All About Lily Chou-Chou

All About Lily Chou-Chou is Iwai Shunji’s haunting 2001 drama about a group of middle-school students whose lives are shaped by an increasingly digital world. Adapted from a novel Iwai developed through an online forum, the film moves through anonymous message boards devoted to the fictional pop singer Lily Chou-Chou as its young characters confront violence, abuse, alienation, and the dangers of life online. At the same time, it explores music, memory, and the search for beauty amid suffering, centered on the transcendent quality—“Ether”—that Lily’s fans believe exists in her music.

The film’s distinctive digital cinematography, evocative sound design, and score by Kobayashi Takeshi contribute to its atmosphere, while its concerns about identity, technology, and human connection remain strikingly contemporary. The screening is preceded by Godfrey Reggio’s eight-minute film Evidence.

When: November 14, 2026

Showtime: 2:00 pm

Tickets: Free with Harvard ID

Venue: Harvard Film Archive

Format: 35mm film, in color

Run time: 146 minutes

Language: Japanese and Ryukyuan with English subtitles

Director: Iwai Shunji

Cast: Ichihara Hayato, Oshinari Shugo, and Ito Ayumi

Preceded by: Evidence, directed by Godfrey Reggio; United States, 1995; 35mm, color; 8 minutes

Print source: Harvard Film Archive

Series: Nostalgia, A Harvard Undergraduate Cinematheque Program