Linda Linda Linda (2005) is about a high school girl rock band who is struggling to reform after 2 of the members have quit. The remaining girls look for a new lead singer and find a Korean exchange student to take over. After a LOT of practice practice practice (it's a very slow paced movie, I think they're the most reserved rock 'n rollers I ever seen) we get to hear some rock 'n roll!
Unfortunately for my non-Japanese speaking self, some of the movie went over my head. I think one of the main tensions of the film is supposed to be if Son, the Korean exchange, will be able to grasp enough Japanese to sing; however, I couldn't get a sense of how bad her Japanese was supposed to be. What hurdles does she have to overcome, I asked myself, her Japanese sounds fine to me! If I hadn't read the summary before I watched the movie, I probably wouldn't have noticed anything too different about how Son spoke.
Come on, subtitle people, you gotta give me bigger hints. I don't know what stilted Korean-accented Japanese sounds like! Give me more ellipses or something!
I was also kinda confused about random cultural things that happened in the movie. For instance, in the film it was very important for the drummer to be making and selling banana and chocolate crepes at the high school. Why exactly?
After I watched the movie, I discovered that under the Special Features section there were little informational segments that answered all the questions I had. Now that I'm informed, let me throw some knowledge your way.
It turns out the drummer was selling crepes because the school was having a Gakuen-sai, which is a type of school festival. It is usually held in the fall and stalls are set up where people can buy food and then they can see a play or a beauty pageant or a concert.
The concept of kokuhaku (a confession of love) was also discussed. A kokuhaku isn't just a "I wanna be your girl/boyfriend" conversation, it's a serious declaration of true love kind of thing.
But what was the biggest Japanese cultural revelation of the movie? The rock 'n roll!
Throughout the movie, the girls are trying to learn how to play "Linda Linda" by the Blue Hearts (a band I'd never heard of before). You hear the song about a million times in the film. The girls sing along to a tape recording, they practice and sound horrible, and finally (spoiler) they succeed. And rock. Surprise surprise (not really).
Of course this damn super catchy song got thoroughly stuck in my head. So then it was time to investigate the original song. Let's hear what you've got boys!
What? Japanese punk? I didn't even know that existed! Fail on me for not knowing! Thanks Linda Linda Linda. I'm always looking for good ol' fashioned rock 'n roll.
One last note: Even though the pace was super super slow, Linda Linda Linda gets 1000 extra bonus points for having a dream sequence involving the Ramones. Because every movie really needs that.
Bonus Ramones video for you just because (with some Japan mentioning, try and catch it!):
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