Tokyo Pop

A woman goes to Japan and ends up joining a band with a man she stars dating. They inadvertently become famous singing Do you believe in Magic and he falls in love with her. But she realizes that she doesn't belong and has to decide her fate.

This is a great look at late 80s Japan with loads of scenery and culture BUT it's also a cute little rom-com (ish) about music and following your own path. In a way it's similar to Lost in Translation (but obviously pre-dating that) in tone, but has a more bittersweet vibe. DEfinitely an overlooked movie that deserves more attention as it's cute and lighthearted.

This is a cute little film. Ultimately it doesn't really go anywhere, but at the very least it's an extremely realistic portrayal of what it'd be like to suddenly fly to Japan with no friends there, no command of the language, no knowledge of the culture and conventions, etc. I suppose part of the reason the film succeeds so well in this is that it's a Japanese-U.S. co-production.

One of the best parts of the movie is the soundtrack. The track by the new wave band that the main character is in at the beginning of the movie is very nice, but "Rakuen, Rakuen" by Papaya Paranoia is wonderful! Even better is being able to watch P.P. perform -- just too bad they didn't include the whole number. So much energy and adorableness from this all-girl Japanese rock band.

The real shame is that the soundtrack's out-of-print worldwide. The Papaya Paranoia track is not available on their other albums, which are hard enough to come by as it is.

Tokyo Pop has been in my collection since it came out...I could not locate it anywhere..and bribed the video store owner into selling me her copy. This was not too difficult..she said it was never rented..except by me. The movie hooked me in the first scene..just Carrie Hamilton herself, visually. The rest of the movie followed suit..a feast of cultures for the eyes and ears, and a romantic quality as well...though bittersweet.

I loved the music from beginning to end..especially Hiro's Song. Even the instrumentals played during the sad parts were worthy of me taping..what I'd give to find the soundtrack. I particularly love Carrie's vocals..in Do You Believe In Magic...she gives it everything she's got. I was heartbroken to discover that she's passed away at 38 from cancer...awww.

There's a very rare honesty and charm to "Tokyo Pop." Although I never knew the music scene in Japan, so much in the movie is immediately recognizable from life: The naivete on many sides. The fun of being exotic for a while and the uses made of it. The value for Westerners of being in Japan for a while; the sterility of living there long-term (generally speaking). The harmless chintziness of much in Japan. A degree of gentleness. The story is believable and the characters endearing. In tune with the lightness of the movie, there are few of the crudest sorts of stupidity one is likely to run up against: Westerners who set themselves up as experts on everything under the sun. The Japanese love of grandiose abstractions; verbal bombast about uniqueness and subtlety. The extreme moral and intellectual obtuseness involved in occasionally hammering down nails that stick up. Or that if you are inclined to pithiness, then you too may be unsuited for life in Japan.

Tokyo Pop is the story of a girl punk-rock musician living in New York, who finds the scene dead and at the behest of a friend, moves to Tokyo, where things are allegedly happening. Carrie Hamilton, who stars, is the late daughter of Carol Burnett, and despite a strong physical resemblance, she's a unique talent in her own right and carves out a distinct identity for her character (only once did I detect a mother-daughter similarity: when she's calling out to passing cabs in Tokyo, I felt we were just moments away from the Tarzan yell). She's tough and confident when we see her in black leather prowling the streets of New York and Tokyo, and she's fearless. We're never afraid for her when she first arrives in Tokyo completely lost; we feel that she'll figure it out. After suffering some early setbacks as a gaijin (foreigner) who the Japanese eye warily, she hooks up with a Japanese boy who calls himself a rock-and-roller and whose English is workable, if a little tentative (he often tends to answer her by saying "Sure" or "Maybe"). He invites her to be the singer in his band, and then the Happy Fairy Land Storybook kicks in. The band becomes a sensation, singing a cute boy-girl rendition of the Lovin' Spoonful's Do You Believe in Magic and her face is on every magazine cover and billboard. The fame game is fun until it isn't and Carrie has a crisis of conscience and needs to go back to playing "her music" and breaks up the act. Yet in the final scene that plays during the closing credits, we see Carrie gushing an 80's power ballad. Why? That ending completely subverts the story we've seen for ninety minutes; she's transitioned from Debbie Harry to Debbie Gibson, another sellout singing Americanized Tokyo Pop.

It's not unheard of; real-life rock-and-rollers have done the same (Eric Clapton is a glaring example, although his metamorphosis took longer than one plane ride), but it just kills any integrity the character and the movie have built up. Tokyo Pop is a showcase for Carrie Hamilton's talents, nothing more. I mourn her passing.