Review of We Don’t Care About Music Anyway
We Don’t Care About Music Anyway screened last night at ATK Cama bar in Hanoi. A few dozen people had turned out, looking sheepish while Trí Minh played, waiting for the film to begin. The event is sandwiched each night by live experimental music drummed up for the cause, obviously meant to complement the documentary itself. Trí Minh’s distorted post-techno sample-and-hold mashed-up beats assaulted the ears of the waiting crowd, unsure whether to stroke their beards, jive around like a child in a tantrum or plonk themselves down and wait for the feature. Most opted for the latter, when the chairs finally arranged themselves.
The film was a journey through the lives of eight different experimental musicians in the Tokyo scene. However, that doesn’t even come close to doing justice to what the film, and the music itself was. It took you on a journey through each of their mentalities, giving you an insight into what made each musician tick (or grind), but not simply from one perspective. Each musician had a chance to explain their philosophy, eloquently and in discussion, to play their music, in intimate, personal surroundings and on stage in wild abandon. At the same time the film examined the sound-world of Tokyo itself, interlacing common scenes of urban life, drawing attention to the very things which the musicians obviously incorporate into their performance, both rejecting, assimilating and regurgitating it at the same time.
It was an inspiring film, and I challenge anyone not to be moved by its eloquence and transparency. The music is at times lyrical, abrasive, shocking, powerful, quiet and funny, but above all the reason for all of it is intertwined into the narrative of the film. Trí Minh’s post-film performance almost seemed unnecessary, but he’s showing us that in Hanoi they know what’s going on, and although the scene is a world away from Tokyo, it knows where it’s going, and it has a voice.
It’s screening tonight and tomorrow night again in Hanoi at ATK Cama bar, 73A Mai Hắc Đế, and in HCMC/Saigon on Friday. Get down and see it, and hear the music.
