Tokyo Pop

There's a very rare honesty and charm to "Tokyo Pop." Although I never knew the music scene in Japan, so much in the movie is immediately recognizable from life: The naivete on many sides. The fun of being exotic for a while and the uses made of it. The value for Westerners of being in Japan for a while; the sterility of living there long-term (generally speaking). The harmless chintziness of much in Japan. A degree of gentleness. The story is believable and the characters endearing. In tune with the lightness of the movie, there are few of the crudest sorts of stupidity one is likely to run up against: Westerners who set themselves up as experts on everything under the sun. The Japanese love of grandiose abstractions; verbal bombast about uniqueness and subtlety. The extreme moral and intellectual obtuseness involved in occasionally hammering down nails that stick up. Or that if you are inclined to pithiness, then you too may be unsuited for life in Japan.

Tokyo Pop is the story of a girl punk-rock musician living in New York, who finds the scene dead and at the behest of a friend, moves to Tokyo, where things are allegedly happening. Carrie Hamilton, who stars, is the late daughter of Carol Burnett, and despite a strong physical resemblance, she's a unique talent in her own right and carves out a distinct identity for her character (only once did I detect a mother-daughter similarity: when she's calling out to passing cabs in Tokyo, I felt we were just moments away from the Tarzan yell). She's tough and confident when we see her in black leather prowling the streets of New York and Tokyo, and she's fearless. We're never afraid for her when she first arrives in Tokyo completely lost; we feel that she'll figure it out. After suffering some early setbacks as a gaijin (foreigner) who the Japanese eye warily, she hooks up with a Japanese boy who calls himself a rock-and-roller and whose English is workable, if a little tentative (he often tends to answer her by saying "Sure" or "Maybe"). He invites her to be the singer in his band, and then the Happy Fairy Land Storybook kicks in. The band becomes a sensation, singing a cute boy-girl rendition of the Lovin' Spoonful's Do You Believe in Magic and her face is on every magazine cover and billboard. The fame game is fun until it isn't and Carrie has a crisis of conscience and needs to go back to playing "her music" and breaks up the act. Yet in the final scene that plays during the closing credits, we see Carrie gushing an 80's power ballad. Why? That ending completely subverts the story we've seen for ninety minutes; she's transitioned from Debbie Harry to Debbie Gibson, another sellout singing Americanized Tokyo Pop.

It's not unheard of; real-life rock-and-rollers have done the same (Eric Clapton is a glaring example, although his metamorphosis took longer than one plane ride), but it just kills any integrity the character and the movie have built up. Tokyo Pop is a showcase for Carrie Hamilton's talents, nothing more. I mourn her passing.

A woman goes to Japan and ends up joining a band with a man she stars dating. They inadvertently become famous singing Do you believe in Magic and he falls in love with her. But she realizes that she doesn't belong and has to decide her fate.

This is a great look at late 80s Japan with loads of scenery and culture BUT it's also a cute little rom-com (ish) about music and following your own path. In a way it's similar to Lost in Translation (but obviously pre-dating that) in tone, but has a more bittersweet vibe. DEfinitely an overlooked movie that deserves more attention as it's cute and lighthearted.

Tokyo Pop is a classic eighties story of a American girl who goes to Japan to become a rock star. Carrie Hamilton is excellent as the lead. It is sad that at thirty-eight she passed from lung and brain cancer.

Diamond Yukai is stunning as the boy she falls for. The music is very eighties, but still the versions of Blue Suede Shoes, Natural Woman, and do you believe in Magic are classic. Hiro's (Yukai) original song to her is beautiful and Hiro's Song at the end is sung with passion and is also a wonderful song.

It was incredible that Kino Lorber finally put out a blu ray. I've owned a videocassette since 1988 and have b tried to buy a bluray for years. The soundtrack has been on repeat for me for thirty- five years. Al though I will admit two of the songs are kind of too punk, Japanese for me, but the rest are stellar.

I suggest everyone watch this film. It is a unknown classic.

Thank Carol Burnett for helping get this disc made for her daughter, Carrie Hamilton.

This is a very light movie that highlights some aspects of being a foreigner in Japan. This movie was released the first year that I moved to Japan so is especially relevant to me. It is often more travelogue than drama as I felt that some scenes were shot simply to show absurd aspects of Tokyo life and clashing cultures (the Japanese mother getting ready for her aerobics class as the daughter practices chopstick use; the boy working in a neighbourhood crepe shop; the plastic food factory; suited Salarymen fishing on the Kanda RIver). Still it has a certain simple charm that makes me smile and I feel that it better captures aspects of Tokyo at that time than Lost in Translation does for a more contemporary Tokyo. I just came across it as i was cleaning out my videos to take to a flea market (my favourites have all been replaced by DVDs). This doesn't seem to be available on DVD now so I am watching it as I dub it to make my own DVD. It still makes me smile and will certainly do the same for anyone who has spent time in Japan.