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Linda Linda Linda and the quest to repeat the past
Only in Japan could key members of Sixties instrumental guitar combo the Ventures judge annual Ventures soundalike competitions. There they must evaluate dozens of bands all competing to "be the Ventures." Only In America would such a situation be deemed ridiculous- maybe ripe enough for a smart-ass parody film mocking bad musical taste.
Nobuhlro Yamashita's 2005 film Linda Linda Linda could not be made in America. On the surface a simple story of four Japanese high school girls who form a band to perform a clutch of cover versions at their school's annual arts festival, the film is a distilled Japanese encoding of how one can "become song" - just like all those bands who wish to "become" the Ventures. Linda Linda Linda accordingly explores the emotional dynamics amongst the four girls as they vacate their egos in order to fuse as a unit. In this sense, their eponymous song is a mystical metatext: originally performed by late Eighties Japanese powerpop-punk group the...