[KineJapan] Bohemian Rhapsody in Japan

Sat Dec 29 00:53:02 EST 2018

Speaking as a lifelong fan and as one who currently live and watched the film in Tokyo, I cannot say I know exactly what moved the Japanese audience, but I can tell you that the film worked at a different level to most musical biopic films... the key to understanding its  effectiveness I think is in this quote from Freddie in the film: “Now we’re four misfits who don’t belong together, we’re playing for other misfits. They’re the outcasts right at the back of the room. We’re pretty sure they don’t belong either. We belong to them.” 

The music helped those people who felt they didn’t belong or fit in to navigate and develop their life, imagination and character at a very deep level I believe... so much so that watching the film wasn’t just a nostalgic celebration or reflection on days gone by or one’s favorite songs, it amounted to reliving your deepest feelings during your youth because the music and the stories behind the music somehow became a mirror or a release valve to some of the deepest emotions you felt long ago... reliving a song like “Love of My Life”, felt like feeling thru and thru his loneliness and pain, but also felt like he knew yours too... his singing invested a lot more into the songs than just what the words conveyed... so watching the film, we understood a little better perhaps what he lived through, but at the same time it affirmed a feeling that he was always in touch with what his audiences felt too... he and Queen really made music for a specific type of audience and there is this indelible connection between the two...

Although I also did not like reading later that the film exaggerated or over dramatized certain events or timelines, I think the film did quite a delicate but effective job of revealing the complexity of what Freddie and Queen gave to their worldwide devotees as well as the complicated dynamics of their musical genius and the strange melange of anomalies and idiosyncrasies that gave rise to that output...

Indeed, there was already a strong following in Japan from the early days, evidenced I think by the very sincere homage-like song Teo Toriatte, adorned with much Japanese lyrics, from one of the early albums... if you listened to that song, you’d get further insight on how connected and close Queen was to their audience, even though in Japan... so I think the audience in Japan really connected well with the material... leading to a strong word-of-mouth effect...

Also I think the overall theme of mortality and the transient nature of life perhaps added further resonance to the overall appeal...

The film has stayed with me and continue to haunt me even after many weeks....

Naguib Razak

> On 29 Dec 2018, at 12:55 PM, Matt Treyvaud <matt at treyvaud.net> wrote:
> 
> I think a lot of it is the sheer and enduring popularity of Freddie Mercury in Japan. He’s an extremely beloved figure here, I’d say ranking no lower than John Lennon; there are references to him in comics, cartoons, etc... I don’t think that nostalgia for the golden age of Queen was more relevant here than anywhere else. The screening I attended was full of young-looking, many of whom (to judge from overheard conversations afterwards) didn’t know much about Queen beforehand, but they all knew and loved Freddie.
> 
> I’d say this also explains the "satisfaction" thing: People wanted to have a good time watching the spectacular story of Freddie Mercury, with colorful period detail (costumes!) and a bunch of great songs (if you like Queen) they mostly knew. And that's exactly what they got.
> 
> --Matt
> 
> John Junkerman wrote:
>> I haven't seen the film yet, anticipating feeling the same way Aaron did, but I was talking about this at a bonenkai last night. A friend pointed out that Queen's initial popularity was in Japan and then it spread throughout the world (I haven't verified this), and many of the audience are middle-aged women who became fans during that time. So nostalgia may be a factor. Also the 応援上映 participatory screenings are quite an event, it seems. There are cine-complexes that are running it on all screens, and the release of other films has been delayed as a result. I'm planning to take in one of the oen joei, just out of sociological interest. 
>> 
>>> On Sat, Dec 29, 2018 at 11:12 AM Gerow Aaron <aaron.gerow at yale.edu> wrote:
>>> On our last day in Portland, the family and I went to see Bohemian Rhapsody in the theater. I am not really a Queen fan; in fact my main interest was trying to think why this was such a huge hit in Japan. As of today, it’s made $55 million at the Japanese BO (with predictions it will go over $70 million), with Japan being the film’s third biggest non-US market (the South Korean BO numbers are higher, but it opened there earlier). 
>>> 
>>> I did not like the film that much, for its mythification of Freddie and predictable direction, but I wonder why it has not only made a bunch at the Japanese BO, but also came in number 1 in Pia’s satisfaction survey for all of 2018. 
>>> 
>>> My inclination is to look at both its melodrama and its depiction of family—and the promise of mass unity—but I was wondering what others think, or what others might have written about this.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Aaron Gerow
>>> Professor
>>> Film and Media Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
>>> Director of Graduate Studies, Film and Media Studies
>>> Yale University
>>> 143 Elm Street, Room 210
>>> PO Box 208324
>>> New Haven, CT 06520-8324
>>> USA
>>> Phone: 1-203-432-7082
>>> Fax: 1-203-432-6729
>>> e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu
>>> website: www.aarongerow.com
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> KineJapan mailing list
>>> KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu
>>> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> John Junkerman
>> jtj53213 at gmail.com
>> 2-18-6 Ehara-cho, Nakano
>> Tokyo 165-0023
>> _______________________________________________
>> KineJapan mailing list
>> KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu
>> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan
> 
> _______________________________________________
> KineJapan mailing list
> KineJapan at mailman.yale.edu
> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/kinejapan
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20181229/c749fa74/attachment-0001.html>