At odds with their nihilistic aimless lives these children try to escape their pain on the Internet. This is a film about looking for salvation and sanctuary, a feeling of true love and devotion to some transcendental beauty.
She liberates our thoughts, she sublimates and transcends, reaching the transparent beyond, as put by one of the boys. Lily Chou-Chou the rock star IS the Ether personified. This happens in an environment where the Internet is the only solace for these young people of whom many can feel the Ether. The film revolves around the theme of coming of age in a cruel world where sincerity is lost and good natured, intelligent, and initially well intentioned children are changed by their experiences in the society into bullying manipulative controlling abusive adults. The stakes are high it is nothing short of life of death for this teenage boy in angst and pain of teenage life, and there is real risk that Yuichi might not make it. But one fears though, that Yuichi might just kill himself, just as he confesses to his online friend Blue Cat.
One hopes that Yuichi finally does stand up for himself and becomes free. The main tension is whether Yuichi manages to become free, or does he surrender and kill himself. Yuichi’s life is meaningless and controlled by other people he is in a downward spiral towards killing himself. For Yuichi there are two worlds that exist simultaneously – school, where he is beaten and harassed by his schoolmates, and the ether (the Internet), where he is known as philia, the site manager of fan chat room for Lily. Set before a backdrop of cruelty and psychical abuse at school, Yuichi’s only interests are Kuno, a beautiful talented schoolmate, and Lily Chou-Chou, an alternative rock star with a huge underground fan following.
Just about as quiet and introverted as anyone could imagine, he passes his days never making a connection or even speaking to anyone. Directed by Shunji Iwai, this is the story of Yuichi, a 14 year old Japanese boy in the rural area of Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture.
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