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      Half Japanese: The Band That Would Be King

      1993 1h 30m Documentary List
      Reviews 92% Audience Score 500+ Ratings Filmmaker Jeff Feuerzeig documents the strange career of Jad and David Fair's avant-garde rock duo, Half Japanese. Formed in the pre-punk 1970s and originally releasing their music on self-distributed cassettes, the brothers quickly gained renown in the fringe-rock underground due to their lo-fi recording style and deliberately minimal musical skills. The film includes interviews with both brothers as well as famous fans like magician Penn Jillette and Velvet Underground drummer Maureen Tucker. Read More Read Less

      Critics Reviews

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      Emanuel Levy Variety Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the band, this mockumentary is mildly entertaining though not as zany or original as its model, This Is Spinal Tap. Rated: B- Oct 10, 2006 Full Review Marc Savlov Austin Chronicle Rated: 3/5 Jan 1, 2000 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com One hour length mockumentray is sufficient but limits opportunities for theatrical release Rated: 3/5 Jul 31, 2005 Full Review Bill Gibron DVDTalk.com Half Japanese: The Band that Would Be King has all the hallmarks for a great rock doc... Rated: 3/5 Jul 13, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

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      Audience Member Yeah I watched it. Yes it was watched. Uh you could also watch it Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Audience Member What they lack in ability, they certainly try to make up for with innocent enthusiasm. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review Audience Member fuck the beatles, half japanese are the greatest pop band ever. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Audience Member Great Documentary of an inspiring avant-grade band. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Audience Member much like spinal tap...... pretty silly. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Audience Member What starts out as a documentary about the band Half Japanese, gets a little distracted around the middle portion, then gets back on focus towards the end. Half Japanese started in 1977 by two brothers David and Jad fair, who couldn't play their intruments but had their hearts and minds in the right place and would eventually carve a niche in independent/alternative rock for themselves. Personally I like their first album, Half Gentleman/Half Beasts the best. One critic in this film compares it to the John Coltrane/Rashied Ali album Interstellar Space, and I do agree with that comparison to a certain degree, the difference being that Coltrane and Ali were both expert musicians playing at the top of their game,and Half Japanese were just two young kids making some good noise. I like both albums equally and the end result's are very similar. Just goes to show that it's really about passion not technical proficiency, and both albums had plenty of it. The middle portion of the film gets distracted a bit and starts examining why a band like Half Japanese can't be truly successful in the major label/MTV sense of the word, and we see a lot of HJ fanatics bash the majors and MTV for a good 20-30 minutes. No real complaints from me there. Nothing would please me more than to see MTV and the majors burnt to the ground, but it does feel slightly out of place. Then again perhaps the filmmakers where trying to make a statement on the commodification and standardiztion of Rock n Roll, and music in general, and were using HJ as center piece, as opposed to a straight documentary about HJ. The film does go back to focusing on HJ themselves towards the end though. All in all a very good documentary centering around an underrated and important band, who more people need to check out. While my musical preferences tend towards the noisy and bizarre, the band did eventually evolve into a more than acceptable indie rock band, and their later material reminds me of Lou Reeds solo work in a lot of ways. Could be mainly Jad's vocal delivery, but thats what came to mind for me. Recommended. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis Filmmaker Jeff Feuerzeig documents the strange career of Jad and David Fair's avant-garde rock duo, Half Japanese. Formed in the pre-punk 1970s and originally releasing their music on self-distributed cassettes, the brothers quickly gained renown in the fringe-rock underground due to their lo-fi recording style and deliberately minimal musical skills. The film includes interviews with both brothers as well as famous fans like magician Penn Jillette and Velvet Underground drummer Maureen Tucker.
      Director
      Jeff Feuerzeig
      Screenwriter
      Jeff Feuerzeig
      Genre
      Documentary
      Original Language
      English
      Runtime
      1h 30m