If you’ve heard an extra joyful noise in the air this spring, it may be coming from devotees of Tokyo Pop. Victim of a failed distribution company that kept it from taking its rightful status as a cult classic, the time for Fran Rubel Kuzui’s debut to have its moment may have finally come. After being lost from view for almost four decades, IndieCollect’s 4K 2023 restoration of an unearthed print is finally getting a streaming and Blu-Ray release, courtesy of funding from the Jane Fonda Fund for Women Directors, as well as from donations from Dolly Parton, the HFPA, and Carol Burnett–mother of Tokyo Pop’s star Carrie Hamilton, who passed away in 2002. It was Hamilton’s film debut after a career in TV, and her character’s nearly-thwarted onscreen romance with Japanese rocker Diamond Yukai is a remarkably fresh and touching love story.
Coming to it now, Tokyo Pop joins a small pantheon of films by woman directors about a certain kind of Gen-X female protagonist, somewhat lost in terms of worldly success but slowly finding their way to a life of their own choosing (Watermelon Woman and Party Girl would follow in the years to come). Wendy (Hamilton) has been relegated to backup singer and tambourine player in the male-led punk bands of the East Village; fed up, she books a last minute flight to Japan only to arrive and discover that her friend in Tokyo has left town. Woefully underprepared, she falls into lodging at the Disney-themed Mickey House and working as a nightclub hostess while seeking out a band to join.
It’s a perfectly handled end to a perfectly charming movie whose authentic engagement in Tokyo’s rock scene is apparent at every moment.
What could be your typical fish-out-of-water story never falls into the trap of looking through Wendy’s eyes only. Hiro (Diamond Yukai) and his bandmates happen to be on the hunt for a gaijin singer of their own to stand out in the seemingly competitive world of Rockabilly cover bands; as the economic bubble of the 80s boils away in the background, Hiro chooses not to go into business in favour of getting his band’s tape into the hands of a well-known producer. Wendy seems like just what they need, despite her inability to speak any Japanese and Hiro’s grasp of English being somewhat less than he advertises. After a rocky start, they find instant tabloid success and take off on a whirlwind tour of media hits, trotting out their cover of (You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman too many times to count. That’s when Wendy realizes that as a novelty act they’ll never be able to express their own artistic message and takes herself back to New York, leaving Hiro to perform his own songs. It’s a perfectly handled end to a perfectly charming movie whose authentic engagement in Tokyo’s rock scene is apparent at every moment.
Rubel Kuzui herself lived across the US and Japan and for a time served as a local distributor for foreign films with her husband, including Stop Making Sense. After her 1992 version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer closed out her directing career, she never made anything else; her interviews show a wonderfully balanced attitude to the path she’s taken, but for viewers, the question of what might have been, and what we all lost, can’t help but loom large. At least this first work, in all of its artless charm and passionate sincerity, has come back to us.
TOKYO POP IS OUT NOW ON THIRD WINDOW FILM BLU-RAY
NORA’S ARCHIVE – TOKYO POP (1988)
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