Mar
2
2009
Detroit Metal City
Posted by luna6 Leave a Comment
Movie: Detroit Metal City
Release Date: August 23, 2008
Country: Japan
Director: Toshio Lee
Starring: Ken’ichi Matsuyama, Rosa Kato
Runtime: 104 min.
Editor Rating: 7.5
Users Rating: 7.04 
(26 votes)
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If you’re not a native Japanese person and you come across the title “Detroit Metal City” what would you think of? For myself, I would think of early U.S. punk bands like MC5 and Iggy and the Stooges. Strangely enough, the new Toshio Lee film “Detroit Metal City” isn’t a documentary on the early punk bands from that music era, but rather a hilarious film dealing with one person’s identity crisis between his daytime job (death metal band lead vocalist) and his true calling (indie pop star wannabe). There’s also romantic-comedy elements strewn inbetween his identity crisis. The film stars Ken’ichi Matsuyama, one of the most popular Japanese actors today (hint Death Note), and Rosa Kato as his love interest sidekick. Oh there’s also a lengthy cameo appearance by Gene Simmons from KISS. Can all of this be true you ask? The answer is absolutely — dude!!!
Soichiro Negishi is a music obsessed young teen, making the jump from his rural hometown to the big city of Tokyo. His goal is to become a successful musician, but not your typical J-pop star. Soichiro Negishi has a love for indie twee pop. The kind of music popular in the trendier areas of Tokyo like Shibuya. Unfortunately for Soichiro Negishi he fails miserably in gaining any type of following for his music. Then one day he spots a flier for a music agency looking to recruit musicians. With his home-burned CD in hand, he enters the music agency’s office.
Fast forward a few more months and Soichiro Negishi is now the front man for an up-and-coming band. Unfortunately for Soichiro, the band is an ultra-heavy death metal band that sings about Satanism, rape, & murder. The band also parades around in make-up reminiscent of the heavy metal band KISS crossed with Ziggy Stardust era David Bowie. As you might guess, Soichiro is absolutely miserable performing this type of music, but his fear of his abusive female manager keeps him in the band. Meanwhile, Soichiro runs across old college sweatheart Yuri Aikawa (Rosa Kato). Yuri shares Soichiro’s love for twee pop and works for a hip magazine as a music columnist. Sochiro is too embarrassed to tell Yuri what type of music he now plays. Can Soichiro gain the affection of Yuri without Yuri discovering the truth behind his day time gig? Complicating matters even more, the infamous death metal artist known as Jack (Gene Simmons) is set to retire, but first sets out on a farewell world tour. Soichiro’s band “Death Metal City” then gets thrust into a death metal challenge with Jack for the adoration of all Japanese music fans.
“Death Metal City” is a hilarious mishmash of musical styles and movie genres. You have the identity crisis element found in many popular comic books like Superman & Spiderman, the romantic-comedy elements found in many Asian films, and the odd emphasis on two completely disparate musical styles (death metal and indie twee pop). There’s also many amusing satirical moments on the trendiness of Tokyo youths.
First off, the music in “Detroit Metal City” is absolutely great! All too often when you watch fictional rock bands in Japanese films, the bands look completely menacing but sound absolutely pedestrian (Nana! The Suicide Club!). The music blared out by the fictional Detroit Metal City band sounds completely authentic and kicks ass like proper death metal should. Meanwhile, the indie pop favored by Socihirio Negishi sounds completely authentic in that twee pop style popularized by labels like Labrador from Sweden. You also get to hear names like Cornelius and Kahimi Karie name dropped by Soichirio Negishi (Kahimi Karie even performs on the soundtrack). The site gags are unabashedly low brow but works most of the time. Watching Sochiro Negishi’s alter ego Johannes Krauser II sing happily along with the lead singer of Tetrapod Melon Tea in a public bathroom was completely priceless!
The movie is based on a popular Japanese manga that has sold over 2 million copies. How faithfully the movie stays to the comic is hard for me to say since I have never read the original manga. With that said, the movie feels like a complete entity in of itself and doesn’t have the head scratching moments of other movies that tries to adapt itself from a lengthy comic. Ken’ichi Matsuyama’s performance is over the top, usually playing the meek Soichiro Negishi and outlandish Johannes Krauser II to exaggerated extremes. All of which works to rev up the comedy element. One of the few weak points with “Detroit Metal City” would lie with the casting of Rosa Kato as his love interest. Although she plays the gentler side of her character well, she doesn’t carry the “hip” factor needed with someone in her character’s stature.
“Detroit Metal City” is one of the more unique mainstream films you’ll likely find. The movie will particularly appeal to music-obsessed movie fans, lovers of oddball comedies, and of course the many legions of Ken’ichi Matsuyama fans. “Detroit Metal City” is also a movie you should watch in groups with an excellent sound system. Although I’m not fan of death music the songs played by the Detroit Metal City band were surprisingly engaging and the twee pop, especially the songs played by Tetrapod Melon Tea, were finger snapping good. I had a blast with “Detroit Metal City” and likely a whole lot of others will too.
Cast:
Ken’ichi Matsuyama – Soichiro Negishi/Johannes Krauser II
Rosa Kato – Yuri Aikawa
Ryuji Akiyama – Terumichi Nishida/Camus
Yasuko Matsuyuki – Manager
Yoshihiko Hosoda – Masayuki Wada / Alexander Jagi
Kazuma Suzuki – Hidetaka Asato
Issei Takahashi – Hideki Saji
Ryo Kato – Toshihiko Negishi
Minami – Nia
Yosuke Ochi – MC Kiba (Susumu Kibayashi)
Nobuhiko Otani – DJ Raika
Yoshiko Miyazaki – Keiko Negishi
Yoshinori Okada – Detroit Metal City fan
Koji Ookura – Detroit Metal City fan
Masami Nagasawa
Kaera Kimura
Daikichi Sugawara
Seijun Nobukawa
Gene Simmons – Jack Il Dark
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2008 Movie Reviews, Japanese Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |