Interesting rant, axlrose, I pretty much echo everything you said. Same as with you, the film dragged me back into the band after a long hiatus. I think the editing was great and Kijak sure did a great job, considering how complex their history is and how hard the task was, to start with (as in creating a film for both old and potential new fans.)
I think Yoshiki did a good job as well, all things considered. We learned nothing new but he was candid enough to keep things interesting and personal. My main regret was the lack of participation by the rest of the band, indeed. But as you so rightly put it, the soul of X lies probably too deep inside their frontman's crazy antics to allow for a different interpretation. And as we've already discussed here at length, Pata and Heath were probably not too eager to rant on camera about the price of eggs and whatnot. (Long live the introverts!)
Toshi was the greatest surprise here. I had never expected him to come out so clean about his brainwashing ordeal. He deserves massive kudos just for that. It was his presence that I missed the most on this film. He's one of the founders of the band and a pretty talkative guy with a decent-enough level of English. Why so low profile, then, Toshi? He's the lead singer, after all. Aren't lead singers supposed to kind of steal the spotlight, huh?
Right. Sugizo is the only member who is likely to arrange the songs and influence the musical direction. But Yoshiki's studio is too far from Japan and Sugizo is so busy. Moreover, Sugizo behaves as a perfect kouhai in X Japan so I don't think he will make any claims about musical direction of X.
My thoughts exactly, I think you really hit the nail with your entire comment. We often overlook the logistics, but let's not forget Yoshiki is literally working half a world away from the rest of his band. And for some reason, I feel like he's slowly but surely finding ways to do the entire job himself (judging from his Instagram, the guy plays all instruments now - and proud of it). Sugizo's position is pretty tough and while I appreciate his discretion and everything, his producing skills could come in very handy at this point, if only he could break the glass ceiling of cultural burdens and hierarchic bullshit.