FISH STORY

 Fisshu Sutori | Yoshihiro Nakamura | 2009

PLOT:
2012, group of men having chit-chat in a record store, discussing an LP of a visionary punk band that was released before the Sex Pistol’s made “punk boom”. A giant comet was seen in broad daylight heading towards earth for apocalypse.

2009, a sleepyhead high school girl was left out in a ship by her schoolmates and experienced terrorist attack, until a brave man arrived and posed the hero.

1982, a cowardly college student trapped in a car with a song that carries mystical rumors in pitch-black midnight, on the road, alone. A scream of a woman was heard.

1975, a loud ruckus of a band is recording their final song because the record label decided to take the lead singer as a solo artist. A novel held responsible for the lyrics it contained.

1950, after the war, a Japanese publishing company is in dire need of translators to keep business afloat. A man came to provide service; he translated an English language novel into wretched nonsense.

NOTES:

Yes, this is one of those movies with different timezones but somehow interconnected to one another. But don't give up all hope; this isn’t Crash or Love Actually. This one’s decent.

Adapted from KotaraIsaka’s novel with the same title, the film asked, “Can music save the world?”.
In this movie, it can. It did.

Instead of focusing on the apocalypse, this movie took a luminous perspective in looking at the whole ‘end of days’ fuss. It’s a brilliant comedy-drama that took 38 years of consequence bearing. I supposed the plot description is clear enough to give you the gist (if not a spoiler), but the main thing in this movie is the character development. There are plenty of rooms for the character to emphasize their personalities, and the cast (also the writers) embraced it splendidly.

Dialogs are sharp, sentences are efficient.

I have no data about the production budget, but the time difference were portrayed appropriately without having any fancy preps and props. It was all done in the delivery; how each story linked to one another by popping up accordingly in different state of time, and how each character complimented its current zone.  I put my applause and highlights to the casts.

Apart from the popular “random fucking” and “pray for all your sins” end-of-the-world choices, are you brave enough to dedicate your remaining time with music, for music’s sake?

Movie Trailer

Gekirin Music Video

LINDA LINDA LINDA

LINDA LINDA LINDA - リンダリンダリンダ - 2005 - Nobuhiro Yamashita

PLOT:

This is a story about 4 girls’ effort to perform their rendition of The Blue Hearts’ songs at their school festival. The end.

Oh wait, their lead singer is anervous exchange student from South Korea that doesn't speak Japanese well.

The end.

NOTES:

The scene I remember the most about this film is the part when Kei pointed to the stairway and said something like, “the next person coming out is our lead singer,” and outcome BaeDoona looking ill and pale. That, and an almost 20 seconds of cut-to-cut camera switch of close ups with no dialog. 

ShioriSekine (bass player of the Base Ball Bear) act as the ParanMaum’s bass player and her band provided two songs on the soundtrack album, along with James Iha for the instrumental score and ParanMaum with their Blue Hearts cover. YuuKashii and Aki Maeda provided the visual goodie-goodie of the movie, and of course BaeDoonashowed us all how to look adorably pale and ill.

With no means to stereotype, but almost every Japanese movie that became my favorites have one similarity; they picture awkwardness well. Not one of those Hollywood “oh shit” moments, but the crickety, dot dotdot, big water animation behind the head kind of awkward. I love that.

To sum it up, LINDA LINDA LINDA delivers a light story about friendship and high school romance that will leave you with cuddly heartwarming feelings. Cute Japanese schoolgirls playing punk songs; there will be no other feelgood movie that’ll beat this one in a long time.

 

 

 Movie trailer

Them song music video

Owaranai Uta

Kegawa No Maries' ビューティフル

It's rough, punk-heavy, melodic, and -almost- filled theatrics.

It's a shame they disbanded in 2011.

The Blue Hearts

In mid 2000s, the world’s music media was filled withdouble-sided dagger. Oldskool garage sounding with polished rock ‘n roll attitude that the media named “revivalist music”, and on the other side of the dagger was futuristic sounding blip music. It was a monotonous era of tunes, the rise of digital downloads and, I’m pretty sure, the death of innovation. And I wont even be mentioning hip/nu/rap metal.

But in between that era and the ‘Post-everything’ wave came, there was this one band came to radar. 
Resurfaced, if not resurrected.

A punk rock band from Japan that consisted of Hiroto Komoto on vocals, Masatoshi "Marcy" Mashima on guitar (the headband guy), Testuya "Kaji" Kajiwara on drums (the Mohawk guy), and Junosuke Kawaguchi on bass. Sounds like the Ramones X the Jam, performed like the Clash, wrote like the Buzzcocks X the Pistols, and called themselves the Blue Hearts.

The sad (and good part) about this is,I heard them from a movie in 2005. Yes, I’m ill informed like that.

Turns out that the band that started in 1985 and disbanded in 1995, and captured my ears ten years later.

It was a pure, raw, two-and-a-half minutes of harsh energy. Straightforward rock with no punchlines, no jargons and no notable quotes; like a simple-minded masculinity. Not to mention, I'm all for his hoarse singing voice. Productions’ quite well layered; they work on it well considering the era of its released. If you’re into classic punk, discography’s a must have collection. Especially the US only vinyl “Blast Off”.

Fun fact: as a punk band, they used to play small venues. Up until their third album was released with controversy with Mitsubishi as a media scandal and boost record sales to millions. They wrote a song that criticized nuclear power, and Mitsubishi was one of the key-funding sources for their label, Meldac Records. Instead of dropping the song like any other moneymaking cattle, they chose to drop the label and play the Budokan&Yoyogi stadium instead.

They tour the US two times, both with mediocre results. In their last album, they feature “Linda, Linda” that exploded to be their biggest single. The song itself have been covered by countless musicians and bands; to note a few, Me First and The Gimme Gimmes and MxPx did their version of “Linda, Linda” in their Japanese cover albums.

When you go to the karaoke, you should find “Linda, Linda” and scream your lungs out, whether you’re drunk or not.

 Linda Linda

Boku no Migite

Tokyo!

TOKYO!

(Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, Bong Joon Ho – 2008)

This isn't actually a Japanese film. This is a 3 segments film directed by 3 directors from French and South Korea. Shot in, and about Tokyo.

PLOT:

1.      Young couple from the countryside arrived in the capitol with big dreams. Bumped with what seemed to be short-term issues, the couple struggles with all they can to survive. Warm beddings, communication in their relationship and the support they give and take to/from each other are at stake when one of them starting to doubt the characterthey should be in.(Interior Design)

2.      A grotesque creature suddenly appeared from the gutter in a human-like shape. He disturbed the peace and order with his malicious acts while roaming the city. The media came and televised it as the creature made a reenactment of the Godzilla vibe, creating a mass disruption. (Merde)

3.      As his only link to the outside world, one “hikikomori” used his telephone to order daily necessities, which will be delivered by random people he need not to interact with. Until a lovely pizza delivery woman came along with an earthquake, the city shut-in decided to make a dramatic change.(Shaking Tokyo)

NOTES:

Tokyo (or Japan in general) successfully captivates many eyes with its charm; the bright lights, the technology, the blend of modern and traditional, and the absurd fantasies.

Me included, mostly for the last part.

This movie shows an old and relatively well-known part of the nation, but with bent standpoint and symbolism from the “outsider”. How a fast-paced society tend to give more pressure and questions to people’s role in their lives, how the media be liable for messy headlines and acting as the superior feeder of the social order, and “how just-add-water” becoming a generation’s life motto; are the messages I get from the three directors.

Those messages are statements, of modernism, of progress and its regressive effects, and of the poetic reality. Some heavy shit, huh.

I’m not familiar with Leos Carax’s works, but Gondry’s and Bong’s signature are splattered all over their titles. Simple dialogs with maximum set details, superb acting and great themes. Yes, that includes Yu Aoi.

You know that draggy storytelling Japanese movie had? It’s there. It’s great.