Surrounded by Oklahomas rolling plains, farmland and painted sunsets, country music seems like a natural expression of the state. It can be easy to forget that music, like other forms of culture, is bound to break out of its natural habitat at some point.
At first, the idea of country and bluegrass music finding a home in Japan might seem like a stretch, but the documentary Far Western, which makes its Oklahoma debut at this years deadCenter Film Festival, does a good job of making the world feel just a bit smaller.
Far Western screens 7 p.m. Saturday and 12:30 p.m. Sunday at Harkins Theatres Bricktown 16.
As the film explains, country and bluegrass music found a niche in Japan with influence from occupying American troops following World War II. Country music still has a place in Japan, but as a micro-culture observed by an aging generation of fans.
The beginning of the film asks its key subjects including country performer and Kumamoto, Japan, honky-tonk owner Charlie Nagatani to confront a paradox in their love for country music: Why accept a form of culture from the country responsible for dropping atomic bombs that took the lives of many Japanese countrymen?
Most Japanese purveyors of the art form said they are able to differentiate the two. Filmmaker James Payne said country music actually played some role in soothing those emotional wounds.
It was complicated, Payne said. I think they went through an incredibly protracted trauma in the war and there was something about music in general which has a healing quality.
Payne filmed Far Western over a five-week span in 2015. He first became aware of country musics place in Japan while working on a separate film project about an international tour by Oklahoma band Kyle Dillingham & Horseshoe Road.
Filming a feature-length project in another country presented Payne with its fair share of challenges.
Just to get one small crew over for a week, itd be at least $25,000-$30,000, he said, and thats if people werent getting paid.
Through a funding campaign and some persistence, Payne and film producer/editor Matt Leach were able to complete filming in Japan in five weeks, making a lot of contacts throughout the process.
Far Western made its global debut in November at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
Its been really rewarding not only for me and my friends who made the film, but also in making all these new friends, he said.
It was not the first time Japanese people had been exposed to Western music, but it was the first time it could be consumed by the masses. Country music sounded like something totally new and different to Japans youngest generation.
Its not like their folk music, which is a little less melodic and less easy to listen to, Payne said. Its not like your three-chord, simple, sentimental, melodic music.
At one time, Japan enjoyed its status as Asias superpower, but after the war, the country was destitute.
Payne said country music particularly came to symbolize the romantic mythology of the American West with its cowboys, opportunity and wide-open vistas.
The Japanese had lived in incredibly difficult conditions throughout the war, which for them begins in the mid-30s against China, he said. Theyd been in it for a while, and I think the idea of democracy was coupled with the music and was quite different from what they were used to.
Though many forms of American music are still popular in Japan, they are not nearly as dependent on Western culture as they were in the post-war days.
[Country music] has been completely eclipsed by Japanese pop music, Payne said.
It is no secret that there are a multitude of examples in which Japan and the United States have exchanged art and ideas. As much as Japanese people might have loved country music in a certain time period, Payne said there are as many or more people in America today who love Japanese video games and entertainment.
This isnt the story of the U.S., in their benevolence, exporting their wonderful pop culture everywhere, he said.
Payne said in an odd and ironic twist of events, some American Western movies would take influence from Japanese samurai culture and the work of filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa.
In the American 80s and early 90s, game consoles from Nintendo and PlayStation stole the imaginations of Western youth.
Payne said he remembers when the Sony Discman portable CD player was one of the coolest things a person could own.
The filmmaker said he hopes Far Western is a demonstration that culture can unite groups of people many would expect to have little in common.
I think theres always been mutual fascination, he said. Its an important part of the story.
Visit farwesternmovie.com.
Learn more about deadCenter Film Festival in this weeks Gazette.
Director Doug Pray turns his attention to a scene that started in the Pacific Northwest and swept its way across the nation with bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, The Melvins and more. The movie includes a clip of Kurt Cobain performing the first live club performance of Smells Like Teenage Spirit.
The outdoor showing will be popular regardless, but the screening takes on special timely significance with the recent death of Soundgardens Chris Cornell.
Filmmakers Zachary Taylor, Georg Petzold and Seth Smoot collect key interviews with Lou Ottens, the 90-year-old inventor of the cassette technology with little sentimental attachment to his creation, and romantic defenders of the mixtape, like Black Flags Henry Rollins and Sonic Youths Thurston Moore. The beauty of Cassette is that it is structured like an actual mixtape. The film should be more than enough to convince viewers to rummage through their old boxes and find those precious (and sometimes cringe-worthy) pieces of do-it-yourself magic.
Director Karam Gill delivers an impressive account of the period, despite being just 22 years old. The documentary is strengthened through the use of interviews from the biggest West Coast names of the time, including Warren G, Snoop Dogg, Ice-T and Ice Cube. Warren G also adds to the layer of authenticity by contributing to some of the films writing and music composition.
Fans of the 2015 dramatic N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton should catch this film for a historic account of Dr. Dres dealings with Death Row Records and how his decisions directly affected Warren G and hip-hop history.
Print headline: Foreign country, Far Western shows that country and bluegrass music can find a fanbase far away from home.