rural Japan, pre-iPod days. (It was the Sony Discman that gave it away.) The story revolves around teenager Yuichi Hasumi, played by Hayato Ichihara, a victim of bullies who finds solace listening to his idol, Lily Chou-Chou (an actual indie music group in Japan).

Usually the audience sees a film for what it is – a form of entertainment. But in Lily, the realism is so strong it sucks the viewer in to become part of the story – as if the audience personally knows the characters.

When the film was done, my thoughts went back home to our young actors who, I figured, could learn something from watching this film. Maybe they would appreciate the difference between Lily and our youth-oriented films, which at times seem to be trying too hard, not just in the acting but in the overall setting and design. In Lily the lead actor wore simple baggy pants throughout most of the movie.

The main character played by Hayato Ichihara is an all-too-reticent teenager who hardly talks during the entire film. He emotes only when he’s online chatting away at his idol’s fan site. But even with only few lines, he is, largely through body language, able to convey what his character is going through.

All About Lily Chou-Chou is poetry, tapping emotion but making the mind work trying to decipher what’s happening.

Now, how to get hold of the movie? It isn’t mainstream so the likelihood of getting hold of a copy is almost nil. Online maybe. Or how about going through the stash of "Asianovelas" at your favorite "boss… DVD" dealer?

But I guess the most convenient way is through the most favorite words available to Internet surfers: You Tube.

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Email the author at ketsupluis@yahoo.com.