"We Are X" Movie Review

On the surface “We Are X” is the story of X JAPAN’s rock history but this musical documentary accomplishes much more than that. It takes the five superstars of the legendary visual kei band and reveals their innate imperfections; making them more humane and relatable to the audience. In fact, Yoshiki’s first question in the film is one of man’s timeless inquiries, “Who am I? What is human? In Japan we say, ningen. Ningen te nani? My mom would say Yoshiki, you’re a human. I know but I wanna know where I came from.”

In this narrative of X JAPAN’s musical journey, flashbacks to historic points in the band’s history are coupled with current images of the band preparing for their 2014 live at Madison Square Garden in New York. It begins with Yoshiki explaining that his first experience with rock music came at the tender age of 10, when he received his first drum set after the suicide of his father. The day he discovered his father’s dead body is one that he cites has having completely changed him, “Suicide is selfish. You’re gone but how about the rest of us? We are lost.”

After taking note of the band’s unbelievable rise into fame, the film comes to 1992 at which point X JAPAN was looking to go overseas but for various reasons it fell through. Appropriately, a cut to Gene Simmons of the American rock band KISS is shown, “Rock music is a distinctly English speaking genre and if you didn’t speak English or come from an English speaking country then you couldn’t make it...If X JAPAN had been from America they would be the biggest band in the world.” This bold statement contrasts starkly with the international popularity that X JAPAN now enjoys and leads fans to believe that music does not need a common language to find common ground.

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"We Are X" Trailer

Starting with bassist Taiji’s removal from the band in 1992, “We Are X” dives into the other momentous changes in the band’s lineup. In 1997 lead singer Toshi announced that he would be leaving the band. Cuts to Yoshiki chatting on a piano bench with Toshi in the present time reveal the basis for Toshi’s momentous decision to quit; a cult that his ex-wife Kaori had introduced him to0 convinced him that X JAPAN was the devil and that he needed to repent for his sins. Five months after their farewell concert, hide committed suicide. Prior to this revelation, significant screen time was spent delving into hide’s role as the band’s mother and the band member closest to Yoshiki. So when Yoshiki announces to the press, “”Now, hide has a peaceful face while he is sleeping. I tried many times to wake him up but, he won’t”, he is not the only one emotionally distraught. Fans watching the movie are visibly heard sniffling, remembering their beloved hide.

Throughout “We Are X”, the theme of family and home is continuously brought into the foreground, whether it comes in the form of fans or the members of X JAPAN themselves. When X JAPAN first started, Yoshiki told the band members to give him everything and he would make it work. This father-head position that Yoshiki placed himself into made him feel responsible, especially for hide’s death. “I was the leader of the band, I had to blame myself. After hide died, I came back here and I was thinking, what kind of family did I create?” Yoshiki is not alone in his depression however; after hide’s suicide, fans all around Japan are seen crying, screaming, and clawing their way past police barricades just to glimpse hide’s hearse. X JAPAN fans reflect and absorb the band’s sorrow, driving home the quote, “We co-exist with our fans. Our life depends on them. They keep us alive.” With such supportive fans, it is no wonder that Yoshiki is cited saying, “Being on stage I felt, I’m home.”

As if the narrative told thus far in the movie was not enough to convince the audience of X JAPAN’s humanity, Yoshiki’s struggle with physical and emotional pain brushes away any remaining doubts. From the start of “We Are X”, Yoshiki is shown to be physically weak from his birth until the current day, “I was really thin, pale, short and fragile. I was always hospitalized with an IV, maybe one third of the year I was in the hospital. Also my asthma was really bad.” In the current day, Yoshiki deals with numerous bodily issues from playing drums and guitar extensively. “Now it is constant pain. Pain had been my friend, my enemy, my lover.” Despite this and the trauma that he experienced from losing both hide and Taiji (who later committed suicide in 2011), Yoshiki is seen fighting to create musical art which he accurately views as a “kind of war”. Images and shots of Yoshiki collapsing and being carried off of the stage after every live performance reinforce Yoshiki’s battle to fight through physical and psychological pain for the sake of his fans. In “We Are X”, Yoshiki admits that there are two sides to himself - one who stays at home crying for days and the other who puts on a smile and performs for the interest of his treasured fans.

The film wraps up with showing X JAPAN’s reunion 10 years later in 2007 and leaves the audience with the first opening seconds of their 2014 Madison Square Garden concert. “We Are X” truly embodies X JAPAN’s renowned motto of “psychedelic violence - crime of visual shock” with its visual style but the plot speaks to the rock stars’ obscure personal life. For fans who have loved X JAPAN from the start to fans who have only just discovered the Japanese visual kei band, “We Are X” will touch and inspire all.
 
For more screening dates, check here: http://www.wearexfilm.com/watch.html

-Christina (JRockinLA)