Whilst I’m somewhat of a fan of the Japanese rock scene, I find there’s a small gap between generic dullness and far-too-far out there madness that I enjoy. For example, the newest Dir En Grey album Uroboros (which I reviewed) was very progressive but still maintained some of the intensity of the Visual Kei style.

One album that I have always loved is D’EspairsRay – Mirror. It’s a fantastic industrial heavy rock album, with similarities in places to both Rammstein in terms of power and use of electronic sounds, but they still maintained a rock rather than metal styling – comparisons to lighter X JAPAN and L’Arc~En~Ciel spring to mind, especially with vocals.

The band have gone through an undeniable change with this new album. Firstly there is no doubt they are making more mature music than before – the most obvious example is PARADOX 5, a fantastic mid tempo ballad (I never thought I’d call a mid-tempo balance fantastic…) with all sorts of Eastern European sounding influences. It starts off a bit slow, and it will definitely not impress die hard fans of their older material too much, but it’s a refreshing sound from a band who’s sound could quite easily have gone stale.

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電車男 tells the story of a Japanese Otaku (nerd) who falls in love with a girl he meets on a train, and overcomes his nerdy nature to ask her out and blah blah blah. Very standard romance stuff. So why am I writing about it? Well, the gimmick of the film is that we see the posts the kid made asking strangers over famous Japanese message board 2channel  what to do next, and throughout the film we meet a few of these faceless helpers. The mix of classic love film and contemporary internet team spirit (if that even exists?) leads to a lovely, enjoyable film. What makes it even better is that it’s based on a true story.

Whilst I have to admit ‘Hermes’ the girl (named after the brand of cups she sends to train man for saving her from a drunk businessman on a train) kind of annoyed me, it didn’t really impact on the film simply because of the outstanding performance of Takayuki Yamada, who played train man. At the start of the film he was so convincing in his stuttering, stumbling and heavy breathing I actually found myself becoming embarrassed for him. His body language and facial expressions were pretty convincing too – I genuinely found myself feeling sorry for him throughout the film.

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From Amazon (synopsis of Manga):

Tokyo Zombie is a horror-comedy manga about two blue-collar factory workers (who happen to be jiu-jitsu experts) dealing with a zombie uprising in Tokyo. When the story begins, Fujio and Mitsuo are dreaming of training in martial arts overseas and becoming famous. When they accidentally kill their overbearing boss, they decide to cover up the evidence and bury him at a man-made garbage mountain known as DARK FUJI. Unfortunately for them, the tons of rotting garbage have been contaminated with industrial waste…
Which, naturally, transforms the bodies of the dead into ravenous, flesh-eating zombies.

Oh yes. A film about zombies from a giant pile of rubbish. You can tell you’re in for hilarity when the Amazon synopsis of the opening part of the film includes ‘zombie uprising’, ‘accidentally kill their overbearing boss’ and ‘ravenous, flesh-eating zombies’, you know you’re in for a good time.

I’ll get the bad news out of the way first. The film’s budget was obviously not huge, and as a result the special effects are a little lacking. But in all honesty that sort of adds to the hilarity – some of the things the director adds to in order to get across something happening are often funnier than the plot itself – for example the slide whistle sound effect when one person falls off a bridge. You’d probably miss him if it weren’t for the whistle. The funniest part of the film is definitely the little side jokes, like the man obsessed with searching for Calpis (a Japanese soft drink) in a zombie-destroyed world, or the poor bloke who’s been forced into dumping his mother into the mountain of rubbish by his pushy girlfriend;

But the film is well worth watching – it’s pretty consistently funny, and in the second half the strangeness of the situation of the characters makes up for the lack of one liners. I will admit there are long scenes that drag on – the driving one for example is a bit overdone. Furthermore there are a few jokes, such as one of the leads finding out he’s being lied to by his doctor, which are probably funnier in Japan than they are in England or America. At least in English, I didn’t get the joke. The subtitles are good (although I tried to get through on Japanese alone – it’s a tough one!) and the film is well done. The one liners do come across well 99% of the time, and lead to some great quotes;

I’m not really sure about deep messages or comments on society that the director is trying to make here, although the wastefulness of our world is probably a main one. The actors are all reasonable , highlight being the hapless Yoko (played by Erika Oduka) who puts on a great show, and is a pretty decent character. (Although her complaining does get a bit old).

So overall the film is funny. It’s not a classic though – the plot is haphazard, some of the acting is a bit stiff and occasionally the film drag on a bit, but overall well worth watching, if only for a brilliant twist. (I’m not saying what it is, but it’s well worth watching for. Trying to guess it is impossible so you’re welcome to go ahead and try in the comments!)

From AmpedAsia:

Asako is your typical seventeen-year-old, high school truant. She has no goals for the future and doesn’t know what direction her life is taking. Then she meets Aoki Kazuyoshi, a ten-year-old boy living nearby. Although still a precocious child, Kazuyoshi poses as a twenty-six-year-old housewife on an erotic internet chat site. Kazuyoshi invites Asako into the erotic business world, and she immediately becomes immersed in an adult world that she had no idea existed. The door is wide open for the curious Asako, who discovers things that she has never dreamed of, but is this truly the right path for her life?

Sounds hilarious, right?! Well, for the good first forty mins up to an hour it really is. The two main characters, school truant Asako and 10 year old boy Aoki work well together and there are some hilarious dialogues;

Aoki: If you’re going to kill yourself, could I feel your breasts a little first?
Asako:  I’m not going to kill myself… Wait! Who do you think you are?!
Aoki: Don’t worry, I don’t want to touch them really. It was a diversion tactic to scare you out of suicide. I thought that line might work.

That got a good laugh out of us, anyway. It’s all very sweet and cute, which contrasts nicely with the fact the kids are masquerading as adults in a very adult chat room. But still the light comedy is maintained until it all goes wrong.

At some point director Kei Kataoka felt he had to pander to the slightly creepy “Phwoah look at that schoolgirl” crowd, and shoves a very creepy thirty seconds of lead actress Aya Ueto admitting she’s turned on whilst the camera focuses on her chest. Now Ueno is hot, there’s no way around it, but just jamming a Eurotrash-wannabe scene in there makes the whole film feel like the sort of thing a creepy old man goes to see in a cinema with a secret entrance.

The film wants to be deep but it really isn’t. Every time they look a little at some deep social issue, back comes the quirky jokes and terrible background music. Imagine a tribute to Britney mixed with an ice-cream advert jingle played entirely on a Kazoo whilst underwater.

So there you go. The film itself is funny, is well acted and the plot is well written and enjoyable. Huge cheers go to the young Kamiki Ryunosuke, who’s only 15 now, for the best acting in the film despite being 12 at the time, and I would recommend this film to anyone who can watch a film with friends without feeling awkward, even when the film does. I gave up just after half way through as the rest of the film had been sort of ruined for me. Hope you have better luck!

More film reviews coming soon!

Ok, Dir En Grey. Like them or hate them, Dir En Grey are probably the most successful Japanese Rock band since X Japan. Their last tour through Europe was hugely successful, and I went to see them when they played Sheffield. (Review Here) I came away from that concert amazed – their level of showmanship shocked me, and I started to look into their back catalogue.

Unfortunately, aside from one or two tracks, the two more recent Dir En Grey albums (‘Marrow Of A Bone‘ & ‘Withering To Death‘) have way too much going on, and way way way too much ‘Argh Yargh I’m angry!’ shouting. However, the album prior to those, namely Vulgar, is a brilliant piece of work. I’d heartily recommend anyone interested in Japanese rock, or progressive rock in general, check Vulgar out.  

Anyway, onto Uroboros, then. 

The album cover

Sadly, I don’t consider myself a loopy “~SoOo Kawaii!!!~” nutcase, so I’m not going to bother talking about the band member’s comments on this album, or the history of making it, or their favourite breakfast cereals or whatever it is you people care about. 

Firstly, the two singles taken from the album, namely DOZING GREEN and GLASS SKIN, were released as singles in Japanese but appear on the album in English. I don’t really get why – vocalist Kyo clearly has yet to master English pronunciation. Respect to him for trying, but the English versions should have been bonus tracks, not the Japanese. That said, DOZING GREEN is a great song, and for someone just coming to Dir En Grey it might be a good place to start. GLASS SKIN is a sort of ballad I suppose – very laid back, and Kyo’s whispery childlike vocals work very nicely here.

The best song on the album is, without a doubt, 蜷局 (Toguro), which sort of sits between DOZING GREEN and GLASS SKIN – both melody and rock song at the same time. Whilst I’m not against heavier music, this album has all clean vocals (no shouting or growling), which I have to say I prefer as the clear vocals are far, far better.

They still have their angry American-style metal sound too, and if weird-beyond-belief heavy rock is your thing, you’ll enjoy 冷血なりせば (Reiketsu Nariseba) and the oddly named Bugaboo. If, like me, you like an interesting mix of the two, tracks like Red Soil and the 9 minute epic Vinushka will be right up your alley.

Ultimately then we have a great album on our hands. It’s so, so much better than their last two albums it’s not even funny, the production is brilliant and generally speaking the whole album is well written and entertaining. Well worth checking out if you can take the occasional vocal weirdness. There’s also a lot of use of mandolins and other traditional instruments here, all of which fit in nicely. Altogether a brilliant album.