We Are X: More Fun in the New World, by Matt Warren

Have you ever heard of the Chiba-based prog band X Japan? Me neither, but there are thousands of people out there who apparently have, as the copious footage of Beatlemania-esque levels of pandemonium featured in in director Stephen Kijak’s biographical rock doc We Are X makes abundantly clear.We Are X is little more than a supersized Behind the Music episode, but as a slick primer on one of the world’s biggest bands (who knew?), Kijak’s film functions adequately and effectively.Formed by drummer/keyboardist/auteur “Yoshiki” and lead vocalist “Toshi” in the early 1980s, X (later rechristened “X Japan” to avoid confusion with the LA-based punk band) is according to Wikipedia “widely credited as one of the pioneers of visual kei”—essentially, the Japanese equivalent of glam.Like I said, I’d literally never heard of this band before, so all this was news to me. And frankly, I could have used a lot more performance footage and musical clips to help contextualize what makes this particular band so special. As such, we only see X in action fleetingly, playing a wide range of rock styles ranging from Metallica thrash to Dream Theater prog to baroque, “Bat Out of Hell” piano pop.Naturally, we get the standard procession of talking-head testimonials waxing on appreciatively about the band’s legacy influences, including interviews with Wes Borland, Richard Fortus, and Gene Simmons, among others.I can’t stress how weird it is that I’ve never heard of this band before. I’m a hard rock/heavy metal fan, and I feel like I do a pretty good job of keeping up with the international scene. But here I sit in my round-eyed Western ignorance, totally befuddled by this enormous blind spot.The documentary itself follows the typical VH1-approved “rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-redemption” arc full of feuding band members, drugs, suicide, and friendship lost and found. But there’s a reason why this narrative is so satisfying, and We Are X wisely doesn’t go out of its way to break with convention.There’s nothing unique about the movie, but for fans of X Japan or rock ‘n roll in general, We Are X is totally worth banging your head to.