Linda Linda Linda (2005)

Linda Linda Linda tells the story of a group of girls, Kei, Kyoko, and Nozomi, who decide to put together a band for their school festival. Two days before they are to play the festival, the guitarist and singer quit the band. The remaining members must figure out what to do or risk cancelling, so they decide to enlist a Korean foreign exchange student, Son, to head the band despite not being fluent in Japanese. The girls decide to perform covers of The Blue Hearts songs, such as Linda Linda and My Right Hand.

Describing the plot won't do it justice - it's so much more than yet another "putting a band together" movie. Every character is believable, and comes with a story making her or him alive.

There're laughs a-plenty, and at other times I found myself sitting there with a big smile on my face, from pure joy. And yet I wouldn't call it a comedy, as the laughs are not really central to the movie.

And then there's music, full of raw energy and quite memorable - many in the audience left the theater humming and whistling the title song.

I guess the best thing about this film is that it is real, there's nothing contrived or false in it that I could see. Generally I have no problem suspending disbelief and accepting the (lack of) internal logic of the world created in a movie. With Linda Linda Linda there was no need for that. It was easy to embrace the world of a high school festival and enjoy every minute of the screen time.

Hmmm… I think director Nobuhiro Yamashita's other films could well be worth watching.

IMDB Reviewer