Summary
A real band that formed out of a fake one gets a fictional origin in this musically driven romantic drama. Got it?
Life imitates art which imitates more life. Japanese pop band Drop Doll formed after its three members met while playing a band in Little Performer: The Pulse of Winds and went on to form a real soft rock outfit. JK ROCK (stylised as JK☆ROCK) is a kind of fictionalised origin story for the trio, albeit one that’s more faithful to the conventions of modern teen films.
Before we even get to the young stars, the film is initially about the titular Jyo Kaieda (Shodai Fukuyama) and Jyo Kodukai (Ryosuke Yamamoto) who were former members of the popular band JoKers. It’s a year after their sudden break-up and while Jyo Kodukai is about to release his solo album, Jyo Kaieda has given up on music and is bored silly as a uni student.
When the other former members of the JoKers want to get their band back together, rock café owner corrals high school students Sakura (Chihiro Hayama), Mao (Yuina) and Rina (Yukino Miyake) into forming their own band, hoping that Jyo Kaieda will coach them and restore his love of music.
A teen-focused film with a romantic subplot, it leans heavily into familiar tropes, especially in the lead-up to the musical climax. It’s a simple dichotomy of Jyo Kaieda’s strict style and apparent abandonment of music juxtaposed with the girls’ enthusiasm. It will shock nobody that Jyo Kaieda learns to love his tunes again, complete with the requisite ballad to let us know about his feelings, and that there is a big concert at the end where all the various threads come together.
Much of the charm of the picture comes from the young leads, who have released several hit records together in the real world. Drummer Chihiro Hayama, complete with her trademark dyed red hair, is a kind of leader of the pack. Despite being a schoolgirl, she gets the romance storyline with the college aged Jyo Kaieda that disturbs me just a little bit.
These kinds of films are a little bit like sports dramas, in that you know the journey will either result in a personal or actual victory by the time the story is done. JK☆ROCK maintains a steady and familiar beat than existing Drop Doll fans can sing along to, while casual listeners can appreciate it as the cinematic equivalent of a unoffensive radio hit that’s probably going to get eaten up by the next commercial break.
2019 | Japan | DIR: Shunji Muguruma| WRITERS: Kaori Tanimoto | CAST: Shodai Fukuyama, Yosuke Yamamoto, Kaito Kumagai, Chihiro Hayama, Yuina and Yukino Miyake | DISTRIBUTOR: Phantom Film (JPN), Japanese Film Festival 2019 (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 92 minutes | RELEASE DATE: October – December 2019 (JFF)
