Desu pawuda

A humanoid female is kept tied up in a decrepit basement and several unknown groups of people seem to be interested in this creature.When the creature blows dust on some intruders,it sends them off to another world and gives them deep understanding of...something or another to do with rising above the limitations of flesh.These various parties fight it out amongst themselves,some turning out to be more than human."Death Powder" is an total hallucinogenic mindtrip.It's filled with scenes of horror and gore and several moments of a wall-to-wall surrealism.It's really hard to objectively summarize its plot,it's so strange and trippy.If you enjoyed "Tetsuo" or "964 Pinocchio" give "Death Powder" a look.

This film is a one of a kind gem. If you want to see what Pinnochio 964, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Meatball Machine, Electric Dragon 80000v, Rubber's Lover (etc., etc., etc...) would be like if they were even MORE insane... then, here's your movie.

Combining extremely bizarre and nightmarish imagery (ever seen an image of a gigantic eyeball from a slime monster superimposed over a bizarre doorway that sorta looks like it was made from line-drawing?) with a noisey soundtrack and TONS of surrealism and just an overall bizarre atmosphere, this is one of the best films I've ever seen. Really, it's the epitome of a perfect film: Never gets boring, a perfect length, and you'll always find something new to love every time you watch it.

I've noticed in recent years, there's been a renewed interest in this film. Hopefully I will live to see the day when this will officially be released on DVD in America. This is a lost classic, to be certain, and there's certainly an audience for it (albiet a small, art-house audience.. there's still an audience). Whatever means you can do to find yourself a copy of this now, though, don't hesitate to do it, especially if you're concerned with cinema that places emphasis on weird visuals over a coherent story. There, uh, isn't really that much of a story to speak of, I think, but that doesn't matter. There's so many weird parts in this film you won't mind (what's the deal with the random mosaiced faces?). Love it.

This is probably the most nonsensical whacked out flick you'll ever watch. A Japanese cyberpunk horror that that inspired ones like Rubber's Lover (1996) and 964 Pinocchio (1991). Most of the time you'll just be scratching your head wondering what the hell is going on. The powder involved in the film mutates and eventually explodes your head. I watched a VHS tape of this that had some mileage and of course some dialogue wasn't subtitled but no matter here people. One part just shows stills for five minutes.

Most of the effects were the ones they used in 80's music videos but effective enough. I think it would be dangerous to watch this on acid.

The credits at the end read "ALL directed by Shigeru Izumiya". That's a fitting way to phrase it because it seems like filmed material from several projects were thrown together somehow, barely even attempting to make it all form one consistent work. It more felt like one of those music clip things that are marketed as feature films to cash in on those video commercials, just that here we have the marketable music and the live performances missing, except for one scene, which may as well be marketed as a weird music video clip in Japan. Whatever.

It makes zero sense. Visually it isn't too special either, although it has its moments (for example the female creature with the "death powder" who is strapped onto a bed base and some morphing sh!t throughout) and it certainly has an industrial-y feeling to it. Usually I'd call the effects dilettantish but what this film offers in this regard is baffling more than anything else. You remember those cheap video effects from 70's and 80's music videos that make them look so dated, like a picture within a picture flying through the screen? There is quite a lot of these kind of effects in this, and without any apparent reason. The most half-assed seeming effort comes in the form of a picture collage. The pictures sort of look like album covers. Whatever.

I don't know what's up with the subtitles of the version I saw. The Chinese ones (or whatever those hieroglyphics are) sometimes seem to show up when nothing is even said and the English ones often show up without the Chinese ones. The English subs talk much about life without death (is it possible?), and a mind without a body, which provides what comes closest to a comprehensible conflict between characters in this film. One guy (a scientist dude) says that life without flesh is death while another guy (a metamorphosing dude) who claims his mind is beyond his body now that he got the "death powder" blown into his face and that he now knows the secrets of the flesh and whatnot; metamorphosing dude is visibly p!ssed off about the scientist dude's claim. Whatever.

Erm, The End - All Written By Perception de Ambiguity

Hands down, the most bizarre film I have ever seen. Makes Lost Highway look like an exercise in coherent storytelling. I've watched it about ten times, and I still don't know what the hell it's about. I don't know what else to say about it.