Official Japanese poster
映画：フィッシュマンズ (English: Movie: Fishmans) is a documentary film directed by Yuki Teshima on the band Fishmans. The film premiered on July 9, 2021 and lasts approximately 172 minutes. The film was released on February 25, 2022 exclusively through Japanese digital streaming platforms without English subtitles, and Blu-ray physical copies were shipped beginning June 1, 2022. Physical copies included officially-made English subtitles, as well as five extraneous cuts included which do not appear in the final film. Deluxe editions also contained a Blu-ray copy of the band's similar documentary film, 闘魂：フィッシュマンズ.
On December 9, 2023, The Fishmans Movie with translated subtitles was made available via streaming service Vimeo to a wide audience of international viewers. This was the first time those outside of Japan could legally stream the film with English subtitles, the official Fishmans tweet regarding the release also being made in English. The film is watchable here, and costs $5 to rent for three days and $15 to buy access to forever: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/fishmans
Content[]
The film centers around a retrospective on Fishmans, building a narrative around the life of band leader Shinji Sato with material gathered mostly in 2019 and 2020. The film contains dozens of restored archival and live footage of the band from the 90s, as well as a comparable number of band members contributing interviews to the film such as Kin-Ichi Motegi. The film was in production for over two years starting in 2019. According to the production crew, the archival footage they worked with consisted with over 100 VHS tapes spanning from the band's earliest history to the late 90s. The following noted chapters are not noted in the film and created here for sake of readability.
Formation~Chappie, Don't Cry[]
The film begins on a screen of blue, soundtracked with the live drone featured on live renditions of ゆらめき In The Air and other songs from the band. Shaky footage from February 19, 2019 @Zepp Tokyo is shown. The next scene takes place at Kasumori Cemetary, Kin-Ichi Motegi and several other band members pray over Shinji Sato's tombstone. His mother, Nobuko Sato is present, teaching Motegi and the viewer about some memorabilia present at Sato's gravestone including photography and magazine clippings left there. Motegi says that he comes to pray over Sato often and tell him about his life, and a plane flies overhead.
Interviews with UA, Hanaregumi and Ikuko Harada are given, all of whom discuss what makes Sato's music inspiring and their thoughts considering his legacy. Afterwards, Fishmans performing なんてったの on December 12, 1997 @Shinjuku Liquid Room is interspersed with miscellaneous private footage of the band, including shots from the music video for いかれたBaby. Toward the song's conclusion, the title card of the film appears. After this at Meiji Gakuin University, Motegi revisits memories of his college career at the campus while meeting with college music club Song Writes. Here he discusses meeting Sato around April 1987 at a club-sponsored greetings event, describing Sato's notoriety within the club as being particularly talented. He describes agreeing with Sato to perform live for the club in June as a three-man act alongside musician Kensuke Ojima.
Following this, guitarist Kensuke Ojima visits live venue La.mama to discuss Fishmans' foundational moments. He describes the first song recorded for the group, Blue Summer, a demo Sato had recorded and sent to Ojima. He and Motegi describe how Sato gave them the choice between naming their band "Fishmans" or "Mayonnaise", eventually settling on the former choice. They discuss Sato's unwillingness to elaborate on his creative decisions, admitting that the name wasn't meant to last for more than sparingly few live performances for the club before settling on a better band name. Afterwards, bassist Yuzuru Kashiwabara is recorded through archival footage describing drummer Motegi's insistence that he joined Fishmans, visiting Kashiwabara's home in the middle of the night to give him a tape to practice for an audition a week later. He visits Rinky Dink Studio after this, the pre-production studio of Chappie, Don't Cry to further discuss the band's first recordings. He complains that the studio's amenities weren't ideal, and that those who weren't graduated from college yet were treated poorly.
Back at Song Writes, drummer Motegi listens through a jukebox to 80s-era archival audio quickly paired with visual accompaniment of a performance by Fishmans of their song, SKA. During this, he describes the band boom of that time period, as well as the circumstances surrounding his meeting with Hakase. Kashiwabara describes convincing him to leave his band at the time, Mustang A.K.A. because of his poor treatment with them. Hakase is filmed entering Crossroad Studio, a practice space of Fishmans' in their early career. He is interviewed, describing how cool he thought Fishmans was before having performed alongside them, as well as the eyes of Shinji Sato once they met. Footage from Fishmans' concert on December 22, 1990 @La.mama is played, where Sato announces live during a musical interlude that the band will be releasing their first live album with Virgin Japan. At his childhood home, Sato's mother discusses how Sato nearly became a librarian before the band successfully auditioned at NHK and wanted to release an album for money.
Live footage of September 7, 1991 @Shinjuku Station Square is played, where Sato discusses the previous release of their first single, ひこうき. The song's music video is played alongside live footage of the band performing it from the same day. Hakase and Kashiwabara discuss how the label offered the band to record in Australia, and they asked for a producer to take with them. Motegi describes at La.mama alongside Ojima how Sato was particularly interested in Kazufumi Kodama and his band Mute Beat, desiring to work with them. Live footage from November 3, 1989 @Daito Bunka University Board School Gymnasium is shown, where Sato announces that he's excited to perform alongside Mute Beat. During this, Kazufumi Kodama is interviewed at a diner, describing how feverishly Sato wanted to work with him. He discusses a time when Sato approached him for an autograph on one of his instrument cases, then watching him sing for the first time. Kodama goes on to describe how Sato's passion was obvious, and how the band's pop sound didn't correlate with his mystique.
Fishmans is shown visiting the front of their recording studio in Melbourne. After this, archival footage of the band performing Go Go Clubですれ違い at a small club is shown. Kodama describes the enjoyment felt by himself and the band as they relaxed after recording each day, Kashiwabara concurring. He tells of how liberating it was to record in another country. Motegi describes how lenient the producer Peter Blyton was in the creation of their first album, and Kashiwabara elaborates on how he assisted them in bringing the album's sound up to world standards. Ojima continues this, describing how rich the sound of the band's first album was and crediting this work to Kodama. After this, Akihiko Yamamoto speaks on behalf of Virgin Japan Records / Media Remoras in regards to the album's recording, describing how Kodama insisted on a rocksteady sound for Chappie. Despite this, Kodama admits that Sato didn't want to record this sort of reggae album, but that he insisted on a rocksteady sound since that was what he was familiar with and he figured Sato was a big enough fan of his work to go along with it. Motegi describes visiting Tower Records after the album was released, expecting a big presentation for the album, yet finding only one copy of it in the general releases section of the store. He describes how disappointed he was, telling about his cancelled plans for bigger-budget live concerts.
Part 2 (coming soon!)[]
Crowdfunding[]
Poster advertising The Fishmans Movie, used on their Motion Gallery website.
The initial crowdfunding campaign for the film began on approximately February 20, 2019, and ended on May 31, 2019 at 11:59 PM JST. The crowdfunding campaign's initial goal was 10,000,000 yen, which it surpassed as it ended with 18,276,687 yen from 1,157 backers.
Release[]
The film originally planned to debut in theaters in August 2020, however the 2020 outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the film back a year from its originally planned release. The film was released on Japanese streaming services on February 25, 2022. It will be shipped physically on blu-ray on June 1, 2022, packaged alongside film 闘魂：フィッシュマンズ. The physical film will include English subtitles for overseas fans. More information is available on the film's Motion Gallery donation page. In the mean time, English fansubs were created for the Japanese release of the digital film, which were finished on April 20, 2022.
In a statement regarding the film's nearing release, director Yuki Teshima said in February 2021:
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Regarding the same topic, Kin-Ichi Motegi stated the following:
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Staff[]
- Fishmans (cast)
- Yuki Teshima (director)
- Riho Sakai (planning, production)
- Daisuke Yamamoto (photography)
- Masaru Naganaga (recording, sound)
- Kiyoto Wada (composition)
- Keiko Okawa (editing)
- Yuhei Omura (art director)
- ACTV Japan (production, distribution)
- Iha Films (distribution)