SFIAFF: Linda Linda Linda

As far as SFist can tell, Japanese teenagers (at least as they are portrayed in Japanese films) are way more hilarious than the mall loitering youth of the US. In understated and awkward ways, the kids in Linda Linda Linda portray the ups and down of a school festival and teenage interactions in a way that almost makes you nostalgic for high school. Almost. The plot of the film revolves around girls attempting to put together a rock band in time to perform for a school festival. The singer they settle on, Son, is an exchange student, who can’t speak Japanese. Son, played by Bae Du-Na (from Ring), gives the best performance, showing that a good actor doesn’t need language to convey what they’re trying to get across. Her attempts to deal with a come on from a class mate, and to give her band mate relationship advice are some of the best scenes in the film. LLL even has a trippy dream scene in which the lament that a girl’s hands are too small to play guitar is solved in an awesome way. Plus The Ramones! show up to cheer along the girls on their way.

The soundtrack for the film revolves around three songs by The Blue Hearts, who were apparently a big deal in the ‘80’s in Japan. By the end of the film we were left wondering what significance the rat has in Japan—one lyric that is repeated throughout the movie n is “Like the rat, I want to be beautiful”. Only it’s so catch in Japanese, that we’re stilling singing it to ourselves. We walked away from the film convinced that all Japanese school girls have knock-knees and that teen angst is alive and well in Japan, albeit in a far more adorable form than here.