Title: Detroit Metal City
Genre: Comedy
Director: Toshio Lee
Format: Movie; 104 minutes.
Date: 23 Aug 2008

Synopsis: Poor Souichi Negishi. The Swedish pop music fan left his family hometown in Oita for Tokyo, with a dream to become a pop musician. So what seems to be the problem? He’s become the lead singer and guitarist for arguably the country’s most prolific death metal band Detroit Metal City, with the stage name Johannes Krauser II. His private life is thrown into a whirlpool as he faces one problem after another with his dual identity.

The Highlights
Humor: Hilarious; some cheesy scenes while others are side-splitting.
Matsuyama Ken’chi: His versatility is vouched by his lead role.
Story: Staggering changes made, rendering the plot mostly disjointed.
Death Records president: Her cigarette gags are too precious to be missed.
Gene Simmons: Wha…!?

Detroit Metal City - or more popularly known to people as DMC - is somewhat a big hit in the anime community for its farcical storyline and parodies of death metal music. I watched the anime and have now been hooked to it for its crude humor and the hijinks faced by Negishi at every turn. As a natural course of any successful manga or anime, its live-action movie soon ensues, which warrants a watch from any DMC fan. I’m one of those people who had high expectations of what the movie had to offer, but it ended up being underwhelming and, ironically, restrained.

What do I mean by “restrained”? Well for a start, the manga and anime are a big hit to the respective communities for their unleashed adult humor that contains instances of BDSM, drugs and suggestive actions by Krauser himself. These factors are vital to the material, as they justify the purpose of the parody of death metal music and highlight the stark contrast between Negishi the softie, and Krauser the so-called “rock deity”. Now, imagine how it feels like when the movie is stripped all that. It feels ironic that a movie featuring a Satanic rock idol with a complete disregard for authority, seems as though its content is under careful watch by the authorities for political correctness. To put it metaphorically, the movie is a sheep under a wolf’s clothing.

Another noticeable aspect of the movie is how the vital events are messed with for some unexplained reason. Changes made to certain aspects of the original source are not wrong of themselves, because I believe that if they are for the better (think Death Note: The Last Name), then the changes ultimately justify themselves. The changes made to the important events in the storyline may not only displease DMC purists, but they render the overall plot development disjointed and disoriented. Furthermore, by making changes to the important events, a lot of the humor present in its original source is lost, which will leave average viewers oblivious of what precisely (and supposedly) makes DMC such a hit in the first place.

However, the changes are not all necessarily undesirable. Some changes are for the better, as the movie does give a proper closure and even moments of serious drama to give itself more credibility amidst the frivolous fun. More importantly, the movie does not come without its main redeeming factor: Matsuyama Ken’ichi. His role as the sissy Negishi with an alter-ego of a rock idol shows how versatile he is. Matsuyama may be known for playing more down-to-earth, serious roles but he has proven that he can play the lead role in a comical story just as well, and topped with his own brand of humor. He is not the only source of the humor though, since the rock band’s foul-mouthed record president should be credited as well for her psychotic demeanor and side-splitting cigarette gags.

I admit, I was disappointed at how the movie did not live up to my expectations, but there is no denying to how entertaining the movie still is. The humor may be occasionally cheesy and the overall plot may be disjointed, but there are precious moments of sheer hilarity and Matsuyama succeeds in delivering his own portrayal of the lead character. The ridiculous hijinks faced by Negishi warrant anyone to watch this movie; just don’t expect too much.

The Rating: 6

Reviewed by: AC