We Are X

Name: We Are X
Genre: Music, Documentary
Released: October 21, 2016
Duration: 93 min
Rating: 64
Cast: Hiroshi Morie, Pata, Sugizo, Toshi, Yoshiki Hayashi

2016

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Generally favorable reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews

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Movie Details & Credits

Drafthouse Films | Release Date: October 21, 2016 | Not Rated

Starring: Hiroshi Morie, Pata, Sugizo, Toshi, Yoshiki Hayashi

Summary: Under the enigmatic direction of drummer, pianist, composer, and producer Yoshiki, X Japan has sold over 30 million singles and albums combined — captivating such a wide range of admirers as Sir George Martin, KISS, Stan Lee, and even the Japanese Emperor — and pioneered a spectacle-driven style of visual rock, creating a one-of-a-kindUnder the enigmatic direction of drummer, pianist, composer, and producer Yoshiki, X Japan has sold over 30 million singles and albums combined — captivating such a wide range of admirers as Sir George Martin, KISS, Stan Lee, and even the Japanese Emperor — and pioneered a spectacle-driven style of visual rock, creating a one-of-a-kind cultural phenomenon. Chronicling the band’s exhilarating, tumultuous, and unimaginable history over the past three decades — persevering through personal, physical, and spiritual heartache — the film culminates with preparations for their breathtaking reunion concert at New York’s legendary Madison Square Garden. [Drafthouse Films]… Expand

Director: Stephen Kijak

Genre(s): Music, Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 93 min

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Critic Reviews

Andy Webster

Nov 3, 2016

[A] fascinating and assured documentary. Read full review

Kevin Harley

Mar 6, 2017

Kijak finds poignancy behind the pomp as he builds to a fist-pumping finale. Read full review

Marc Savlov

Oct 26, 2016

I was unfamiliar with X Japan (as they’re known outside of their home country) but after watching this thrilling documentary I’m a rock solid fan, scouring eBay for old concert T-shirts. As Gene Simmons notes, “If X had been born in America, they might have been the biggest band in the world.” Read full review

Michael Nordine

Oct 19, 2016

We Are X is nothing you haven’t seen before as a music documentary, but it succeeds as an examination of why we turn to escapist art, and what we do when it’s no longer there. Read full review

Time Out London Tom Huddleston

Feb 27, 2017

The absolute seriousness with which the band regard themselves – particularly drummer-songwriter Yoshiki, who’s so famous that Stan Lee turned him into a superhero – is never questioned by Kijak, resulting in a fitfully enjoyable but rather pompous fan film. Read full review

Joe Dziemianowicz

Nov 2, 2016

Whether or not the movie turns you into X-philes, Yoshiki is hard to shake. Read full review

Matthew Anderson

Mar 9, 2017

A documentary that poses more questions that it answers can intrigue and beguile but there are vast areas in We Are X left crying out for further exploration. Read full review

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User Reviews

Toshi_inu

May 15, 2023

Gran documental de las leyendas vivientes, X Japan es mi banda favorita de todos los tiempo, si lees esto favor darle una oportunidad y escuchar su música, no se arrepentirán

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Maron07lys

Apr 17, 2023

It was a very anticipated documentary by all the X Japan fans. Through this film finally, we get many answers about what happened all those years. The documentary shows in their very unique style their rise as well as the struggles. As a fan of the band it is a "must watch", and it mightIt was a very anticipated documentary by all the X Japan fans. Through this film finally, we get many answers about what happened all those years. The documentary shows in their very unique style their rise as well as the struggles. As a fan of the band it is a "must watch", and it might made you emotional in some parts. For the public that is not immersed in japanese culture and visual kei movement, it's helpful to abord it with a very open mind. Considerating the band cultural background, this is a very open and sincere documental.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

StevenX

Jan 23, 2018

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. "We Are X" follows X Japan, a glam-drama-thrash-cum-prog-drama-ballad band, as it prepares for a 2014 Madison Square Garden debut, despite being major-label superstars in their homeland since the late Eighties and surviving a 10-year breakup. Filled with drama (and melodrama), the main fault in the film is that it becomes more a vanity piece on the band's leader/drummer/main writer/pianist Yoshiki, covering all his highs and lows from an early age through to the concert while giving you the bare minimum on most of his bandmates. Some of the concert footage seems staged to the point of self-parody: Yoshiki plays so hard that he nearly dies after every show to hear them tell it, which in the US would put the rest of the band and the entire production team in jail for letting him writhe onstage without help. (You'd think since it wouldn't be the only death in the band, they'd be more worried.) He also pays a long-term price, living between pain shots and a mixture of jawdropping talent, drive and luck between shows. Singer Toshi gets a decent but much, much smaller piece of the pie, perhaps because part of his story is even stranger than Yoshiki's (though the film gives all the basics and next to none of the details). The film also nonsensically ignores a major event in the band's history, where they played a show with a hologram of a former beloved member. As for the band's output sonically and visually, "We Are X" both shows why they have sold 30 million albums mostly overseas and why they haven't in America - the wild hair, drama, costumes, and attack that fueled their initial rise hadn't been seen much in Asia by home-grown talent but had been well-done elsewhere by the likes of everyone from punk to Bowie to, well, Asia. The band also self-admittedly can't vocalize even their English-language tracks without being nearly indecipherable to English audiences, though Toshi progresses wildly in that area before the Garden gig. Yes, nearly the entire film is subtitled, songs included, and thank God for that.(A strange bit of cultural prejudice may also be at work here, not only because of the band's nationality but the fact that most of them still look like teens in their forties.) Once the band leans into a more widescreen, orchestral-influenced oeuvre, they seem more of a classical/rock soundtrack hybrid than a rock band, their sometimes-bordering-on-schlock bombast making Journey look like a folk combo, though Toshi's sunglasses rarely come off in a nod to all the rockers that they haven't become here. The band's talent is not in question, and their positive message is rare and exemplary, but their expectations on Yankee soil to date have been far too unrealistic. That desire to overachieve culminates in this film, a strangely suspicious, stilted "documentary" that, while captivating in many aspects, seems forced and steered in many others. Again, after you see this, you will know without a doubt why X Japan are big in Japan. You'll also know why they are not as big here.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

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