This story began in the early 1980s with the musician Haruo Chikada wanting to create a rock opera just like his then-time idols, The Who. That’s how The Legend of the Stardust Brothers appeared, a story about two guys who were into punk and new wave but got caught up in the showbiz that, as everybody knows, grinds everyone up. Haruo Chikada wanted to make a film based on this project. Having seen the student works of a young director, Makoto Tezuka, the son of the famous Osamu Tezuka (“the father of manga” and author of Astro Boy), the former decided to work with him. However, Chikada’s attempts to find a producer for the movie incarnation of the show went in vain – potential sponsors refused to invest money into his endeavour, fearing that the production would be too expensive. Haruo Chikada was left with nothing else but to take on the role of a producer himself. That’s how he and Makoto Tezuka ended up creating the movie with improvised resources.

Thanks to the family connections, the younger Tezuka assembled an impressive cast: superstar singer, Japan Record Award nominee Kiyohiko Ozaki, manga artists Kazuhiko “Monkey Punch” Kato (Lupin III) and Yoshuke Takahashi (Gentleman from Dreams), professional wrestler Akira Maeda, and even the future director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Tokyo Sonata). Debutants took the main parts: Kan Takagi and Shingo Kubota (who were friends of Haruo Chikada), Kyôko Togawa (Jun Togawa’s sister) and Issay (future Der Zibet). Not all the participants knew how to act, but Tezuka was confident that sincere efforts would be paid off. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Critics panned the film, the director stopped shooting for several years, and The Legend of the Stardust Brothers went on to travel through video rental stores. It was only when Chikada’s friends decided to celebrate the musical’s 30th anniversary with a special concert that it turned out the movie had acquired its own audience. This inspired Tezuka to film a continuation (The Brand New Legend of the Stardust Brothers) and screen the original movie at European independent film festivals.

Why is The Legend of the Stardust Brothers still remembered today? It could be because the film is based on its creators’ personal experience of how the music industry works, which part establishment and even politics may play, how they all are connected, and which monsters you can meet. And now we regard this movie through a nostalgic lens, which takes on a completely different shade. “As I’m sure you know, in the 80s, Japanese film actually happened to be very serious at the time, and I actually think that maybe people were a little shocked by the difference. ” What may have looked absurd (and was intentionally made ridiculous) in the 1980s is now passed as an artistic feature. If in older days, The Legend of the Stardust Brothers might have seemed influenced by classic rock movies such as A Hard Day’s Night or Rocky Horror Picture Show, now it reminds more of old French comedies with Pierre Richard or even The Ghost of Morrisville Castle. It’s the same horror but in a different scenery: instead of a gothic castle, we found ourselves backstage in the Japanese pop scene as it was in the early days of the economic bubble era when new bands appeared only to be forgotten the very next day.

Moreover, The Legend of the Stardust Brothers is an excellent example of a visionary that a talent can achieve with a limited budget. From the nested narrative to clever editing tricks and rubber-masked monsters, just like in the best old fiction movies. It’s a rare item, and now it isn’t easy to imagine someone producing something like that, even for fun.