The
Rock & Roll Brothers want to be neo-punk rockers, but they don’t have much
Iggy Pop or Sid Vicious in them. Frankly, bubblegum pop star Saki Utagawa is
way fiercer, but she has her own problems. They will not make beautiful music
together, but their awkward friendship provides consolation in Yu Irie’s HIBI ROCK: Puke Afro and the Pop Star (trailer here), the opening film
of Japan Cuts 2015, the Festival of New Japanese Film in New York.
Takura
Hibinuma and his bandmates have always been bullied, but they cling to their
dream. The only club that allows them to play is the dingy Monster GOGO, where
they also clean the toilets and perform similarly demeaning labor for the
owner, Takeshi Matsumoto. During one of their awful gigs, Matsumoto inebriated
niece commandeers the stage, proceeding to rock the joint, before utterly
spanking the Rock & Roll Brothers in an ugly brawl. That is where the whole
“Puke Afro” thing comes from.
Needless
to say, she makes quite the impression on Hibinuma, who is quite taken aback to
learn she is actually Utagawa, the pop idol. Despite the messiness of their initial
meeting, she rather takes a shine to him as well. Granted, he does not have
much talent, but at least he has stayed true to his musical conception, such as
it is. In contrast, her all powerful producer Izumi Kazama has successful filed
all the rough edges off music. This is an especially bitter truth for her,
given her medical prognosis.
Based
on Katsumasa Enokiya’s manga series, HIBI
is an extraordinarily bizarre mixture of scatological punk rock humor and
sentimental John Green-style tear-jerking. Probably only Fumi Nikaido has the
range to be equally effective in a mash-up of such disparate genres. She is a
convincing hard-rocking angry drunk and sweet enough to be a credible j-pop
star. She is also pretty heartbreaking in her Camille scenes.
Of
course, nobody can say Shuhei Nomura isn’t trying his hardest as Hibinuma. He
regularly gives up body and dignity alike, reducing himself to a grunting
animalistic level. Eventually, it ceases to be amusing and becomes an act of
performance art-like endurance.
The
term “over the top” is lost on Hibinuma, but a lot of the film’s little details
are perfectly rendered, such as Utagawa’s compulsively happy, light-electronica
hit “Happy Summertime.” Key supporting player Tomoko Mariya is a tart-tongued
stitch as Kazama—think of her like a Japanese Dame Kristin Scott Thomas. The
name of the Rock & Roll Brothers’ chief rivals at Monster GOGO is also a
nice touch: “Dog Rape.”
