Shortly before their performance at the Shibazaki High School Rock Festival, a group of girls that were preparing to play together have now encountered big problems. Moe, the guitarist for the band, has broken two fingers and is now unable to perform at the show. Bandmates and former best friends Rinko and Kei are now not speaking to each other. Immediately after Moe injured her fingers, Rinko tried to recruit a boy into the band and Kei has not spoken to her since then.

When Kei is asked by another classmate if the band will still perform at the show, she decides that they will, but as a new band. Kei will now take over on guitars with former bandmates Kyoko on drums and Nozomi on bass. The girls decide to perform a cover of “Linda Linda Linda” by the Blue Hearts. The problem is that they don’t have a singer and there is only three days left to prepare. The girls decide to pick the first person that they see walking down a corridor from where they are sitting. The first person to walk by is a nerdish guy that wouldn’t fit in with the group. The next person is Rinko the vocalist from their prior band. When Rinko asks if the girls would like play the song that they were practicing in the previous band, Kei says its the Blue Hearts or nothing. Kei then notices another girl walking nearby, named Son, who is a Korean exchange student with only a limited understanding of the Japanese language. When she is asked if she wants to be a singer for their band, Son answers nonchalantly yes – without knowing what she is agreeing to. By the time she is informed exactly what she has agreed to…it is too late. The band is set and now they just have to learn to play “Linda Linda Linda” for the Rock Festival in three days.

Although all four of the main leads were very good in their performances, Bae Du-Na, as the odd & quirky Korean Exchange student studying in Japan, stole the show whenever she was onscreen. There were quite a few sublime comedic scenes that involved Bae Du-Na acting in that Bae Du-Na manner. One of the more memorable scenes was when she tried to rent a karaoke room and was informed by the cashier that she would have to buy a drink first. The scene was so hilarious in a understated manner, which kind of typifies the cinematic style of Linda Linda Linda. The cashier would talk slowly to Bae Du-Na, realizing that she was not a native speaker. He tells her that “if you want to sing you have to buy a drink.” Bae Du-Na smiles and responds slowly that she doesn’t want to drink, she just wants to sing. The cashier then tells her, “You can’t just sing.” Bae Du-Na pauses, then smiles again and says “This is very weird.” The cashier responds “No its not.” There would be another second or two of silence then Bae Du-Na repeats “I don’t want to buy a drink.” The cashier quickly responded “Then you can’t sing.” A few moments later, Bae Du-Na was in a karaoke room, with drinks on the table and busting out a heartfelt Korean ballad.

The song that the band performed at their high school rock festival was “Linda Linda Linda” originally done by the Blue Hearts. Although I have never heard of the Blue Hearts before, I learned after watching the movie that the Blue Hearts were an actual Japanese punk rock band, popular back in the early 1990’s. I should also note whenever Kyoko (Aki Maeda / Battle Royale) would play the drums, whether it was her tapping out a beat on her textbooks or on the drumkit in their practice room, hearing her play the drums kind of gave me the chills. The same would apply when the band played together. During the finale, when the band finally got to perform in front of their high school, seeing Bae Du-Na give a huge smile to the audience while singing the lines “let’s sing an endless song…for this asshole of a world” was priceless! In case anyone is wondering, the band members could never decide on a name for the band, but at their performance at the festival, Bae Du-Na announced her band as “The Paran Maun,” which is Korean for ….The Blue Hearts. Also, James Iha, of Smashing Pumpkins fame, did an impressive job scoring the soundtrack to the film. The instrumental track that was repeated throughout the film really added a dreamy but uplifting feel to the movie. Kind of like something you would hear in a John Huges film meets New Order’s “Temptation” meets the Smashing Pumpkins “Today” meets Quruli’s “Highway” kind of a way.

“Linda Linda Linda” provides a sublime two hours of memorable moments shared between four very charming characters. For the younger kids that loves rock music, Linda Linda Linda could very well be an inspirational movie for them. For the older folks, Linda Linda Linda allows them to revisit the times when bonds between high school friends were created for the first time. 1, 2, 3, 4…

“Linda Lindaaaa! Linda Linda Lindaaa!!!”