What distinguishes Nobuhiro Yamashita's Linda Linda Linda from the crowd is a refreshing modesty. Rather than the usual underdog struggle against the odds culminating School of Rock style in the obligatory spectacular stage show and a fat recording contract, Linda Linda Linda's story revolves around four highschool girls for whom learning how to play a single song in time for the school festival is the ultimate challenge.

Known for his deadpan comic minimalism, director Yamashita is an expert at turning the uneventful into the resonant. His previous films Hazy Life (Donten Seikatsu, 1999), No One's Ark and Ramblers all featured aimless youth with nothing better to do than walk or sit around. Plot was never a part of the young director's vocabulary, but the films were all the more memorable for its absence. Compared to these films, Linda Linda Linda is a move toward a more conventional narrative, but only slightly. It sees Yamashita shaking off the Aki Kaurismäki comparisons, but holding on firmly to his own peculiar idiosyncracies, resulting in a film that is refreshing both for the genre and for the director.

With the school festival coming up, three girls decide to form a rock band. Plans are quickly thwarted by the departure of their guitarist, who claims to suffer from an indistinct hand injury but actually fears for her carefully polished nails. Bassist Nozomi (real-life musician Sekine) and designated drummer Kyoko (Maeda) soon find stray keyboard player Kei (Kashii) to fill in on the six-stringer, which leaves only the crucial position of vocalist vacant. After several refusals, they decide to take on the very first passer-by as their singer. Conveniently ignoring the fat otaku who is indeed the first to cross their paths, the choice befalls their carefree Korean classmate Song (Bae). But Song can hardly speak a word of Japanese, let alone sing it. A discarded tape of Linda Linda, the mid-80s hit song by pop punks The Blue Hearts, makes them look beyond their considerable shortcomings as musicians, and while the other three start learning their respective parts, Song sets off for the nearest karaoke bar to rehearse.