I love watching music documentaries that expose or expand an artist. I was really interested to see this as I had heard of X Japan but didnt really know anything about them. If you are a looking for the story of X Japan then you will be disappointed as this movie really should have been called I Am X or I Am Yoshiki. Vocalist Toshi gets some coverage in the film but it's mostly from Yoshiki's perspective or conversations between the two. The narrative of the film is sadly the suicide of Yoshiki's father and two former X Japan members but also Yoshiki's physical issues. There is a lot of footage if Yoshiki crawling around onstage where he is apparently on the edge of passing out or worse. But it's hard to believe that others in the band or management would stand by and let this happen. It really seems like acting or he's doing it for dramatic effect, looking at tge crowd as flicks his hair. There is a lot of this kind of thing in this film and that unfortunately makes the member, especially Yoshiki seem like a fake and that is one of its biggest failings. Also there is very little music in the film so even after watching it I'm not driven to buy their music or even explore it more. Maybe this is an accurate representation of X Japan if so then I'm not interested learning anymore or it's bad film making. Who knows.
