All About Lily Chou-Chou Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

All About Lily Chou-Chou Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 25, 2024

Film Movement first released All About Lily Chou-Chou back in 2019, in a version that seems to now be out of print and no longer widely available, at least according to our database. The label is coming to the aid of any fans of this film with this new offering, which seems to reproduce the first release down to and including the insert booklet.

Those interested in a plot summary are encouraged to read Stephen Larson's All About Lily Chou-Chou Blu-ray review of Film Movement's first release. As I am fond of saying, different reviewers means different opinions, and those who keep track of scores will note some slight variations between my scores and Stephen's.

All About Lily Chou-Chou Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

All About Lily Chou-Chou is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Film Movement with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1 ( almost - more about that in a moment). The production utilized Sony CineAlta cameras and I'm assuming had a 2K DI. This is an intentionally "arty" presentation which I have to say might have benefitted from one of those "seizure" warnings, since it repeatedly utilizes a conceit where a black screen has text almost "unfold" quickly from the center outward, which then gives way to the text continuing over full color (often very bright) vignettes, with the text ultimately disappearing. I'm not especially prone to having visual reactions to approaches like this, and in fact about the only time I experience disturbances is in misaligned 3D imagery, but I have to say after about a half hour of watching this feature, I actually began to experience a slight headache. As can be seen in some of the screenshots I've uploaded to this review, there are other "arty" touches including contrast pushed to the point where whites bloom and light in general can almost become overwhelming, masking fine detail. There are a number of quasi-"home movie" moments where the image is significantly degraded (see screenshot 3). As you can just make out if you look closely, this release apparently repeats the very small but still noticeable "tram lines" (albeit vertically) that run down the sides of the frame, probably more obviously on the left side than the right, so this isn't quite 1.78:1.

All About Lily Chou-Chou Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

All About Lily Chou-Chou features a nicely rendered DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track in the original Japanese. Repeated use of outdoor locations offers some well placed ambient environmental effects, and the interesting scoring, which borrows liberally from Debussy for some kind of anachronistic scenes, also engages the side and rear channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

All About Lily Chou-Chou Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Of (SD; 1:26:12)

This also features Film Movement's typical "About Film Movement" option on the Main Menu which provides some pop up text about the label, with a link to a trailer. The original release's insert booklet is also included.

All About Lily Chou-Chou Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is an often uncompromisingly brutal look at Japanese youth, and things are so brutal that it may be hard to buy this film's central thesis of music as some kind of magical healing phenomenon. That said, despite an intentionally disjointed narrative and some equally disjunctive editing and presentational flourishes, All About Lily Chou-Chou builds to a devastating finale. Technical merits are solid, though I do in fact caution those with visual sensitivities to be aware of what's in store here. Recommended.