I saw this film during midnight madness at the Toronto film festival and right from the beginning moments, I knew I would be having a rollicking good time. The film is a charmer from start to finish. It's also one of the funniest films I have seen in a long time. My friend said he hadn't laughed so hard, possibly, ever. And that's not a stretch; the film was ridiculously funny. The audience completely ate it up. The film is a self-parody of the Japanese from beginning to end (Soichi dreams of making 'trendy' j-pop, wearing 'trendy' clothes and living in a 'trendy' apartment). It's like watching the Japanese hold a mirror up to themselves and mocking every detail. Watching Soichi try to reconcile his 'true' wannabe pop star self with his newly acquired and undesired status as death metal god is priceless. He spends his nights dressed as a 'demon' singing songs about rape and murder (the film mocks heavy metal in such a comical and respectable way that even serious metal fans can't help but roll with laughter), and his days on street corners singing sweet-sounding pop songs about love and, um, rainbows. Katsuyama had fantastic comic timing as Soichi, and completely won over the audience. It was a hoot to watch him totally commit himself to his metal persona while on stage, but being completely miserable and lovelorn (the girl he likes hates metal and knows nothing of his metal persona) after taking his make-up off. His two sides are completely different and you wonder if he'll ever just embrace his metal god status and give up his pop star dream. Of course, that's the journey the director wants to take us on. And it is one hell of a ride.
Some films are so ridiculous that it's just nonsense. DMC manages to be ridiculous and sublime at the same time. The film is a guaranteed good time and I can't imagine anyone watching it without a huge grin on their face afterward.
