My first Japanese movie in a Japanese movie theater!

As you can tell by the title, I saw my first Japanese movie in a Japanese movie theater.

I saw Detroit Metal City, a really good comedy about this country boy who pretends to be into metal because of the pressure of his fans and boss. He has to pretend because he's the crazy/awesome lead singer of a metal band. I don't want to get too in-depth (in case I know you and force you to watch it). It was very good! :)

http://www.go-to-dmc.jp/index.html

The site and the whole movie is in Japanese though. No subtitles for the movie, but I'm proud to say that I didn't even really need them! XD

The main character is played by Matsuyama Kenichi, he played L in all the Death Note movies. He also has some J-dramas before this latest movie, and he seems to be endorse Docomo ( a cell phone company in Japan).


It was strange because before I came here, I had already seen Death Note. I was wondering exactly why he was so popular because I've only seen him there. I went to a bookstore and saw his picture on magazine covers and everything so I was confused, since they weren't really talking about Death Note. That's when one of the other customers talks to me and lets me know about Detroit Metal City, that he was in it and that's why he was on so many magazine covers.

The movie theater etiquette though, is completely different here. I never realized how different until a couple of days ago.

When you first pay for your ticket at the counter, you pick which area you would like in the theatre, and you're given a seat. Once you sit down, everyone is very, very quiet during the whole movie. Even during funny parts, not many people laugh. If they do laugh however, it's usually a quiet chuckle and it abruptly stops. I couldn't help but laugh at some parts because they were funny, but most of the time I didn't say anything. Even during the previews, complete silence.


After the movie, it's just as strange. Usually, right when the credits roll, most people tend to get up and walk out right away unless we know that there will be something going on at the end of the movie. In Japan, whether or not there's something at the end, everyone sits and waits patiently until the credits are finished. After the credits finish, there's complete silence while everyone gets up and walks out. I'm thinking no one enjoyed the movie but me because of the silence, until after they leave the theatre. They start talking after that. Quite interesting indeed. I’ve wanted to go to japan for a very long time and to finally be here is awesome. It was also quite the experience to go a Japanese movie theater and I’ll never forget my first movie in Japan... with Matsuyama Kenichi in it! サツガイ！