''I Want to Destroy America'' is a
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
by
Peter I. Chang which traces the life of the Japanese musician
Hisao Shinagawa
Hisao Shinagawa (born 1946) is a Japanese-born songwriter and performer who lives in Los Angeles, California. He is probably best known in his adopted home country for the satirical song "More Money, More War", which became an underground hit after ...
through his early years as a folk singer in Tokyo to his current occupation as a street performer in Los Angeles.
The film was shot from 2004 to 2006,
[DVD Talk](_blank)
/ref> and provides a unique insight into the influence of Western popular music on the teenage youth culture of 1960s Japan, as well as an inside look at Shinagawa's struggle to survive as a songwriter after losing his recording contract in the 1980s. The title of the film comes from an off-hand comment Shinagawa makes about wanting to destroy the U.S. system.
In his review of the DVD release, critic John Wallis notes, "''I Want to Destroy America'' is formatted with Hisao speaking for himself. Interview audio and footage is placed over still and stock footage and the modern footage, some of it fly-on-the-wall, some of it atmospherically staged,"
Film festivals
Under its original title of Life in G-Chord
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy transf ...
, the film was submitted to and selected for the Atlanta Underground Film Festival and the Santa Fe Film Festival The Santa Fe Film Festival is a non-profit organization which presents important world cinema that represents aesthetic, critical, and entertainment standards highlighting New Mexican film. The organization partners with educational groups, schools, ...
in 2006.
DVD release
The film was acquired for DVD distribution by Pathfinder Pictures
Pathfinder may refer to:
Businesses
* Pathfinder Energy Services, a division of Smith International
* Pathfinder Press, a publisher of socialist literature
Computing and information science
* Path Finder, a Macintosh file browser
* Pathfinder (w ...
in 2007.
DVD Specs
*Digital transfer, letterbox
A letter box, letterbox, letter plate, letter hole, mail slot or mailbox is a receptacle for receiving incoming mail
The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private ...
presentationBarnes & Noble
/ref>
*''Scene Index''
**''Main Feature: I Want To Destroy America''
***1. Chapter 1 :47***2. Chapter 2 :28***3. Chapter 3 0:07***4. Chapter 4 :42***5. Chapter 5 :43***6. Chapter 6 :13***7. Chapter 7 2:10***8. Chapter 8 :51*''Extras''
**''Outtakes''
***Alternate Ending
***Jackson Browne
***Hisao Speaks
***That's What It Is
***Hisao Sings
**''Soundtrack''
***Lovin' You (2005)
***Yabara, Misumi, Nihon-kai (2002)
***Rai (Reasons For) (1972)
***Six Budda Statues (1979)
***Give Me Water Please (1979)
***What's Life For (1972)
***To The North (1979)
***Uta No Tame Ni Woody Guthrie (1972)
***Oh My Love Yamato Nadeshiko (1979)
***The God Hisao Shinagawa (1996)
***Stray Dog (1979)
***I Wish I Could Yodel (1979)
***When The Roses Are Blooming (1979)
***Wires (1984)
***Happy Weirdo (1983)
***More Money More War (1981)
***Human Computer (1984)
***Lonesome Buddha Statue (1992)
***Baa Baa Baa (Me Me Me) (1999)
***Rock 'N' Roll (2006)
***Life In A G-Chord (1999)
**''Biographies''
***Director
***Producer
**''Trailer''
**''Still Gallery'' (Slideshow)
Footnotes
External links
Allmovie
Theatrical Trailer
Hisao at myspace
I Want to Destroy America, AKA Life in G-Chord
DVD Talk review
{{DEFAULTSORT:I Want To Destroy America
American musical documentary films