FanTasia 2010: The Brassknuckle Boys - Shonen Merikan Sakku

Kanna, a 25 year old talent scout for a record label, thought she was working the last day of her contract when she comes across the video of a concert for a punk band, The Shonen Merikensack. She shows the video to her boss thinking there is no way that a punk band would work with the label's line-up of Jpop stars and bands. What she didn't know was that her boss, Tokita, and their label's biggest star and space cadet, Telya, had their own punk band when they were young. The video inspires Tokita, and look, by the information on the band's web site they were all born in 1983! That makes them [counting fingers] somewhere in their twenties. These loud and brash youth might just be what Tokita wants for his label. So he posts the video on the company's site and extends Kanna's contract with a single mission. Find the Shonen Merikensack!

Kanna does indeed find the band, starting with bassist Akio, but there is a problem. The year 1983 on the web site wasn't their birthdates. It was the year they broke up! Sonuvasushiplatter! These are old men! Kanna goes to break the bad news but the video has gone viral and Tokita has booked a tour for the band. She has no choice but to bring the band together, get them back on their instruments, and go on tour! Cue the chaos and the funny! Cue the entertaining road movie!

Writer/Director Kankuro Kudo still manages to keep us guessing when the band's big breakthrough will come. The first gig is a disaster; the second one no better. But it would cost more to cancel the tour so Kanna is given no choice but to continue on with these cantankerous and smelly old men. In the meantime, the inner turmoil that broke the band up in the first place takes off where it finished in 1983. Brothers Akio and Haruo clearly have unresolved issues and the tension between them boils over now and then. And the lead singer Jimmy arrives in almost a vegetative state. So the road trip continues because the story of the band isn't making it big again but just making it at all. The back story of the band is revealed to us in often humorous vignettes told by either of the brothers or their old manager Kinji. They must deal with their past or their future as a band is in doubt. But that breakthrough has to come. Doesn't it?

This was my second viewing of Brass Knuckle Boys and it has lost none of its charm and humour, which says a lot about its staying power and the strength of Kudo's screenplay. Aoi Miyazaki is adorable as Kanna. When she said back in 2005 that she would not be doing any more comedic films after Nana I was heartbroken. I am so glad that she decided to come back to the genre because she is so good in this role. You match a good comedic actress with a strong comedic script and it is a recipe for success. 

Kudo's screenplay achieves the proper balance of drama and comedy, finding time to poke fun at Japan's fabled Jpop culture and the odd fart joke [it is after all a road movie and we've all been there, am I right? ... holds up hand waiting for high five ...]. All of the issues and history of the band are dealt with in a timely fashion and nothing feels overextended. Just great timing throughout. And I find him remarkably adept behind the camera as well. For only his second feature he reels back on the wild creativity he used in Yaji and Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims and other than the inspired flourishes from time to time he keeps it simple and steady and lets his script do the talking. 

It's just a wonderfully funny film and was a definite crowd pleaser at FanTasia.