is a 2005

Japanese film The has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2021, it was the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. In 2011 Japan produced 411 feature films that ea ...

directed by

Nobuhiro Yamashita is a Japanese film director. Career Born in Aichi Prefecture, Yamashita attended Osaka University of Arts where he worked on Kazuyoshi Kumakiri's '' Kichiku Dai Enkai''. His graduation film ''Hazy Life'', took the Off Theatre Competition Grand ...

. It stars Bae Doona,

Aki Maeda is a Japanese actress and singer. She has an older sister named Ai Maeda. She is perhaps best known in the west for her role as Noriko Nakagawa in the controversial 2000 film '' Battle Royale'', which she reprised for its sequel '' Battle R ...

, Yu Kashii, and

Shiori Sekine Base Ball Bear is a Japanese rock band from Tokyo that made its major debut in 2006 with EMI Music Japan. Although assembled in autumn 2001, the band formally began in 2002, and started off with self-produced releases. Their style influences incl ...

(of the band

Base Ball Bear Base Ball Bear is a Japanese rock band from Tokyo that made its major debut in 2006 with EMI Music Japan. Although assembled in autumn 2001, the band formally began in 2002, and started off with self-produced releases. Their style influences incl ...

) as teenagers who form a band to cover songs by the Japanese punk rock band the Blue Hearts; the film's title comes from the hit Blue Hearts song "

Linda Linda is a single by the Japanese rock band The Blue Hearts that was first released on May 1, 1987. Lyrics and music were written by Hiroto Kōmoto, the band's lead vocalist, and was arranged by The Blue Hearts. The track reached #38 on the Oricon cha ...

". An English-subtitled

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

was released on May 8, 2007. The band, Paranmaum (Korean for "the Blue Hearts"), released a CD single in Japan and Korea: ''We Are Paranmaum''., containing three songs that they perform in the movie and three other songs.

Plot

A group of schoolgirls has formed a band to perform at their high school

cultural festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival con ...

in three days' time, but the guitarist and singer have quit. The remaining members, Kei, Kyoko, and Nozomi, decide to perform covers of Blue Hearts songs, including "

", but need a new singer. They ask the first girl that walks by, Son, a Korean exchange student who is not fluent in Japanese, and name their band Paranmaum. The first day ends with all the girls working their hardest to learn their parts. Son practices at a

karaoke Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music i ...

parlor, and Kyoko talks to her crush, Kazuya. The next day, the girls begin practicing early at school. When they regroup after school, Kyoko arrives late and they miss their time slot. Kei calls her ex-boyfriend and arranges some practice time in a studio. They leave late at night to return to school and continue practicing through the rest of the night. By the next morning, Paranmaum is well rehearsed. As school begins, the girls go to their respective places to help during the festival. Kei practices her guitar parts and talks to her rocker friend Takako. Son is supposed to help with the Japan-Korea culture exchange, but daydreams about the band. Kyoko sells crepes and Nozomi falls asleep on her bass guitar in a classroom. Kei and Kyoko wake up Nozomi and fetch Son. Son rebuffs a schoolmate's confession of love. Over dinner at Nozomi's house, the girls persuade Kyoko to talk to her crush Kazuya before the performance the next day. They end the night back at school, practicing until early morning. On the day of the performance, Paranmaum returns to the studio to practice. Exhausted, they fall asleep. Kei dreams about being celebrated and performing for the Ramones at the

Budokan The , often shortened to simply Budokan, is an indoor arena located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally built for the inaugural Olympic judo competition in the 1964 Summer Olympics. While its primary purpose is to host martial arts ...

. At the school, the stage managers search for the band, but to no avail; to pass the time, their friends Takako and Moe perform impromptu music. Kei is woken by Kyoko's cell phone when Oe calls to ask where Kyoko is. The band rushes back to school in a taxi. Kyoko meets Kazuya while the band sets up minutes before the performance. Kyoko finally arrives and Paranmaum performs to an excited crowd.

Cast

''Main (Paranmaum band)'' * Bae Doona - Son, the vocalist of Paranmaum, a Korean exchange student. *

- Kyoko Yamada, the drummer of Paranmaum band. *

Yuu Kashii , known by her stage name , is a Japanese actress and model. She studied at Mejiro University, where she majored in English. History Personal life She married actor Joe Odagiri, who is exactly 11 years her senior, on February 16, 2008, the birth ...

- Kei Tachibana, the guitarist of Paranmaum band (formerly a keyboardist). *

- Nozomi Shirakawa, the bassist of Paranmaum band. ''Supporting'' *

Katsuya Kobayashi is a Japanese actor from Shimonoseki. Even though he and fellow Kamen Rider Kabuto: God Speed Love-exclusive Rider actor Mitsuki Koga/Kamen Rider Ketaros were only Kamen Riders within the movie, they did make a guest appearance during the fin ...

- Kazuya Oe, Kyoko's crush. * Takayo Mimura - Rinko Marumoto, former vocalist of the girl's band. * Shione Yukawa - Moe Imamura, former guitarist of the girl's band. * Yuko Yamazaki - Takako Nakajima, Kei's rocker friend. *

Keisuke Koide is a Japanese actor who starred in Kwak Jae-yong's film ''Cyborg She'' and in ''Koizora''. Career In 2017, Koide admitted to drinking alcohol and having sex with a 17-year-old girl after allegations were published in ''Friday''. He was suspend ...

- Abe, the leader of the school's music club. *

Masaki Miura Masaki may refer to: Name * Masaki (given name), a unisex Japanese given name * Masaki (surname), a Japanese surname Places * Masaki, Ehime, a town located in Iyo District, Japan * Masaki Art Museum, a museum in Tadaoka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan th ...

- Tomoki Maezono, Kei's ex-boyfriend. * Masahiro Komoto - Teacher Koyama, in charge of the music club. *

Kenichi Matsuyama is a Japanese actor. He is known for his affinity for strange character roles, and he is best known internationally for playing L in the 2006 films ''Death Note'', '' Death Note 2: The Last Name'' and '' L: Change the World'' in 2008, as well a ...

- Makihara, a schoolboy that has a crush on Son. *

Lily ''Lilium'' () is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. They are the true lilies. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. M ...

- Kei's mother.

Reception

''Linda Linda Linda'' has an 82% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

and a 71/100

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. The film was David Ehrlich's choice for

IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...

's 2018 list of the best Japanese films of the 21st century, with Ehrlich suggesting that it isn't as profound as films like ''

Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten, Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Tohokushinsha Film, and Mitsubishi and distrib ...

'' (2001), ''

Millennium Actress is a 2001 Japanese animated drama film co-written and directed by Satoshi Kon and produced by Madhouse. Loosely based on the lives of actresses Setsuko Hara and Hideko Takamine, it tells the story of two documentary filmmakers investigating th ...

'' (2001), and ''Nobody Knows'' (2004), but still praising it as "euphorically fun ..so rich, so charismatic, and so damn catchy, you’ll be itching to show it to all your friends."

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on July 20, 2005. The original instrumental tracks were composed by

James Iha (born March 26, 1968) is an American rock musician. He is best known as a guitarist and co-founder of the alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. He was a member until the initial breakup in 2000. Among his musical projects of recent years ...

of the

Smashing Pumpkins Smash may refer to: People * Smash (wrestler) (born 1959), professional wrestler * Moondog Rex, another professional wrestler who briefly wrestled as the original Smash, before being replaced by the above. * DJ Smash, DJ and music producer Ar ...

. The vocal tracks include Paranmaum (the band from the movie) singing covers of the Blue Hearts songs "

", "Boku no Migite (My Right Hand)" and "Owaranai Uta (Never Ending Song)". Kashii and Maeda learned to play their instruments specially for this movie. There are also two songs by

(the band Shiori Sekine belongs to in reality); they are "Sayonara Nostalgia" and "April Mirage". These two songs can be heard playing in the "

crêpe A crêpe or crepe ( or , , Quebec French: ) is a very thin type of pancake. Crêpes are usually one of two varieties: ''sweet crêpes'' () or ''savoury galettes'' (). They are often served with a wide variety of fillings such as cheese, ...

shop" scenes featuring Kyoko and Oe Kazuya. Shione Yukawa (who plays Moe Imamura in the movie) and Yuko Yamazaki (from the band me-ism) also perform a few songs on stage at the festival itself.

References

External links

Official site for US release
* * * {{Nobuhiro Yamashita 2005 films 2000s Japanese-language films 2000s teen comedy-drama films Teen musical films 2000s musical comedy-drama films Films directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita Japanese high school films 2005 comedy films 2005 drama films Japanese musical comedy-drama films Zainichi Korean culture 2000s Japanese films