Hey guys so I saw the documentary at SXSW
It was really amazing. Don't wanna give too much away so I'll just share some key points I found interesting. I'll also answer any questions you guys have so feel free
- They talked about Taiji more than I expected and Yoshiki was very honest about their relationship and more candid than I thought he would be. The other members were aware of Taiji and Yoshiki having tensions since the beginning but said their aggressiveness was good for the band. Taiji was always picking apart Yoshiki's drumming and telling him how he should play which pissed Yoshiki off, and whenever Yoshiki made a mistake Taiji would call him out in a lowly way. Yoshiki said Taiji made him feel like "the fucking loser of the world."
-Taiji did something that broke the rules of the band, something "he shouldn't have done." It was said there were only 2 choices: kick Taiji out or disband. But it's so bad that Yoshiki said he "just can't say."
- hide was discussed and his connection to the fans, how creative and visual he was (that he was like a dream to photographers that worked with him). His death and the impact it had on people was obviously discussed.
- ToshI was very open about the brainwashing. You could tell him and Yoshiki were having some of their conversations about it for the first time on camera for the documentary. He'd said that he reached out to Yoshiki with a "dirty agenda" because HOH wanted ToshI back in X Japan.
- Some unheard songs were teased in the documentary, like a longer version of Angel and a really cool/beautiful song I wish I knew the name of.
- Lots of comedic relief in the film, like how the first thing Yoshiki did after MSG was brush his teeth (the audience loved that part, the whole theater laughed multiple times at little segways)
- Yoshiki's father's suicide and Yoshiki's obsession with death was really looked into.... I really enjoyed it tbh. Not that it was fun but that it was so... well it was very raw, almost uncomfortable. His mother felt his father's samurai swords might have been cursed by evil spirits and that's why he killed himself, so she threw them all away. And actually, she threw away everything of Yoshiki's father's... his clothes, his possessions, and even all his photographs... the photos we've seen of Yoshiki and his father? There's only like 1 or 2, maybe 3? Those are all that are left. It was a very real aside that Yoshiki shared that made me wonder a lot things.
- The whole theater loved the movie. Tons of applause and whistles and shouting immediately after the end. I talked to the girl sitting next to me before the film started, asking how long she'd been a fan of X. She said she'd never heard of them before and didn't know what they looked like or anything. By time the night was over she was doing the X sign with the We Are X shout and recording Yoshiki's performance for memorabilia.
- The performance was really good and the press were annoyingly aggressive about photographing Yoshiki... like to the point where they got in the way of the audience. And then the fans rushed the stage at the end lol, and Yoshiki signed a bunch of stuff. Cool night.