Bandage – Jin acts like himself, except he’s in 1991 and not 2010.
Its the year 1991 and Lands is a hot and new up and coming pop-rock band that’s taking Japan by storm. Asako has just been turned onto the band by her best friend and through her, she goes to a live show, ends up backstage and for some chance moment into the heart of the lead vocalist, Natsu. After the band’s manager becomes severely sick, Asako ends up becoming their second manager and through this time she witnesses how a band self destructs due to the pressures of the industry.
Boats n hoes 4 lyfe!
Bandage is a play on the term, ” Band Age “, a period in Japan of the late 80s and early 90s where the airwaves was not dominated by the cutesy idols of the late 70s and early 80s but by the raw sounds of songwriters and home-grown rock bands. The was a time where bands like Unicorn, X Japan, The Blue Hearts, Boowy, etc ruled the top of the charts. But did Bandage really present itself as a true representation of that era?
The movie has garnered some positive reviews, many pleased with the acting performances of our two lead actors and the story of the band spiraling down to nothing. But, to me, it didn’t seem like i was in 1991 – 1993. The sound, the atmosphere… It was like they were modern day people making music but only using the technology of the 90s. Call me a stickler, but I’m that type of person who will look in the background and see the imperfections in a movie — I’ll watch the extras, the cars parked on the sides, and clothing and see how much does this movie try to sell it to us that we’re in the 90s. Unfortunately, because it didn’t do that, it kind of soiled my experience of the film.
If they had set this movie in 2011, it still probably wouldn’t have affect the storyline of the movie.
Natsu is just Jin with a guitar and some whiskey.
That aside, I think Bandage felt to reminiscent of Nana, another story of a girl who gets sucked into the wild and crazy world of a rock band. We have our unlikely lead, totally fresh face and brand new to the whole rock and roll scene that ends up, in some convenient way, a manager of the group she once fangirled. The lead vocalist of the group is, in many ways, madly in love with her and the gifted guitarist of the group despises her. She watches as a band sacrifices their artistic integrity for another #1 hit all the while keeping her emotions bottled up and away from the lead vocalist.
It’s a odd romance, the one that develops between Asako and Natsu. She continuously pushes him away and denies his attentions yet he is consistently pursuant of her. Whenever they open up to each other, he’s very quick to push her away… and vice versa. When an event happens between Yukiya, the guitarist, and her the story reaches the climax where a violent, yet highly emotional, fight takes place between Asako and Natsu. The two, in their own way, simply confront their feelings in a way that almost as reminiscent as watching a scene from Sid and Nancy. Its almost as if it was trying to be a symbolic scene showcasing the end of the band.
Natsu's pity story really didn't do much other than make me wonder why I should care
The acting was decent. Akanishi Jin got a lot of praise for his portrayal of the sex-drugs-rock and roll lead Natsu but to me it seemed as if Jin was just playing Jin except in this case with a guitar and no pop idol crap around him. He smokes, he drinks, he’s rude, he’s ladidah, and it really did not seem as if Jin had reached an acting plateau here at all. While the scene where he and Asako, played by Kii Kitano, argue violently is pretty raw and real… everything else in the movie really did not impress me at all. Give me a character where he doesn’t play a lazy, conceited, big headed person and then we’ll talk about great acting talents.
Kii Kitano’s Asako was pretty good. She definitely pulled off the innocent girl now going through the wild and rough rollercoaster of the music industry. The band members of Lands was pretty good, but we don’t get to see the band members as people. We just see them as the band members in this group that constantly argue with each other over the direction of their sound. The movie is supposed to be a showcase of the beginning and end of a rock band in the 90s but it seemed to be more of a haphazard and confusing love story with that plotline as the backdrop. The only reason Yukiya got any development was because he was to only be a catalyst for our two lovebirds to reach their climax. Our band members never get to “shine” as Jin and Kii did.
If Bandage was supposed to be about the rise and fall of a band, I think it should have been written that way. If Bandage was supposed to be about the metaphorical, yet odd, relationship of a lead vocalist and his under aged fan-turned-manager then it should have been marketed that way. It’s not a terrible movie, but its not a great movie either. I feel that if the movie focused more on trying to bring the early 90s and the industry alive rather than focusing on a relationship that pretty much was going no where and went no where, it probably would have been a great dramatic film. I would have liked to see the frustrations if each band member, rather than brief passing scenes that wouldn’t make or break the movie.
But, to me, it ended up like a Johnny’s answer to Nana. Except without the rape, drugs, and baby daddys.
Care-O-Meter: -0%!