high volume 'bakuon' screenings

[Paul Roquet]

Film and rock music critic Higuchi Yasuhito has been putting on a fairly active series of 'bakuon' (exploding sound) film events since 2006. The first few were one-off screenings paired with live music, but in the past couple years it has expanded into an ongoing series, where individuals can make requests for films they would like to see at high-volume. Most of the shows have been at Baus theater in Kichijoji (where the main theater has big arena-rock style speaker stacks on both sides of the screen), but it seems to be spreading to other theaters in western Tokyo as well.

In the few bakuon screenings I have (accidentally!) attended, the excess volume did give the live music scenes a visceral realism - for example, the punk shows in Go Shibata's "Osoi hito" felt just right. Pummeling the audience with painfully-loud sound the entire time, however, destroyed whatever loud/soft dynamic the film originally had, and made me wince everytime someone onscreen closed a door or stirred their coffee.

In part this seems to be one more attempt to get people back into the theater (by giving them something they can't get at home), but it also seems driven by the rise in concert videos and music documentaries the past few years. The bakuon website (www.bakuon-bb.net) claims the festival is unique in the world, but I'm curious what the precedent for this is. Does anyone know of similar screenings elsewhere, or even films mixed to be screened at the kind of volumes that make you wish you had brought earplugs?

Paul Roquet