- Detroit Metal City
- Opening Date: 08/23/2008 (Japan)
- TRAILER:
- ACCOMPLICES: Official Site
The Charge
No music, no dreams.
Opening Statement
Based on the hit Japanese manga, Detroit Metal City is an all-singing metallic boot kick to the face. Now this is what a romantic comedy is supposed to be like! Full of death metal and Gene Simmons! Rock on!
Facts of the Case
Negishi Soichi (Ken’ichi Matsuyama, Death Note) is a small-town farm boy who is making his way to Tokyo for the first time. He yearns to be trendy, playing Swedish pop songs about love, cheese tarts and his special sweetie. While attending university, he joins the songwriter’s club and practices his acoustical set, but fails to make a career. Flash forward a few years later, and the gentle Negishi has found musical success… just not the kind he ever imagined!
Negishi has been transformed into Sir Johannes Krauser II, a death metal god of the most unholy caliber, rising up from the bowels of hell to fornicate with your mother! The front man to DMC (Detroit Metal City), Japan’s underground death metal sensation, his career is skyrocketing—except that Negishi can’t stand metal! Unfortunately, his overbearing manager (Yasuko Matsuyuki) forces him to stay in the band, under penalty of severe beating. The meek Negishi is trapped, unable to fulfill his musical dream.
But when a chance encounter re-introduces him to his longtime crush Yuri (Rosa Kato) he tries to break free from Krauser and forge his own path. Desperate to hide his shameful identity from Yuri, he juggles between his two lives, and manages to mess up both badly. DMC fans are not so easily satiated, and when word gets around that the infamous Demon God of Rock and Roll, Jack Ill Dark (Gene Simmons from KISS) is retiring with one last world tour, Krauser will be forced to battle for the pride of Japanese heavy metal… whether he wants to or not!
The Evidence
Let’s get it right out the way: Detroit Metal City might be the best movie I’ll see at TIFF this year, if judged only by sheer audience enjoyment and satisfaction. People were practically on their feet cheering this absurd musical comedy, watching the schizophrenically nerdy Negishi juggle his two identities. Krauser is clad in iron, wears ghastly white makeup with the word “KILL” written on his forehead, and shreds the guitar riffs with his teeth while screaming lyrics of rape, sodomy, murder and destruction. After the makeup comes off, Negishi plays nauseatingly adorable acoustic songs on the street corner, but fails to attract any attention. His band keeps pushing him higher and higher, but in doing so, it means abandoning Negishi’s musical dream.
This film has to be seen to be believed. If the plot summary sounds insane, there is a very good reason for this. A non-stop barrage of physical comedy gags, absurd plot points, horrifically terrible music (both metal and pop) and the goofiest plot imaginable somehow congeals and molds itself into the funniest, most enjoyable, most riotous cinematic experience imaginable. The plot is so ridiculous, so absolutely over-the-top that audiences literally could not stop laughing. Thank goodness the film was subtitled—otherwise nobody would have heard a word of dialogue. The sheer impact of the film cannot be notarized here in a mere review; it is all in the glorious assembly of the sight gags, the physical comedy, the outrageous facial expressions and the oh-so-violent death metal lyrics about raping mothers. Honest, it’s funny!
Teen icon Ken’ichi Matsuyama plays double roles as the painfully gaudy Negishi and the outrageously offensive Krauser, and if it wasn’t spelled out for audiences repeatedly, you would have no idea they were played by the same actor. He is utterly hilarious in both roles; painfully naïve and overpoweringly horrific, with near-perfect manga-styled pantomime. Every facial expression is a riot.
The manga in Japan is red-hot right now; the first printing flew off the shelves and vanished into the ether, and the cinematic adaptation has been perfected by director Toshio Lee (longtime comedic cohort of Beat Takeshi). The spirit of manga has been perfected in the cinematography and composition, without the film feeling overly artificial. At no point does Detroit Metal City feel enslaved to its source material; the film feels fresh and fun and completely unrestrained. This is not to say the film is without criticism; the story runs slightly long, the ending is never in doubt, and it suffers from those predictable clichés that all romantic comedy manga adaptations suffer from, but its sheer enthusiastic glee cannot be denied. The flaws actually make the film more endearing.
And oh, the absurd situations poor Krauser/Negishi finds himself in, like running back and forth between a PR appearance as Krauser and a date with Yuri, and mixing up his menu order/speech/costume. Or when Negishi returns home to the farm, only to find to his horror that his young brother is now a die-hard DMC groupie and refuses to perform any chores around the farm. Luckily for the family, a fortuitous midnight visit from Krauser puts things right. And by the time Gene Simmons shows up at the end as the fabled Death Metal God to perform battle against Krauser, forget about it—Detroit Metal City is just too insane for words. But in a good way. Oh, in such a good way.
Closing Statement
As comedies go, this is a rousing success of a film, absolutely in love with its own creative vision, and every absurd twist or clichéd gimmick sparkles and shines with overwhelming exuberance. Detroit Metal City is the perfect example of how the most hodge-podge of genres, absurd ideas and musical fallacies can combine into the most unique and unexpected of cinematic treasures.
The Verdict
A darling of a film, an absolute must-see.
9/10
5 comments ↓
Yes! This is the review I wished I had written but was too lazy too. A totally OTT movie and just one of those “you had to be there” movie moments.
wow i paid 43 dollars for two tickets to this and felt like an idiot for doing so after seeing this movie. it seems to have been written for 8 year old, slightly retarded girls. the acting and writing seem straight out of a power rangers episode so i wasn’t surprised when power rangers actually showed up at an amusement park in the film.
i didn’t hate it, the scenes between the main character and his mother at the beginning of the film and much later were sweet and seemed like they were from a completely different movie. and i really like the songs our ‘hero’ sang while busking out on the streets with his acoustic guitar.
but overall the painfully cartoonish acting and just plain poorly written dialogue and plot sunk this. a good movie could definately be made from the basic storyline but this ain’t it.
This movie is a revolutionary message to all musicians that have a dream…..
And i will personally will SATSUGAI “gpw” for being a ignorant dude.
well i saw the anime , read the manga (its still ongoing , im reading whatever is out), and then i saw this movie.
if i want to compare this movie to its manga & anime counterparts , then this movie sucks big time, at least 90% of the comedy that made me piss my self isnt there , so can be said about the voilence , profanities and messed up situations , band battles (Kiva for example ) , and an important character is missing too (the pig of capitalism , Nashimoto – San)
but if i want to review DMC as a “movie” with out comparing , then this movie was pretty good , i’d give it 7 / 10 , the movie isnt really that funny , but its very amusing and it has an awesome message to send to the views.
Ken’ichi Matsuyama , well… he did the pathetic , pop loving geek role amazingly, but Krasuer …. i really didnt get a “death metal god” vib from the way he did him , but it was still fairly good , FOR THIS MOVIE.
i think they were targeting large sales with this movie , if the sticked to the original way it was written , then the movie would’ve been at least for 17+(which might kill sells) , this movie is for children , families…etc , but not for hardcore DMC fans.
I watched the majority of the film, but I couldnt stand watching this. I love Kenichi Matsuyama as a lead. He is an amazing actor. But in this case, not the best film. He obviously worked hard on this role but its not something i will watch again.
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