Soichi is a young man who leaves home a wide-eyed innocent with dreams of being a star in a form of sickly-sweet wholesome pop music which he calls "trendy" music, but somehow finds himself getting fame in a violence laden heavy metal band. In real life he's a complete innocent, vaguely reminiscent of a young Jerry Lewis, but when he's in the rock band Detroit Metal City he transforms into the personification of the misogynistic, sociopathic rock star.
I've always found Japanese humour as rather broad and this is no exception here, except it entirely works in this movie. Ken'ichi Matsuyama, apparently a star in Japan who sends girls into fits of screaming, does an excellent job here and is entirely convincing either as the innocent young man or as the rock star. In fact, he is achingly hilarious when he's singing the "trendy" music that he loves. There are several moments that will have you convulsed, but I don't wish to give anything away by describing specific scenes, except to say that it's the humour that pushes the movie past the level of the ordinary.
However, despite being a comedy the film is completely faithful to the spirit of heavy metal music. This is not Spinal Tap. Unlike Spinal the music in this movie sounds convincing and very much like good rock music. Whenever it comes out on DVD you'll want to turn up the subwoofer!
I saw this movie at the Toronto International Film Festival and the crowd I saw it with was very receptive, despite likely not being the target audience for the film. Even the director before the movie said that it premiered the previous night to a very enthusiastic crowd and he joked that he hoped we'd liked it since we seemed so much older. That got a big laugh, but I still was surprised to see so many people past middle age who clearly enjoyed this movie. It was almost certainly the humour and the likability of Matsuyama and the entire cast that was the responsible.
This feels like something that almost has to be re-made by Hollywood. However, you should try to see this version first before any watered-down North American version hits the screens.
