Watches
August 01, 2023
Hirobumi Watanabe is a bit of a cult director. His previous films were pretty interesting, though not exactly great. Techno Brothers is a big step down, though I will say a personal hang-up prevented me from liking the film more. It's just that for a 2023 film called Techno Brothers, I find it unacceptable to come out with a Kraftwerk-inspired synth-group comedy. Either get with the times or change the title of the film.
Three brothers are in a synth band, their manager tries to get them gigs but nobody in Japan seems to be into their style of music. She won't back down and keeps pushing for work, the brothers don't utter a word and simply follow her wherever she goes. With each attempt, the manager becomes more desperate.
The music is horrendous, the indie look isn't effective in hiding the lack of budget, and while some of the jokes are nice, too many of them are predictable and lazy. Japan is really bad at music-based films, even the indie ones can't save face. Maybe if they'd tried it with some actual techno ...