Introduction

For the 10th anniversary of the filmmaking collective FOOLISH PIGGIES FILMS, director Hirobumi Watanabe and Yuji Watanabe decided to do something somewhat different. Not only did he trade in Otawara for the road to Tokyo for the setting of his narrative, but he also decided to shoot this film in full colour.   

Review

One day, manager Himuro (Asuna Yanagi) hears from Boss Riko (Riko Hisatsugu) that the music that the techno Brothers (The brother Watanabe and Takanori Kurosaki) create does not fit the modern age and would not be understood by the local public. She eventually tells her that they might have a chance in Tokyo and orders them to get a contract with a big record label.

While Himuro can soon secure an audition, she must confess to Riko that that do not have enough money to travel to Tokyo. Riko refuses to lend them money and orders them to utilize their musical skills to gather the necessary funds.

While one could describe Techno Brothers is a light-hearted musical road-trip movie, such description does not prepare the spectator for the unique and captivating weirdness that Watanabe delivers. The weirdness of Techno Brothers is function of the way Watanabe utilizes his main characters to explore the destructivity that structures the imaginary field and the radical fixity of the ego, the petrified embodying of a bodily image.

The radical silence that marks our Techno Brothers is, in our view, an effect of the radical embodiment of an particular ego-image, caused by the forcing of one’s body and mind into an imaginary shape to be projected to the Other. Their radical silence coincides, as should be evident, with the radical erasure of the subjective voice. Yet, the coolness that emanates from their stylish clothes and their religious silence does not merely emphasize the absence of a subjective voice but also covers up the fact that desire is absent from their funky music.   

The lack of desire that characterizes our ‘robotic’ musicians is, further, emphasized by the very fact that what animates them is nothing other than the voice of their manager. Their acts are radically regulated by their Other, their capricious manager. And, as the narrative so beautifully illustrates, this capriciousness often leads to disastrous effects. Confronted with the effects of Himuro’s cruelness, the question arises whether the Techno Brothers will continue to subject themselves to her suffocating demands. Is she, with her tyrannical ways, not giving birth to a rebellion?

Yet, if such rebellion were to happen, what kind of shape could it take? Some spectators might argue that their rebellion will be driven by their desire, others will state that the rebellion will be function of their frustrated needs. Such rebellion will either reveal that Himuro is repressing their desire with her signifiers and acts or highlight that our brothers have, without the capricious Himuro, no desire of their own.

The composition of Techno Brothers is a highly static affair, despite the shaky dynamism that rears its head here and there. It is thus not surprising that the scopic beauty of Watanabe’s composition is found in its simplicity. Or to put it differently, it is by keeping the imagery serene that Watanabe enables the spectator to encounter and fully savour the beauty that resides within the compositional simplicity. To force such encounter with serene beauty, Watanabe heavily relies on long takes. It is by letting the shot linger longer, by waiting longer to cut, that Watanabe emphasizes his composition and allows the spectator to engage with the beauty of serene fixity.

Given the title of the narrative, it is no surprise that the film is full of funky techno beats. Some imagery, due to being coupled with funky beats, attain a strangely mesmerizing and meditative quality.

Besides a sense of funkiness, Techno Brothers is also marked by flavour of coolness. Yet, this coolness, which often ventures into the field of the comical, is not function of the music, but of the performances of the members of the band. The controlled movements, the organized temporal pattern of their acts, as well as the radical silence and lack of emotions succeeds in staging a subject that remains oblivious to the surrounding world – for our artists, only techno music exists (Visual-note 1). While such singular focus can be cool, the religious way they hold on to their cool image – they refuse to betray their own cool-ego as techno brother, there fixated on their ego – also creates many light-hearted moments within the narrative.    

The only place where Techno Brothers falters, crudely revealing its love-budget nature, is in its sound-design. Watanabe is not able to erase the spatial noise nor how voices reverberate throughout certain rooms.  

Techno Brothers offers an amazing blend of arthouse minimalism and weird deadpan comedy. While Watanabe’s unique techno road-trip will not satisfy everyone – the strangeness will be off-putting for many, anyone who loves directors with a clear artistic vision will enjoy Watanabe’s latest unique comedy.  

Notes

Visual-note 1: Coolness is also function of the way they dress.