Rare Middle Ground
The documentary is OK...a lot less Penn Gillette would have been nice...but your response to the movie is going to be determined by what you think of the band and its music...whether you like the music or see it all as a big hipster joke of some kind.

I think what the people who have such a negative response don't grasp is how much the critics interviewed respond to the emotional purity of Half Japanese. Let's face it, the idea that rock'n'roll is about transcendent poetry and musicianship has always been and (God willing) will always be absurd. Rock'n'roll is about emotion, and bands like Half Japanese get much closer than most mainstream bands to expressing emotion in an unfettered way.

I think it's disingenuous to say that Jad Fair can't "write" lyrics, but other than that, I'll concede that not everything is for everyone. Tastes differ. I don't think that makes anyone really smart or really stupid though. It's just a matter of taste. We'd all do well to keep that in mind.

Self-important does not mean important
For as long as I've been listening to music or reading books, there has been a tendency among too many folks I've met to seek out and praise the obscure and unknown. "You like 'The World According to Garp'? Indeed, Irving is a fine writer, but his earlier book, 'Setting Free the Bears' captures, I think, his promise...his insights, and his, his, oh, what's the word, his grasp, his utter grasp of relationships, far more effectively." You know the sort. If something is popular, it is inferior, flawed, commercial, mass-produced slop dished out in a trough for undiscriminating porkers. (Who, by the way, live in "Little Boxes.") The unpopular however, now that's worth investigating, and the more eagerly it is unpopular, the more fascinating it becomes.

'Half Japanese' a "band" without discernible talent, for some unknown reason, hit the unpopular-is-popular lottery. This tedious and gratingly pretentious film documents this "great band" and their history, mercifully keeping the performances to a minimum and never allowing the bloated talking heads to explode with their own wisdom on screen. I guess I'm just not smart enough to understand why guys who can't play their instruments, can't sing, can't write, and can't perform can be the greatest band ever, while the Beatles and the Stones are cast aside with disdainful disgust. Now, I'm not a big fan of either John/Paul or Mick, but I know they produced many quality songs over the years. Not once however during this 90 minute pimple did anyone explain what makes Half Japanese so great. I just heard it repeated over and over and over and over and, well, you get the idea. If I was supposed to see it from their performance snippets, I missed it. If it is just a big joke, comprehensible only to those in the know, well as with the films of Ed Wood, I avoid bad art.

Giving hope to the untalented and self-important everywhere, Half Japanese was like sticky, cold rice. Unappetizing, nasty, and irritating.

Dissapointing
I started watching this DVD with wide eyed anticipation and an open mind.
And then I watched it..
This documentary just seems to drag on slowly, like trying to run over a five lane railroad track with chains and weights around your body; three trains barreling toward you in both directions. Not to mention a rabid rhino in there just to confuse you.
Save your money and buy something else.

Very Entertaining
I was totally enthralled by this DVD because I had never heard of this band and the whole time I was watching it I was thinking to myself that this is a mock-documentary and a genius one at that. Then it dawned on me that no one could have made this up even though the lead singer, I think his name was Rad, seemed to be sent from central casting to play the part of a sort of idiot savant, misunderstood genius, anti-hero, Peter Pan pop singer.
What I liked about this documentary is that they kept going back to the band performing songs. Which are hard to tell whether they are joke or genius.
We are still trying to figure out if "Half Japonese" is an urban myth.

The talking heads in this movie, expressing their bitterness over the fact that this band never made it big are also from central casting and really add the spice to this film.

a waste
This is a documentary about crazy people-not Half Japanese. Most of the so-called critics can't remember a damned thing except for how great they are for recognizing the greatness of Jad while continuously ranting about their major-label conspiracy theories. Penn Jillette even goes so far as to brag about how he conned a homeless person out of Jad's material and then threatened Jad with physical violence if he ever talked to the guy. If you're interested in mental illness and sleazy people like Penn Jillette stroking themselves then by all means watch this. If you're interested in a great American rock band then just buy the albums and listen.