Suicide Club, Ralph Macchio, and a J-Pop Cockfight

A few weeks ago, I had nothing nice to say about youtube - nothing at all.  Rather than revel in the untold solitary hours of Me-time they could provide, I got all negative over what wasn't there.  Since then, youtube has done 2 things to bring me into the fold: they've finally gotten some damn Shangri-Las videos; and they've fed my minor obsession with Rolly (look <<-- thataway).

My initial exposure to Rolly was through a weird (and wonderful!) little Japanese movie called "Suicide Club" (2002), a largely plot-free mess that managed to compellingly and  compassionately tell the story of a national epidemic of group teen suicides - while still being loads of fun!! 

Scene One: 54 teenage schoolgirls stand at a subway platform and count off: "a-one! and a-two!! and a-Threeeeee!!!" - and jump, en masse, in front of the oncoming train, while the supercute jumpy pop strains of tween sensations Dessart thump away in the background.  Later, there's an irresistable montage showing us the suicidal creativity of those wacky Japanese kids, accompanied by this music.  Here's a movie with many thoughts (though arguably unarticulated ones) about suicide, TV, Pop, fads and bandwagoneers, the internet, the generation gap, irony, and that old dramatic standby, modern humanity's ever increasing disconnect from humanity.  Here's a creepy mp3 of a young boy successfully talking a cop into killing himself. (5.6megs)

And when the movie's not busy thinking about all that, it's rolling around inside a bloody sheet with Rolly, a weird mix of Kurt Cobain, Mick Ronson and Dr Frankenfurter (of the Rocky Horror Frankenfurters).  Here's video, taken from "Suicide Club", of Rolly singing, in abysmal Englanese, a dirge that seems to be called "Because Dead", and features an inexplicable line you or I could never have written: "Lesson One The Shaving Cream".  Watch it! (or listen to it, on Mike Lupica's show).

I've since found out that Rolly's a pretty big star in Japan, but it's been pretty damn impossible to find out anything about him -- until now!  As the following will no doubt make plain, I'm not the only one who remembers that amazing guitar cockfight between Steve Vai and Ralph Macchio in "Crossroads" (here it is for you).  Seems like Japan has turned that scene into a game show!  A girl sits in a chair,  tunelessly humming some of her fave rock riffs ("20th Century Boy", "Deuce", "Living After Midnite", etc), while Rolly and fellow contestant Marty Friedman try to sound out what she's singing.  Whoever guesses first, and then successfully rocks the riff, wins. Watch it!

But goddam, youtube still takes forever to load sometimes.  Nothing under the flip, so don't jump!!!!

Comments

[MrDork]

More Rolly videos here.

[Prairie]

Woah! This guy is amazing!

The rest of the You-Tube stuff is highly entertaining. Why don't we have shows like Hebimeta-san here?

[Steve PMX]

Suicide Club is a killer movie. Little known fact about the director...
'Both directed and written by Sion Sono, a man whose usual field of filmic work is the gay pornography industry, and starring two heavyweight and extremely well-respected actors (Ryo Ishibashi and Masatoshi Nagase) Suicide Circle is an odd, totally unique and unmissable addition to the field. It's also strangely only rated R-15, despite its multiple and gruesomely gory depictions of the nastiest kinds of suicide possible.'

oh and Dessart (or Dessret as it appears on screen) really do kick ass. Why can't American teen pop groups be nearly as awesome???

http://www.mandiapple.com/snowblood/images/suicidecircle/dessretpuzzle.jpg)

[bunnyborg]

Ahhh... Rolly. I agree, it is so hard to find info on him. If it wasn't for YouTube, I would starve!

There are a few Japanese websites featuring Rolly, but hardly anything for the English-only. I am not sure that he knows how popular he has become lately, outside of Japan. Someone at Sony Music in Japan had better wake up!

"Suicide Club" has a great cult following - what an awesome and f**ed up movie! Ryo Ishibashi is great (he also starred in "Audition" - another freaky Japanese mystery/horror).

The movie has lead many a new fan to seek out Rolly. I have heard him referred to as the "Japanese Marc Bolan". What an amazing guitarist and performer extraordinaire.

Rolly Teranishi (former lead of "Scanch"), is a regular cast member of "Rock Fujiyama" (the 2006 incarnation of Marty Friedman's "Hebimeta-san", which aired in 2005). "Fujiyama" began airing on April 3rd. Marty Friedman, ex-Megadeth guitarist, speaks fluent Japanese and lives in Japan.

God Bless YouTube! The show doesn't air outside of Japan, and YouTube is the only "source" the show here out "West".

[Eshen]

Wait, so the director usually makes gay porn?

Okay, that explains a LOT about the Suicide Kiss scene. (By the way, "Because Dead" is actually called Suicide Kiss. I loff that song, evne if Rolly's Engrish is painful.) Like why Genesis had a bitch boy on a chain that he liked to pet. And his clothes. Not that I dont love his clothes. Genesis is so jrock, its obvious they would get a real jrock star to play him.

I love Rolly, really, I do.

-E

[Colin]

I love this movie! Great soundtrack, and it took me a while to figure out what the whole movie meant... By the way, he doesn't say "Lesson one the shaving cream," he says "Lesson one de shaving cream." De is a Japanese particle. But "Because dead it's a shine all night long" is pretty bad. lol My favorite line is "Buresou na eiga ni dettekuru Jannu no you ni utsukushiku shitai." (I want to die beautifully like Joan of Arc in a Bresson film.)

[mel22332]

The song Rolly sings is called "Suicide Kiss". He is an amazing actor and a skilled musician, I only wish he would star in one of my movies.