Big in Japan. You know, it is that age-old joke with musicians: “Oh, you know, we’re big in Japan.” Cheap Trick or any number of 70s/80s bands that weren’t anything special in America, but had these Beatlemania like followings in Japan. There is a sort of Spinal Tap’esque humor going on, but a bit more hipster and indie.

This is exactly the type of film you want to see at a film festival. This is a Seattle-based filmmaker. I wouldn’t say that I busted a gut laughing ever, but I smiled the whole way through, and actually I think that is a good mark of a comedy. Not really a punchline, but just consistently enjoyable and fun.

And, the music is really good. It is a real band playing a fake band in the movie.

This article appears in Oct 8-15, 2014.

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The Source Reviews “Big in Japan” on MyWindow

by Phil Busse, The Source - Bend, Oregon
October 9, 2014

<h1>The Source Reviews “Big in Japan” on MyWindow</h1> <p class="byline">by Phil Busse, The Source - Bend, Oregon <br />October 9, 2014</p> <p> <i><a href="http://www.bendsource.com/bend/bendfilm-2014-narratives/Content?oid=2398966" target="_blank">Big in Japan</a></i>. You know, it is that age-old joke with musicians: "Oh, you know, we’re big in Japan." Cheap Trick or any number of 70s/80s bands that weren’t anything special in America, but had these Beatlemania like followings in Japan. There is a sort of Spinal Tap’esque humor going on, but a bit more hipster and indie.</p> <p>This is exactly the type of film you want to see at a film festival. This is a Seattle-based filmmaker. I wouldn’t say that I busted a gut laughing ever, but I smiled the whole way through, and actually I think that is a good mark of a comedy. Not really a punchline, but just consistently enjoyable and fun.</p> <p>And, the music is really good. It is a real band playing a fake band in the movie.</p> <div class="wp-block-group newspack-embed-container aligncenter"> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/108294360">Phil Busse of The Source Weekly reviews the film "Big in Japan"</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/mywindowco">myWindow</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p> </p></div> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/news/the-source-reviews-big-in-japan-on-mywindow-2399192/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com&quot;&gt;The Source - Bend, Oregon&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/cropped-Untitled-design-4.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=22779&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.bendsource.com/news/the-source-reviews-big-in-japan-on-mywindow-2399192/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/bendsource.com/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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