I want to become a trendy musician. Debuting as trendy pop musician like Ozawa Kenji or Cornelius. That’s my dream.
But then I’ve graduated…and the band I’m in…
Yes, we are a demon metal band. DMC, meaning Detroit Metal City.
Why did it turn out like that?
Where did I make mistake?
It’s horrible!!
What I want wasn’t this kind of music.
And not this band!
Detroit Metal City is one crazy and hilarious movie!
I didn’t know that the movie was a live action version of manga/anime of the same name (If I knew, I would have put the review together with Rurouni Kensin and Ranma ½ in a post called from anime to live action). Anyway, it seems that almost all Manga turns to anime than to live action…I honestly don’t mind at all as long as the one making it is still Japanese (remember the horror of Dragon Ball?). To put it short, although I haven’t seen the anime nor read the manga…I am really satisfied with Detroit Metal City-live action. It makes me want to find the anime 😉
Soichiro Negishi wants to be a pop singer who sings cheerful songs. Negishi is a shy college boy who is not attractive at all, he is rather nerdy and goofy…but he is very nice. Somewhere along, a scary manager (blonde woman with foul mouth) puts her power on Negishi and turns him into a singer of a Death Metal band (Negishi calls it akuma instead of death) called Detroit Metal City. When he ss on stage, he turns into Krauser…a man who often shouts the words Kill, Rape and other bad words…but once he stepps down from the stage he turns back to the nerdy looking guy named Negishi.
Negishi seems like a person with two different personalities. The other DMC members are also fake…the guitarist is boy who likes to kiss the boss’ ass and the drummer is a quiet otaku boy. None of the DMC members are as they look like on stage. DMC becomes more and more popular as an independent band. They also challenge other independent bands from different genre, like rap and punk.
The Boss’ dream is for DMC to be better than the legendary Death Metal singer from US, Jack Il Dark.
Apart from Negishi’s dilemma in DMC and his ambition to sing pop music, he also faces problems with his love life. He is in love with his college friend who is so into pop and trendy music.
If you have watched many Japanese movies, it is easy to guess that the movie is about Negishi finding his way to accept his music.
Detroit Metal city is a truly fun movie…do remember to forget all the reality when watching this kind of Japanese Movie…you might ask how come his wig doesn’t fall of or how come no ambulance come when the stage blow up…you know stuff like that! The movie is based on Manga/anime and for sure it will look over many things that usually happen in real life.
DMC, as many Japanese teenage movies, has good message. It is about chasing your dream even though you might astray a bit but it’s still your dream. Obstacle might come but keep the dream on.
When I was looking for the trailer in youtube, sadly someone mentioned that the acting was terrible…that person clearly hasn’t seen Ken’ichi Matsuyama (Souchiro Negishi) other roles. Even in this movie, we can see his brilliant acting as he has to act as two completely different people at the same time, the goofy Negishi and the cool Krauser. Matsuken already mesmerized me as L (Death Note the movie) because he is everything I have imagined when I read Death Note (manga). I have seen several of his movies and he has shown me how versatile he is.
The other actors/actresses are also good but Matsuken really steal the show.
…and then…since the name of the band was based on KISS song called Detroit Rock City, the producer cleverly asked Gene Simmons to be Jack Il Dark. It was a very pleasant surprise!!
I also love the music! Even though the lyrics are really bad but the music is awesome! I grew up in metal era and always love that genre. You can listen to one of the music here.
My favorite funny moments are the one in the toilet…that one is really funny and I can’t control my laugh at all; the family scene…and of course that last stage moment is just insane, it makes my stomach hurt.
Movie Detail:
Director: Toshio Lee
Writers: Mika Ōmori
Starring: Matsuyama Ken’Ichi, Yasuko Matsuyuki, Rosa Katô, Ryûji Akiyama, Yoshihiko Hosoda
Music: Takayuki Hattori
Release: August 23, 2008
Rating: 
I am soooo happy that Jason @ Genki na Hito’s Blog once again agree to do a double review with me 🙂 I really like his blog and he shares the same love I have toward Asian Movies, mostly Japanese movies. I had so much fun doing The Twilight Samurai review with him because I can read what he thought of the movie at the same time I am doing mine. And now it’s another great fun to read his review which is always more thorough than mine. Jason wrote the movie summary in a different style to mine (which is something I always enjoy…same movie summary with different approach). Jason also mentioned about Matsuken’s acting ability. Do spare your time to read his review too 🙂
To Jason: let’s do this again 🙂
Although I have shared Japanese movie for World Cinema Series, but I like DMC a lot and I think more people should know about it…hence I am putting this movie as my fifth movie for World Cinema Series. World Cinema series is hosted by Caroline @ Beauty Is a sleeping Cat.
Polychrome Interest 
I had fun doing this review and it was about time I reviewed a live-action film after doing a lot on anime!
Great review. You got the highlights of the film that I did including Kenichi Matsuyama’s great acting. I really liked Soichiro. Goofy but I’d still want to be his friend. I loved the transformation into Krauser as well. Poor old Soichiro. Not quite living his exact dream but at least he’s living it 😉
I am listening to DMC perform Satsugai right now. Awesome guitar shredding!
Let me know what movie you have in mind for another review and another double-review is on!
You never done a live action movie review before? I think this is my fifth time (including the not so good Dragonball)
It was a nice surprise reading your review after I finished mine….we have the same way of looking at the movie. Matsuken is gaining more respect from me everytime I saw his movie. I think he will continue developing his acting skill…I look forward to see what he will give us in the future.
Totally agree on Soichiro, he is goofy but very nice, the kind of person you love to be friend with.
I haven’t got any Japanese movie right now, but I will go DVD shopping early next month and hopefuly I can find something we can review together again 🙂
I meant that lately I have written more about anime than films. The last film I wrote about was Heat After Dark in the middle of February.
I worked in a store which sold the DBZ film and it was very cheap. I was tempted but I resisted it 😉
I’m purchasing some DVDs soon as well. I also have a back-log of reviews to do plus unopened DVDs. Let me know what titles you are thinking of getting/do get and I’ll see if I can get my hands on it 🙂
Ah…I see.
Oh, I meant the Dragonball movie by Holywood, I watched it out of curiosity and then hoping that ALL live action will be done ONLY by the Japanese from now on.
Since Japanese movie isn’t the kind everyone look for, they don’t sell much…I will just see whatever they have in store 😉
You have given this a wonderful review Miss. Novia
and it all sounds very good to me 🙂 I hope that Tuesday
was a very nice day for you my great friend 🙂 xxx
Thank you Gray 🙂
If I like the movie I tend to be serious in writing the review.
Have a nice week to you too Gray 🙂
You can still call me Andro if you like? 🙂
Gray Dawster is an anagram of my real name
as I am writing the FTP’s for Red so I figured
Gray Dawster was better for adding to her site
rather than Androgoth or Andro 🙂
Have a lovely weekend Miss. Novia 🙂 xxx
Hahaha…how do you know I like Andro more than Gray? 😉
I think that everyone likes Andro better 🙂 lol
I have been using Androgoth, Andro for years
so every time someone calls by it is always
Andro and I rather like that too 🙂 🙂
Have a sweet weekend my lovely friend 🙂 xxx
I think Andro feels more real than gray 😉
But whichever your name is, we still like you 🙂
Sounds like a fun one!
It is very fun 🙂
The kind of Japanese fun movie which I really like
I stopped reading the scanlations after the first few chapters, partly because the things he says on stage can be hard to take. But the movie looks like a lot of fun.
I know what you mean. The songs he sings have terrible lyric, about murder and rape. I can imagine how weird it is to read it. In the movie, the lyric is also bad but as a whole, thw movie is really funny.
Do they ever rub your nose in the lyrics – focusing on the stage act so you can’t ignore what he says?
It’s veru easy to block out the lyric as I can’t figure out the Japanese when he sings.
If the songs are real songs, meaning not in the movie…I would not going to like the band. Since it’s a comedy movie, I can deal with it.
It would probably go over my head entirely. Good, I’ll check out the movie. 🙂
Looking forward to know what you think 🙂
Glad you enjoyed this Nov, I know this seems to be up your alley 😀
Thank you Ruth 🙂
Crazy Japanese comedy is indeed my kind of movie.
Now this sounds very unusual. I can see why you find it funny. It’s sort of crazy and wild.
The thing about Japanese comedy is they often step outside boundaries and be as crazy as an animation.
You should try watching it once, you might like it but you might also dislike it.
Since the next Japanese movie I watch will likely be The Seven Samurai or something old and famous like that, Novroz, I’m glad you picked a completely different type of Japanese movie to watch. Good to hear that you liked it, too. Kiss was actually the first band I ever saw live–I was so young at the time that my dad went with me to the show to make sure I had adult company he could count on to keep an eye on me!
Hi Richard, Japan has vast variation of movies…apart from their samurai movies, you should give their comedy a try, they are really funny.
Lucky you! I wasn’t allowed to go to any concert till I earned my own money.
Oh, who say the actor can not act? Did (s)he really watch it? Even if DMC was his/her first movie of Matsuyama, to play a dual characater at the same time is not an easy thing at all! Nonetheless this movie was indeed a very crazy one LOL. At the earlier part of the movie, although it didn’t bother me much (the movie was too crazy to be bothered by these kind of things lol) I wondered howcome the pure-at-heart Negishi could be such *real* a violent speaker.. I hoped the manga could explain it better and it did explained it better, but like the others, I prefer the movie. The original Negishi was too glomy and not to mention the lyric vulgarity was too apparent.
Anyway, Matsuyama was a real brilliant young actor! The bathroom scene was one of my favorite as well! As well as the last last scene when Negishi finally able to show his true color of his choice of music in front of DMC fans while they expecting the epic satsugai. Man, that awkward moment the fans shared, “this should be devil’s love song..” I was already ROFLing even before he started to play it, haha.
I am not going to complain there 😉 Maybe (s)he is too used with western movies and the way the actors are acting their part. I mean we both know that Japanese have different kind of acting when it comes to comedy.
Maybe it’s like an alter-ego or something, I mean deep down inside Negishi can be violent 😉
That singing part was hilarious! My stomach was hurt from laughing when I saw that part…literally ROFL.
Thank you for stopping by Ranchi 🙂