Rock n’ roll!
We follow a rock band that tries to get better and prove to themselves that they can be someone in life too! Will they rock, or will they end up as bums?
Rockers is an interesting movie. The director, Takanori Jinnai, was a real-life band member of The Rockers. I don’t think I have watched a movie where the director has directed and based a movie on a rock band he was a member of. That’s something special. Usually, an outsider directs the movie, but not in this case. But I don’t know how much is fiction in this movie. It’s a movie that doesn’t have the deepest script.
The characters in Rockers feel like cartoon characters and not actual humans. They have little depth. There’s only one character that has some normal human traits, which is the guitarist who may lose his eyesight. He’s played by Hiroshi Tamaki (Waterboys 2001). He has something to lose, but what he risks towards the end of the movie is pretty stupid!
Rockers is a movie with a lot of energy and Japanese overacting. You feel the movie is out to celebrate music and friendship. It’s not a movie for everyone. Even a veteran like me can have some problems with the unnatural energy you find in many Japanese comedies. It’s like being yelled at by five crazy guys you meet on the street, and they keep on following you home while yelling at you. They only stop yelling at you when you lock the door and tell them to go away. But then they start calling you on your phone and keep on yelling! Jesus Christ!
The music is okay, and the highlight is when the enemy of the Rockers sings his catchy and stupid song. I wish he could have gotten more screen time.
Rockers isn’t a funny movie since the humor feels so forced and unnatural. It’s a warm movie about following your dream, and you follow characters that don’t have any real character depth. They yell a lot. They make goofy facial expressions, and they are never funny. But under all this, you can still feel a heartbeat, a heartbeat that beats for rock’ n roll!