Dragons and Tigers
  Linda Linda Linda
[LINDA]  

Japan, 2005, 114 min, Color , 35mm

Directed By: Yamashita Nobuhiro
PRODS: Nehishi Kuniaki, Sadai Yuji
SCR: Mukai Kosuke, Miyashita Wakako, Yamashita Nobuhiro
CAM: Ikeuchi Yoshihiro
ED: Miyajima Ryuji
MUS: James Iha
CAST: Bae Du-Na, Aki Maeda, Yu Kashii, Sekine Shiori
  
 Film Resources 
  They say all-girl-rock-band movies are a specialist taste, but Yamashita Nobuhiro is here to prove them wrong. Yamashita (who came to VIFF with his debut feature Hazy Life, a small classic of deadpan slacker comedy) starts from a plausible situation ­ a band in Shibazaki High School breaks up over "musical differences" ­ and gives it a wonderfully improbable twist. The band’s co-founder Kei decides to cobble together a scratch band of her own (she calls it "Paran Maum") to compete in an inter-school music competition, and recruits Korean exchange student Son (the incomparable Bae Du-Na, from Barking Dogs Never Bite) as her new vocalist, unfazed by the fact that Son doesn’t yet speak Japanese, let alone sing it. They have just three days to master a set of songs by the Blue Hearts, Japan’s best-loved punk band of the 1980s ("Linda Linda Linda" was their greatest hit) and everything that can go wrong does.

Armed with a score by ex-Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha and a guest appearance by the Ramones (really?), Yamashita crosses the molehills of high-school rivalries with the mountains of punk belligerence to produce a joyously entertaining movie. It’s also, by the way, the smartest response by far to the wave of enthusiasm for all things Korean that is currently gripping Japanese pop culture.

Selected Filmography: Hazy Life (99), No-one’s Ark (02), Ramblers (03), Cream Lemon (04)

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Screening Schedule
 Date Time Venue Tickets 
 Sat, Oct 1 9:15 pm Granville 7 Theatre 7 $9.50   
 Mon, Oct 3 11:00 am Granville 7 Theatre 4 $7.50   
   
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