Customer Reviews

Karaoke Terror: The Complete Japanese Showa Songbook

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This review is more in response to the other two reviews. Sometimes people`s expectations and preconceptions get in the way of their enjoyment of a fun flick, as is the case here. Written bu Ryu Murakami (Audition) and starring Ryuhei Matsuda ('Rampo Noir','Blue Spring','Synesthesia','IZO','Nightmare Detective',etc.), this darkly satirical tale of two groups of outsiders, one a bunch of bored youths and the other a gaggle of bored middle-aged women, who make war on each other over a grisly mistaken murder, set to the Karaoke soundtrack each group specializes in. If this wasn`t absurd and original enough, one group retaliates against the other in ever-increasingly violent ways, with weapons escalating from knives and guns to bazookas, rocket-launchers and finally dirty bombs! In comically violent scenes that are as preposterous as they are entertaining, this flick captures the angst and restlessness of two very different generations seeking payback with near-apocalyptic results. The other reviews attempt to make sense of the proceedings, but what`s the point? This is entertainment that doesn`t require analysis to enjoy, it`s not that type of film. It`s crazed, comical, absurd, violent and original - how many movies can you claim that about? Includes a featurette and interviews, Synapse always provides fine prints and extras, that`s why we love them.

Written by Ryu Murakami(AUDITION), I knew I was in for a dark excursion into counter-culture madness. KARAOKE TERROR is the satirical tale of two groups of societal misfits waging war against each other. These battles are all set to a soundtrack of retro karaoke hits.

It's the group of young slackers, content on doing nothing but play video games and writing Amazon reviews. Oops, I mean play video games and scoping out the ladies. After one kid gets insulted by a middle-age divorcee, he retaliates by slitting her throat. Her lady friends unite and devise their plans for revenge.

This movie starts off excellent, with some startling and stylistic murders that I totally loved. It delves into the idiosyncratic tendencies of the two different generations, with a spiritual unrest and mounting feelings of insecurity. The Showa-era songs and the violence seem to unite them within their own groups.

Unfortunately the battles escalate into some comical buffonery that I didn't really care for. It felt like a Miike rip-off. It isn't believable in the least, with bazookas and homemade atomic bombs. Some might enjoy it, I just lost interest after the first half of bloody, realistic murders. Still not bad.

If this movie had been made in USA or the UK as an indie product, one suspects it would have been a big hit, ala 'Trainspotting' or 'Donnie Darko.' Of course it would have been an entirely different movie but I put it out there that the script writer shares a similar dark fame due to his novel 'Coinlocker Babies', among other things.
This movie has a wonderfully absurd premise: Revenge warfare between two karaoke societies one composed of young adult males and the other of 'middle-aged' (mid to late thirties) women, both of whom sing songs from the Showa period. Quick history note, the Showa period ended in 1989 but the songs referred to in this movie are from the '60's and '70's a time when Japanese popular music was defined by sugary and almost stomach-turningly maudlin tunes (I believe schmaltzy is what the Jewish people call such things).
Although based on a very strong premise--a series of increasingly macabre and violent assassinations between the two gangs--the story line is weakly developed. Partly because the director put a whole lot more effort into the costumery, sight gags and visually interesting bit players, than he did in making sure that the story worked as a contiguous whole.
For instance one important character in the film, with the most compellingly odd face you will ever see, plays a part that really has no connection to the movie other than to propel the story along by identifying an otherwise unidentifiable murderer. Yet she continues to make appearances throughout in a way that disturbs the flow without it ever being clear just what her part is to mean.

Perhaps the original author intentionally created her as one of a series of surreal non-sequiters to build a story around. Either way, the story does flail a bit when it might have been a truly wonderful confection of preposterous violence decorated with absurd cultural referents (think Austin Powers meets a slasher movie), and it is because either director or the writer failed to meld the disparate parts into a coherent whole:
It was a great idea that didn't come off well.