Some fans call David Lee Roth “The Most Interesting Man In The World.” And now that he wrote and starred in an exotic short new film, he just became even more interesting.
A short Tarantino-esque video hit YouTube Wednesday, starring the Van Halen frontman. Roth’s video channel uploaded it with the title “DLRmovietrailer.” Roth gives us no information on the background of this video or what it is supposed to be. The impressive five minute video seems more like a short film or a long intro to a music video rather than a typical movie trailer. In any case, it’s a slick production! Co-director Kentaro Hagiwara picked up the Sundance/NHK International Filmmaker Award earlier this year. UPDATE: The video has since been given the title “Tokyo Story”.
The plot: Roth’s character takes on a group of Japanese thugs in a card game who try to take advantage of “the American” who they think can’t understand Japanese. The big guy at the table is Konishiki, the famous sumo wrestler. He’s a big deal in Japan and is friends with Dave. Dave has talked about being friends with Konishiki in the Rikidozan episode. And by the way, Dave acquired that full back Tattoo in Japan.
Knowing Dave, he probably did this video just for fun. We’re not sure if there really is a longer version or not. Perhaps he’ll elaborate on this “trailer” in a future episode of The Roth Show. Stay tuned.
Roth has been living in Tokyo part-time since last year, where he was spotted in a tiny little yakitori shop. He admitted he is in a relationship with a Japanese woman, joking, “She’s half my age, which is no longer a legal issue.” He’s been busy with his sword training and martial arts training. He recently put together a Van Halen Japanese TV special. He’s been renting recording studio space in Japan and having fun learning Japanese. He put on his own radio show, ‘Tokyo Hi-Power Style’. And the 15 episodes of The Roth Show have had over 3 million downloads so far.
Van Halen is scheduled to perform four concerts in Japan in June.