We Are X

Plot summary

X Japan's story is told through the life of Yoshiki leading up to their performance at Madison Square Garden on October 11, 2014. Tragedy follows the musician and his band; his father committed suicide when he was still a child, his childhood friend and X Japan co-founder and vocalist Toshi was "brainwashed" by a cult leading to the group's breakup in 1997, guitarist hide died five months later, and former bassist Taiji died eleven months after performing with the group for the first time in 18 years.

Cast

Production

Principal photography began on October 11, 2014 at X Japan's concert at Madison Square Garden. The documentary was announced on July 4, 2015. Yoshiki was convinced to do the film by his agent, Marc Geiger of William Morris Endeavor, and was completely hands off according to Kijak. Director Stephen Kijak said he had never heard of X Japan before getting a call from his producer to make the documentary. But upon learning the band's slogan of "Psychedelic Violence Crime of Visual Shock" he wanted to be a part of it.

Kijak, who is known for music documentaries such as Stones in Exile and Backstreet Boys: Show 'Em What You're Made Of, said in February 2015 that "I might have to quit music films after this one. The story is so unreal, I don't know where else I could go after this."

Despite having stopped listening to heavy metal at 13 or 14 years old in favor of new wave, Kijak listened to the band's music and was immediately drawn to it and surprised he had never heard it before. He bonded with some of the band members; learning that Kiss' Love Gun was the first album he, Yoshiki and Toshi had ever bought and talking with Sugizo about the British new wave band Japan and its bassist Mick Karn, who was a friend of the guitarist.

The director said that because Yoshiki had been documenting his life and X Japan for decades, the team had a lot of archival footage to dig through and use. One such example is footage of David Lynch directing unreleased videos for the song "Longing", which Kijak included as Lynch is one of his biggest influences.

Kijak revealed that upon thinking of Lynch's use of doppelgängers he was reminded of an interview where Yoshiki said he has two personalities, his public persona and a man wounded by the tragedies in his life. He made this the subtext of the film in order to have something deeper than the average rockumentary. He said one of the hardest aspects was editorial, trying to balance all the characters, albums and drama with Yoshiki's life and work.

The film's name comes from the call and response performed by X Japan with the audience during live performances of their self-titled song "X". Numerous times during a pause in the song a band member, usually Toshi, will yell "We are..." and the audience responds with "X!" before the musicians start the last leg of the song.

Release

We Are X had its premiere at the Prospector Square Theater on January 23, 2016 as part of the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Yoshiki and the film team attended the red carpet beforehand and held a Q&A panel after its screening. The film had several other screenings throughout Park City, Utah that week. It was also shown at the 2016 South by Southwest festival.

We Are X was scheduled to have its "world premiere" at the Wembley Arena in London on March 12, 2016. X Japan was to perform at the venue that same day with the event being called "X Day." However, due to Pata being diagnosed with a life-threatening illness the concert was postponed a whole year, currently scheduled for March 4, 2017. The film instead make its UK premier on 28 February, 2017, at Picturehouse Cinemas, London, before being released nationwide on 2 March.

We Are X was licensed for distribution in the United States by Drafthouse Films. It had its "US premiere" on October 21, 2016 at the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles. Yoshiki and Kijak appeared for the screening and a Q&A. The film's home video rights were acquired by Magnolia Home Entertainment, who will release it on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital HD on April 25, 2017 in the US, Bermuda, and Bahamas. In the UK, the rights to the film were picked up by Manga Entertainment, who will release the film on Blu-Ray and DVD on May 1, 2017.

Reception

Before its premiere, Rolling Stone listed We Are X as one of the 25 movies they were looking forward to see at Sundance. Also before its first screening, Dazed Digital listed it as one of the must watch music documentaries of 2016. Yahoo! Music named it number 4 on their list of the 10 Best Music Documentaries of 2016.

We Are X, which was entered in Sundance's World Cinema Documentary Competition, won the Special Jury Award for Best Editing. It also won the Audience Award for Excellence in Title Design at South by Southwest.

We Are X was nominated for the Golden Goblet award for Best Documentary at the 2016 Shanghai International Film Festival. It was also nominated for the inaugural Best Music Documentary award at the 22nd Critics' Choice Awards. On December 13, 2016, it was announced that the film's ending theme song "La Venus" was one of 91 songs in contention for nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 89th Academy Awards.

Paula Mejia of Newsweek wrote that the film "forces us to grapple with difficult questions of purpose, the inevitable role of pain in art, and how music acts as a force for salvation, as much for the fans as for the musicians who thrash these songs into existence", and finished by calling it one of the most uplifting films she has ever seen at Sundance.

The Hollywood Reporter said that while the film does cover the deaths of two X Japan members and the "brainwashing" of X Japan's co-founder, it spends more time following the drummer perform press and preparations for Madison Square Garden. Josiah Hughes of Exclaim! made similar comments and noted typos in the English subtitles. However, Hughes gave the film an 8 out of 10 and made note that these were only small complaints to an otherwise "outstanding rock documentary." The Guardian gave the film a rating of three stars out of five, saying that it was: "A watchable and interesting – if a tad worshipful – study of soft-metal rockers X-Japan".

Soundtrack

We Are X is the 2017 soundtrack album to the documentary, containing a compilation of songs by X Japan. It was released on March 3, 2017.