Electric Dragon 80.000 V

With "Electric Dragon 80.000V", director Sogo Ishii brings homage to ... himself, really! Who else could he pay tribute to, because HE is the one man who single-handedly started the wild and anarchist Japanese punk-cinema and, even though other directors may have had a lot more success with it (for example Shinya Tsukamoto with "Tetsuo"), Ishii is and will always remain the pioneer of punk. That being said, "ED8kV" is an extremely weird accomplishment and it's probably the type of movie that spontaneously causes people to suffer from epilepsy & twitching. It feels like a 55 minutes long industrial videoclip, with chaotic camera movements, extremely loud noises and the most unique use of black and white photography you'll ever see. Ishii also put quite a bit of wicked imagination into the script, as he revolves his film on an unorthodox type of super-hero named Dragon Eye Morrison. The young punker-protagonist survived a massive electro-shock as a kid, but the accident somehow sparked severe aggression and powers. He sleeps with chains around his wrists and boisterously plays on his electric guitar to control the anger. Eventually, he's allowed to let out all his furious anger in a battle against his oddly masked nemesis Thunderbolt Buddha. Crazy film, a lot less nightmarish than the aforementioned "Tetsuo", but definitely an unforgettable visual attack on pretty much all your senses. Ishii's direction feels genuinely hostile and aggressive, as if he wanted to take revenge on big studios and meddlesome producers who always interfered with his personal visions and ideas, resulting in final cuts the director didn't even like. "Burst City" is the ideal example of that. As said, the film is only 55 minutes long, but personally I thought it was more than long enough! A couple of minutes extra and I probably would have started hallucinating about talking lizards and malicious Buddha's myself. And my tympanum membranes probably wouldn't have survived a longer version, neither.

A 55-minute hyperkinetic descent into electro-charged madness, Electric Dragon 80.000 V is a virtually plotless, overly-extended music video playing like a punk rock shock to the brain. Championing kinetic anarchy and raw aggression, the film's underground visual style with its high contrast black and white cinematography and bizarre imagery set to an overwhelming eardrum-shattering industrial noise soundtrack will certainly have its fans. I can't deny that the film is a wildly unique piece of eye candy, often with fast-cutting sequences filled with flashes of electricity and surging power within our characters, not to mention the wild guitar-playing sequences. Having that high contrast crisp monochrome look, Electric Dragon plays like a manga come to its fullest realisation, a visual and aural marvel, shot and edited with boundless energy and style, and yet I'm still left wanting more.

Tadanobu Asano's middle name is COOL.

This one's a visual treat. If you've seen Tetsuo: Iron Man, you'll be familiar with the breakneck cuts, but there's less of the "biting down on aluminum foil" effect you get from Tetsuo. Asano just flows into his character who's has one of the best morning routines I've ever seen. I don't even want to describe his scenes, but they're a hoot to watch. The black and white definitely gives the movie a more gritty, almost kinetic feel. Effects are great without overkill and there's so much style onscreen giving ED8V its unique energy. Just watch the quick dialogue flashes and you feel the adrenaline laced coaster ride.

ED8V definitely flows and the movie pretty much keeps you glued throughout. Definitely rewatchable as there's a lot to pick up on that you have missed the first time.

This is an aggressive Tour de Force in the vein of the early works of Shinya Tsukamoto, while nor sharing the intense body horror of those films or the extreme stand toward sexuality. Two electrified superheros battle for domination in this short (55 min) b/w feature film by Sogo Ishii. Electric Dragon Eye who was superempowered by an accident is capable of communicating with reptiles and releases his amphetamine stridden electronic energy by playing electric guitar on the streets. He is provoked by another stud the Thunderbold Buddha that is wearing a split mask over his head. Superfast cut Comic action combined with the sound of Ishiis own band Mach.167 culminates in a furious battle on the rooftop of a japanese megalopolis. Its Cyberpunk and definitely related to digital hardcore music or Alec Empire.

The entire point of comic books was that their art was ragged, untrimmed, spontaneous; artists were usually paid by the page, worked for daily strips, or monthly publications, Superman and Batman were launched in this way. As with the very means, a comic was about a gripping story quicky sketched. So the Hollywood craze with superheroes, bulky, sprawling films shooting for months while a small army of SFX experts are tinkering away at the designs, has directly negated what was so vital about these things in the first place. The apogee of this is the latest Batman films, no longer a product of pulp fiction, but of the most serious aesthetic and drama.

This beats with that primitive heart of comic-books; the DIY ethos, here especially channeled through a scrapyard punk rock aesthetic, and so like punk, the fast, hard-edged rhythms, the stripped-down instrumentation. The teenage energy.

If all this recalls Shunya Tsukamoto, it's because Sogo Ishii was the inspiration. He fathered the No Wave we find in Tetsuo.

Story-wise it's about these two man-technology hybrids, Dragon Eye Morrison and Thunderbolt Buddha, battling for control of the neon skies of Tokyo, for the privilege of harnessing the energies into seeing.

Dragon Eye is unbridled animal desire, pure violent instinct awakened by childhood abuse. Every night he sits down on his bed for shock treatment. He channels the energies back into the world with his electric guitar. The other guy is more intriguing, with the all-encompassing eye of the Buddha that permeates the veils of existence recast as a contemporary, technological eye that eavesdrops everywhere. Wired with industrial gadgetry, he monitors everything from his rooftop. His face is an amazing two-face design; half human, half a metal mask of the Buddha.

When they clash the movie erupts in white-hot blistering chaos, convulsing from the sheer power of the energies unleashed. Anime, punk rock, New Wave cinema, cold cityscapes, the anarchic edge of youth; at 55 minutes it's barely a full movie, but it's a melting pot of awesome.