Portuguese musician, Paulo Furtado aka The Legendary Tigerman, sent this short film, featuring his music and it mesmerised me. I've known about the Japanese bosozuku cult for years, but haven't seen any fresh coverage of it for a long time. The way the film morphs into a music video and then back out again is intriguing. I watched the film, then turned off the screen and listened to the music. I recommend it. The visuals are too intoxicating to take in the music on one viewing.
This is what Paulo says about it.
The song Motorcycle Boy is all about fighting for your dreams.
When I was in my early twenties, watching the 1983 Coppola movie, Rumble Fish felt so real, so close to my reality in a strange way. I felt the same anger that Rusty James (Matt Dylon) felt for being stuck in a small town, dreamless, with nowhere to go and nothing to do but to hit the streets, drink and fight.
The image of Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke), a half man, half god entity, riding his Kawasaki GPZ550, a guy who explains life through a metaphor of blue and red rumble fish stuck in a fishtank, is the coolest of the cool. Just all I wanted to be. We were all meant to fail, right? Might as well fail with style.
When James and Masato (the directors) initially sent me their first ideas for the film which involved going to Tokyo to find a former bosozuku gang, to go through their memories and stories so as to pay homage to that uncontrolable urge to live and ride, it all just felt too perfect, it all made sense.
The words and souls of Kohei Osawa, Kokoro Tanaka and Takayuki Kaneoya couldn't be more related to the spirit of my song and to the tribute to Rumble Fish’s Motorcycle Boy.
The bosozuku story is part of Japan's underground culture and history. It is a fast and burning shooting star which still feeds our imagination and dreams of freedom. It doesn't matter if we fail or if we fall. It means that at least we tried. The Motorcycle Boy reigns.