|
|
|
© 2000 by Harold Sakuishi / Kodansha / Madhouse
© 2000 by Harold Sakuishi / Kodansha / Madhouse
© 2000 by Harold Sakuishi / Kodansha / Madhouse
View all Media
|
|
|
June 11, 2009
by: Eric Anderson
Triumph, melancholy and an over-seas reunion tour
Review Hardware Used: Samsung LN46A650 46-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV; Panasonic SA-HE100 Home Theater Receiver; Xbox 360 console
Disc Description:
The Greatful Sound Festival is out of control with wild weather and wilder music. The chaos and pressure are getting to Beck... In fact, the band is falling apart! As Koyuki takes the stage to a growing crowd, the lucky ones will be able to say, "I was there." When the set ends, nobody can say for sure what will happen tomorrow. As the music fades away, the future is cloudy, and it might just be time to move on. But as the legend of their gig takes on a life of its own, America is waiting outside the window of a van. The road is a long one, but some fires can burn forever.
Disc Review
Content: (This section may contain spoilers.)
This is it. This is for all the chips. Koyuki, Ryusuke and the rest of Beck are finally going to have their day in the sun, or the rain as it ends up. This is Greatful Sound, the biggest outdoor music fest in Japan, and not only are they going to be there, they’ll be up against two of the biggest acts in the world: the rapper Malcolm and Yoshito and Eiji’s band, Belle Ame. This performance isn’t just the biggest show they’ve ever played, but it could also decide whether or not there will even be a Beck anymore.
Before they can even get to the stage though the boys are having some huge problems. Ryusuke wonders aloud if Chiba even belongs in Beck and Chiba storms off, vowing to quit the band. Now not only do they have the impending concert to worry about, but they also have to hunt down their rapper. Honestly, it probably helps having something to do instead of sitting around. The makers of the series do a fine job here of building the tension. As Koyuki runs all over the grounds trying to find Chiba you can see that he’s getting more and more nervous. What are they going to do without their vocalist?
Meanwhile, all over the festival different bands are performing from all sorts of different genres. Again, they hit the nail right on the head with the feel of being at an outdoor concert; even more so when the rains start up. The bad weather puts a delay on Beck’s show, which is for the best, since they still can’t find Chiba, but Belle Ame goes on in front of a massive crowd on the main stage. It soon becomes clear that it’s going to be almost impossible for Beck to draw more than Belle Ame. Really though, who needs scores and scores of screaming pre-teens?
Through it all, Koyuki, Taira and Saku have been waiting backstage. To make matters worse, now Ryusuke has gone missing too, and it looks like they’re going to have to call off the show. Not so fast though. Koyuki moves aside the curtain and sees something that he’s never seen before. Those people out there are here to see Beck. That’s what they came for. Not only are there newcomers, but there are many people that he recognizes from their other shows, people who made the long journey to see what they hoped would be greatness, and here they are, thinking of letting them all down.
 © 2000 by Harold Sakuishi / Kodansha / Madhouse
Master of the bass guitar, Taira
Koyuki has no intention of letting anything like that happen. He grabs up Jewel’s acoustic guitar (yes, “that” Jewel) and heads for the stage. So be it that he has to go alone, he’s not going to let their fans be disappointed. As he stands there, in front of that mass of people, you see a final transformation of sorts. Koyuki, in that moment, goes from being a guy in a band to being a rock star. Then and there, in the pouring rain, he starts to strum out a tune and you instantly break out in goose bumps. It’s a simple tune, but it’s got power, it’s got feeling. Unfortunately then he starts singing and the bottom drops out.
Let me describe a scenario for you. In this version of the scene the song he sings is the Beatles “I’ve got a Feeling”. The lyrics and music swell from Koyuki and as he belts it out, one by one, the other members of the band join him on stage. With every addition the emotion builds. Saku stoically taking his usual place behind the drums, Taira tearing off his shirt and hoisting his trusty bass, Ryusuke appearing from out of no where armed with Lucille, and finally Chiba crowd-surfing his way to the rest of his bandmates. All the while this awe-inspiring performance is orchestrating it all.
We don’t get that though, at least not in the DVD version of the show. See when they licensed Beck for release in the US they couldn’t get the rights to use the song, so they had to change it. Now, in both versions of the show the DVD contains, instead of the sweet performance from the original TV airing you get the same tune only with this lifeless, droning nonsense lyric line that repeats over and over and never has any emotion what-so-ever. I’m not saying that they should have done whatever it took to get the rights to the Beatles’ song; that would have been too pricey, but I would have liked them to at least come up with words that actually did justice to the scene. What should have been utterly awesome instead falls flat on its face with a thud. Do yourself a favor and find a copy of the original Japanese production somewhere and drop that episode in for a real dose of greatness.
After that bit of unpleasantness, the real rocking starts in earnest. The whole band is back together for what looks like the last time as the decision is made right there on stage that they should break up after this. They launch into “Brainstorm” and it’s clear they’re firing on all cylinders. They’ve never been this good before, and word is starting to spread in the crowd. From all over the festival people are making their way to the third stage. Helping the exodus is the empty stage two, abandoned by Malcolm when the rains began, and the constant interruptions on stage one where the mob of teens won’t stop pushing at the barricades.
 © 2000 by Harold Sakuishi / Kodansha / Madhouse
Super-powerful drummer, Saku
The guys with the number clickers can hardly keep pace and the band is just getting warmed up. They run through all their old songs like they’ve never done before and all you want to do is keep watching them. You almost get angry when the scene cuts away to show Leon Sykes’ incredulousness grow or Yoshito’s unease mount as he realizes Maho is not anywhere near him and that he might in fact lose her to this kid, this nobody, this boy who is, in this moment, a rock god. They wrap up their all-too-short set with Koyuki’s “Slip Out” ending exhausted and out of breath, the crowd demanding an encore.
We don’t get any encores though. Once they leave the stage it’s over. Ryusuke disappears into the mist, Koyuki runs off into the woods to make his peace with Maho, which is anti-climactic at best, and the other members of the band go their separate ways. I’m sorry, but what a wasted opportunity. Maybe it’s the American in me saying it, but this would have been a terrific place to bring out another new song and rock our eyeballs out. Instead the scene fades to black and you’re left with this unfulfilled gap in your heart knowing that they were this close to perfection but pulled away before they got to the edge. They don’t even give a clear winner in the number count, for Pete’s sake.
The rest of the series is, for lack of a better word, rather dull. The bulk of the remaining two episodes surrounds Koyuki’s attempts to get the band back together, but that’s going to be a hard task as Chiba has no inkling to rap anymore, Saku is moving to another town after his father got a transfer, nobody has any clue where Ryusuke ended up, and Taira won’t come back unless all the other members agree first. With these hard facts hanging over his head, Koyuki spends a lot of time moping in his bedroom or walking around in the cold, staring at the mist his breath makes in the winter air. At this point you pretty much want the show to end just to get it over with, which is a shame considering how well the rest of the series is done.
Thankfully a figure from the band’s past enters the scene to relieve this fugue. Ms. Sato, the woman who got them their gig at Greatful Sound, calls Koyuki into a meeting where she, along with Leon Sykes, offers him a solo American tour. He doesn’t take them up on it though, opting instead to keep trying to get Beck to reunite. It’s a good thing he didn’t go, because shortly thereafter his perseverance pays off when he finally gets Chiba, Saku and Taira to agree to join him in resurrecting the band. Still no Ryusuke though, as he’s gone off to the streets of New York where he’s playing lamp-lit corners for change. Part of me wonders if his doing this is in some way a kind of penance for his ill-begotten past.
With Koyuki on lead guitar, the guys play some live gigs and gain some fan base. Their new found fame, couple with their already being somewhat popular in the States, earns them a shot at a grueling forty city van tour of America, which would have made for an excellent second season, but no. Instead we get a lame slide show of the highlights with voiceover work done by Maho and Koyuki. The ray of sun comes at the very end when, while visiting the grave of the late, great Jimi Hendrix, they’re finally able to find Ryusuke. With the whole band back together, they take the stage at Seattle’s Crocodile Club for the last show of the tour. The cynical part of me says “too little, too late”, but there’s another part of me that will always love the last five minutes of this show. It doesn’t make up for the awkward way things wound down, but it goes a long way in the right direction.
 © 2000 by Harold Sakuishi / Kodansha / Madhouse
Rapper and resident crazy-guy, Chiba
< previous | page 1 of 2 | next >
|
