hi I'm mins for K pop TV X Japan is a
Japanese heavy metal rock band formed in
1982 and is widely credited as a pioneer
of visual kei or visual style a movement
among Japanese musicians comparable to
Western glam extra X JAPAN sold out 18 shows
at the Tokyo Dome in Japan which see
55,000 earning the love of fans in Asia
and all over the world
Yoshiki the leader drummer and pianist
of X JAPAN is also the main composer
for the group having studied classical
music since the age of four and playing
the drums since the age of nine Yoshiki
is the face and icon of x japan as a
world renowned musician and a well
respected music director in Hollywood
playing the opening song for the Golden
Globe Awards and the soundtrack for
well-known Hollywood movies such as saw
Yoshiki under the recommendation of his
agency shares his an XJapan story
through a film documentary we are X this
documentary takes viewers to their
journey of x japan from the birth of the
band through its many changes and
rebirth the film highlights many of the
emotional and personal drama on october
25th to a sold-out audience the
screening of we are X was held at the
Mezzanine in San Francisco and I had the
opportunity to sit down with Yoshiki for
a quick interview thank you so much for
joining me again today
so you're here in San Francisco
promoting X JAPAN documentary we are X
what was your first reaction when you
found out that you're going to be
working on this project well
it's been kind of several years like my
agent approached me like several years
ago if you want to create a documentary
film of you of X Japan but I was hesitant
to do that because a story is too painful
to be true too crazy to be true so the
several years later people
convinced me to do this did you let your
members know right away or bad members
not right away or did you prepare a
little before you let them know what the
news I talked to the members you know then
started shooting but we didn't know
about we are trying to that while we are
getting into
you were with Stephen Kijack for this
documentary he's the director of this film
and he was also very new to X JAPAN he
had no j-pop background , j-rock
background so was it difficult for you
to share that story or words or anything
that you were conscious of when you were
working with him actually it was better
somebody didn't know anything about X Japan so we
could be kind like we could
completely you know it start from zero
to zero in who we are to talk about
yeah I'm sure there's a lot of
material since the band's been around
for so long was there anything in
particular that you definitely wanted to
include into the documentary to show
your fans after all these years
I mean we have so much drama ah..
death,and then suicide
and
brainwash
So it was kind of hard not to hard to avoid
those issues I wanted this film
to be kind like ah... leave the positive
feeling after people watching this film so
that's the only thing I asked him you know
you can use anything in any way
in any way you want but I don't want
this film to be the horror film you wanted to be
have a positive impact on your fans
especially since a lot of them gain
strength from a lot of your music for
this film I think this is this
documentary is one of the rare outlets
where fans and a lot of your fans and
viewers even new fans get a glimpse of
some of your most raw emotions and your
reactions towards a lot of the events
that happened were you hesitant of
putting that on screen a more vulnerable
side of Yoshiki since you're always on
the spotlight? yes at the beginning I was
very you know I didn't know open my heart
to do interviews I was kind like avoiding
subject but after several interviews I kind
like open the door all the way you know
ask me anything then start crying
When I'm doing interview I'm sure it's
very emotional and very personal to you
as well this film has premiered in other
parts of the world such as Hong Kong and
I'm sure England or London
Has fans reacted differently towards the film so
far yeah so we went to several film
festivals actually we were invited over
20 film festivals around the world so far the
this is very impactful yeah never
obvious actually when I saw it first
time I cry ten times and yeah then they has amazing reaction so far