An overwhelming movie that revolves around high-school "ijime" culture and how the only sanctuary the characters have from it is music, specifically Lily Chou Chou's. It doesn't take long to realize who and what Lily Chou Chou symbolizes for the characters- an embodiment of hope and peace. The idea of seeking out music to shield you from everyday life is very relatable. I cannot speak for everyone but I feel it applies everywhere, especially at the early years of adolescence. I remember some past hard years and how I'd never leave home without my ipod. This is probably what makes this movie prominent - this movie is over a decade old and yet all that is present in it is still very relevant to our present time. The bullying was very intense, I'm left wondering if it is really that intense in Japan...because a lot I've seen here have reoccurred in anime/manga and Ruth Ozeki's novel, A Tale for the Time-Being. It's also what distracted me from catching the symbolism and underlying themes. This movie dragged a bit for me and I found the camera angles (I dunno how to say it) a little too chaotic for my liking. I guess it was to match with the instability of the characters lives. I promise you, that is not an exaggeration. By the end of the movie I was exhausted from the amount of tragedy in this movie. I think one of the amazing aspects of this movie is the character development of Hoshino and Yuichi and how their relationship develops. At first you don't understand how they are connected but as the movie unravels, your heart begins to aches as you connect the dots. I really hated the passiveness of the teachers. Maybe it is a norm for teachers to not get too involved with the students. But, personally I think there were such huge red flags present in the class that the teacher should have reacted to but all I saw the teacher do was conduct music rehearsals. Additionally, she only asked what was wrong at the end of the movie. I have to re-watch this movie to fully appreciate it. The amount of shit the characters go through kind took a lot of attention from enjoying the subtleness of some of the scenes. My favorite would be the scene with the kites. The soundtracks are amazing. If you aren't interested in watching this movie, then at least listen to the soundtracks. Overall, I did like the movie.