Tag Archives: Yoshiki

[20170228.1 X Japan @ London 2017 ~ We Are X Premiere]

[20170228©winnieup.WeAreXPoster@FinsburyPark@London.UK]

Although taking the London Underground was not something new to me, when I saw the poster of the film We Are X on the walls of the tube station, I could not help but shooting tons of photographs of and with them. I did not count exactly how many stations in which this sheet of ad was advertised, but basically this ad appeared to all of the the tube stations I stepped in.

[20170228©winnieup.WeAreXPoster@KingsCrossTube@London]

In order to welcome the great day of possibly meeting Yoshiki and the director Stephen Kijak in person in a short distance at the film’s Premiere in London, as early as I could, I went to check out the Picturehouse Central location at Piccadilly Circus in London.  It was arranged that there would be Premiere of the film We Are X followed by a Q&A session with them.

I arrived at the venue three hours in advance. The Picturehouse Central is situated in London’s 19th-century, Grade II-listed Trocadero building. It is gorgeous inside and out, housing a coffee shop on the first floor and a cafe on the second, where the screens on the third floor and up.  Visiting this building could be of a relaxing and rewarding tour itself.

Immediately after entering the Picturehouse, an enormous red staircase captured my eyes. The red tiles shined all over the floor. Above the colorful staircase, countless number of light bulbs were hanging down from the ceiling irregularly. The red staircase served as the “Red Carpet” and I was told that anyone who comes in must walk through and up on the red staircase before he/she could reach the upper floors for press conference, reception party, and to any of the screens for the films.  I found a coffee table upstairs for myself and planned to spend the time before the film premiere enjoying my afternoon cake there on top of the red staircase. That must be the best spot to watch Yoshiki walk up, I thought.

After half way through my cake, unexpected I was asked to move away from the coffee table – the best spot to catch Yoshiki. The staff needed to reshuffle the seats and tables for better layout for the film premiere.  Disappointedly, I rushed to finish my cake and left my seat. At the same time, I started seeing people coming in with professional cameras, flowers, and gifts. The Picturehouse was filled with excitement, press, fans, and my heartbeat.

Suddenly, a familiar face appeared in front of me and this was the director. “Stephen,” I said to him. I thanked him for tweeting my previous article about the We Are X film. His reaction told me that he did not know me and was surprised to hear me talking to him while he was expecting someone whom he knew to escort him to the press conference area, which was held at the cafe on the second floor.

Unfortunately the responsible person did not show up on time to welcome this VIP. Poor Mr. Director was stuck at the entrance with a security guard blocking his way.  I tried to convinced the security guard that Stephen is indeed the director of the film and he should let him in. The guard insisted that without any proof he would not believe that Stephen was the director, and therefore could not let him in.

I, knowing what was going on for the past few hours, decided to help this stranger out. Several minutes later, I helped him find the organizer whom I met earlier in the cafe, and eventually the director found a way to go… Stephen was so pleased that I found him the right person so he could gain access to the press conference.  Before he entered the prohibited area, he gave me a big “thank you” by accepting my request and gladly took a selfie with me.[20170228©winnieup.StephenKijak@WeAreXPremiere.London]

It was indeed an honor to have the director tweeted my article ~ [http://winnieup.com/20170214-my-valentine-we-are-x/] and quite an interesting experience for me to be able to help and take selfie with the director. Such an incident made me feel fabulous.

It was a quarter till six o’clock, and my heart was beating faster and faster as the time went by.  Yoshiki was still nowhere to be found.  According to his Facebook, his arrival time was 6:00pm. It was a long lasting 15 minutes.  Just as what I would usually do, I walked around and talked to strangers, staff, and random people. A superstar like Yoshiki would always be late rather than being early or on time. That was what I had in my mind.

Life is, as presented in the We Are X film, unexpected, unpredictable, interesting, beautiful, and full of surprises.

While I was walking down the staircase trying to chat with the staff again, screaming noise came from the entrance. Before I could realize and react, a gorgeous gentleman with his beautiful face behind Ray-Ban sunglasses inside a red-and-black velvet long jacket appeared in front of me from virtually nowhere. “YOSHIKI” was the only word that leaked out from my month, and the only action I was able to take was to insert my right hand into my right pocket and got my iPhone out from it to shoot a photo of this smiling-and-walking-quietly-but-quickly celebrity within a nano-second  of time.
[20170228©winnieup.YoshikiArriving@WeAreX.Premiere.London]

I also carried a Nikon camera my father lent me and at that time the Nikon camera had zero efficiency and played no role to the event since my brain and arms were too slow to react. Several pounds of weight that was hanging around my neck made no sense to me at this particular moment.

Finally, this image was the only photo of Yoshiki I took with my iPhone before the Premiere, while I spent all afternoon strategically figuring out how to get the best angle and take the greatest shots of him with my Nikon camera.

Life is out of control most of the time, so is the camera sometimes.

Copyright © 2017 winnieup. All Rights Reserved.

[20170225 X Japan @ London 2017 ~ Prelude]

[20170225©winnieup.TripToLondon@HongKong]

London.  My favorite city – amongst the cities I have visited so far in my life in the past x years.

In December 2016, I bumped into a film, “We Are X”, that “changed my perspective to life, changed my attitude to life, and changed my approach toward life.” ~ [http://winnieup.com/20170214-my-valentine-we-are-x/]  After my first encounter with X Japan introduced by the “We Are X” film on 18 December 2017, I kept going to the cinemas in Hong Kong and watched it for 5 more times. I keep doubting myself why this film did not win any awards from the Oscars (Academy Awards).  It is a shame that an awesome film like this would not be recognized for its outstanding quality.  Due to the superb quality that rarely exists in a film, I urge myself to watch it as long as it is shown in the cinema.  After the Hong Kong “special screening”, it was being shown in the “Picture Houses” in London.  I therefore watched it 3 more times in the Pictures Houses in London, and then 1 more time on a larger-than-IMAX-screen at the X Japan concert in the Wembley Arena in London a few months later.

In between, it happened that the “YOSHIKI Classical Special with Orchestra – HONG KONG” was held on 29 December 2017 in Hong Kong.  Something pathetic happened to the concert – it was nearly being cancelled.  Nevertheless, the way Yoshiki handled the situation regarding the concert matter, his reaction to what had happened, and how he treated the people who supposed to be responsible for the issue drew my attention to his personal characteristic and made me respect and appreciate him more as a human being in addition to my admiration for him being a talented musician.

I started listening to Yoshiki’s classical music, orchestral music as well as his heavy metal, hard rock, and punk music (whatever people categorize him/his band) he created for his band X Japan.  In fact, he also composed the orchestral versions for the X Japan songs and released albums for them.  The crossover between the classical and the band sounds by Yoshiki embarked such a magical effect that keeps the audience listen to their songs again and again because the songs cover wide variety of music elements on top of the already breathtaking melody and the poetlike lyrics.

After discovering the drum playing style and the piano playing skills, I understand why people could be inextricably attracted to Yoshiki. His drum playing is not only of a high-level skills presentation, that is extremely fast, precise and rhythmic, but also blends in with his body and soul.  His piano playing is not only special and sophisticated, but also a display of passion, expression, and emotion.  His playing is more than an eye-pleasing performance, it is like striving to intrude his passion and life into his audience’s heart, mind, and soul.

The more I watch X Japan’s live concert with my computer on the internet, the more I want to watch them live with my naked eyes on real stage.

Then, I heard that X Japan had planned to have a concert in my favorite city – London in March 2017.  Seriously I told myself, that I have to seize the chance to watch them.  I am not allowing myself to regret again after not listening to their music for the past 35 years and missing all of their concerts throughout the past years.  I am convinced that attending and participating a live concert of X Japan is one of the must-do things in life.

My original plan was to fly to catch the X Japan concert on the day of arrival and then spend the rest of the week traveling in London. But a wise friend of mine suggested me to swap my plan – to tour around town first, and save the best for last.  At the end, I cannot thank my friend enough, that his wisdom created the opportunity for me to see Yoshiki and met the director Stephen Kijak in person during “We Are X” Film London Premiere and the Q&A session.  My friend’s advice also led me to meet the full band of X Japan (Yoshiki, Toshl, Pata, Heath, and Sugizo) during their first-in-twenty-year’s signing event at HMV in London on the day of release of the “We are X” Soundtrack CD.

In the night of 25 February 2017, “after having lost the precious time of the past years not enjoying the best music possible found on earth“, I headed to my favorite city to see The First Live concert of my favorite band in my life.

Copyright © 2017 winnieup. All Rights Reserved.

[20170214 ~ My Valentine: “We Are X”]

20170214_WeAreX

[20161218©winnieup. WeAreXFilm@Broadway.TheOne.TST.HK]

Before I watched the film, “We Are X”, I did not know how big X Japan was, nor do I know who Yoshiki is.

One day in December 2016, I was about to watch another movie at a cinema in Hong Kong.  A word “SOLD OUT” on one of the TV screens at the ticket counter area caught my attention. I got curious and found out that it was showing the status of the Special Screening of the film “We Are X”.

The poster of the film showed a drummer standing on top of the drum-set, and the description stated that it was a film about the band, X Japan.  X Japan, I remember seeing their vinyl album cover back in the 80s, they were heavy metal rock band from Japan.  That was all I knew about the film and the band. I did not know anything about Yoshiki.

Since I started learning drums recently, I thought watching it could be of something interesting. Out of curiosity, I bought myself the last ticket left of the next show. As such, I bumped into this film by total accident.

An accident that changed my perspective to life, changed my attitude to life, and changed my approach toward life.

People say that they watch this movie because of X Japan, or because of Yoshiki. To the entire opposite, I watch it because I know absolutely nothing at all about X Japan nor have I heard any songs being composed, performed, arranged, played, or produced by its bandleader, Yoshiki.

Yet, after watching the film, I keep watching the film.  After start listening to X Japan and Yoshiki’s music, I cannot stop listening to their music.

Now, I have a strong feeling that I have wasted the past 35 years of my life NOT listening to X Japan and Yoshiki’s songs. I feel that I have lost the precious time of the past years not enjoying the best music possible found on earth. I regretted genuinely not knowing Yoshiki earlier for the admiration of his skills of drum playing; for the discovery of cross-boundary mix of classical and rock music; plus, for the appreciation of his passion and dedication for music and piano playing so I could be practicing piano more persistently when I was a little kid.

The excitement, brings to me from a film, is that I do not know what is going on and what might appear next on the big screen. I like surprise. The fact that I know completely nothing (but their name) about X Japan brought me mind-blowing experience watching this film. I was in shock, during and after, watching this film.

Although the film appears to be presented in piecemeal format and a timeline not too easy to follow, I find it inescapably represents what it is trying to talk about: Life.  Life, as a matter of fact, is always unexpected, out of order, and fragmented; things in life could happen quite suddenly and abruptly, often similar to this manner. The way the director edits the film might have messed up the logical mindset of the audience, yet indeed it fits the mood and rhythm of the film, and sets precisely what the mode should be for this piece of documentary, ambitiously saying that life is not logical.

Life is never predictable. Unexpected incidents happen all the time. Speaking of which, due to this “total accident” bumping into this film, I submersed myself into one of the best, breathe-taking, eye-opening, and undoubtedly enjoyable moments of my life – watching the film, We Are X.

Just like a song has an intro and outro, the movie also starts and ends with gorgeous images along with beautiful music of X Japan and Yoshiki’s. The film brilliantly presents the heart of the history of X Japan with the (relatively new, 2011) song  “Jade” at the beginning of the film.  The intro is so attractive that blocks everything else away from my mind, and drives me deeply into the abyss of the film.

Usually, documentary films discuss or disclose about a story. Yet, We Are X engages a story rather than displaying it to its audience. On one hand, someone like me, who knew nothing about the band, have been educated by the film about the rich history of X Japan; at the same time, I overwhelmingly felt and experienced the successfulness and the painfulness that they had gone through throughout the years with them via the film. After a stream of dramatic yet realistic facts being presented in front of the audience, the film ends with the concert of the reunited X Japan, along with the their stunning new theme song of the film “La Venus”.

By opening with the still images of the original members of X Japan with “Jade” as the background music, and ending with the motion video of the reunited X Japan with “La Venus” plus many other mind-blowing songs of X Japan revealing the bittersweet story of the members in between. “We Are X” is not only an entertaining and documenting film, but also a brilliantly made memorable masterpiece.

No matter how many times I watch the movie, it never seems enough. The film “We are X” is not only about “death and life of X Japan”, as quoted in the flyers, it is also about everything in between: love, friendship, family, fame, depression, self-saving, self-destroying, pioneering, rebellious, innovation, boldness, pride, jealousy, selfishness, success, failure, happiness, tragedy, leadership, conflicts, lost, gain, hope, hopelessness, hatred, give-up, pain, decency, culture, society, norm, ignorance, art, music, broke-up, reunited, memory, dreams, and human being.

Life, as sophisticated as X Japan’s, can be elegant, tasteful, painful, and altogether, beautiful. In addition to its unpredictable and surprising nature, when you look back, you can still feel the abundance of it.  Although painful memories must be part of it, life can still bring you light and strength as long as you can find a way to “co-exist with the pains” (quoted from Yoshiki).

Watching “We Are X” is incomparable with watching any other film I have ever seen. Surrounded by extreme darkness, sitting in front of a huge screen, enjoying a splendid film, listening to the impressive music, glancing over the stunning images, and going through the overwhelming, dramatic, and outraging history of X Japan and Yoshiki, I feel like I am not merely watching a film, but also going through life and death and everything in between together with them, in tears and through my heart, all within 93 minutes of time.

Eventually, as of the issue date of this article, I have watched it in the cinema for six times. If it keeps being shown in the cinema, I will keep watching it again and again. Every time I watch it, it seems like layers of life of X Japan being peeled off, and different levels of fruitful yet unpredictable thunders being poured out for the audience to taste; for the eyes, for the ears, for the mind, and for the heart to grasp and absorb. I can keep watching it, and keep discovering how the director “Introducing X Japan…Japan…Japan…!

Copyright © 2017 winnieup. All Rights Reserved.