Electric Dragon 80.000 V

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.

Director: Ishii Sogo Duration: 55 minutes

Imagine if you will, a young boy climbing up a towering metal structure that supports dangerous electrical wires while his family down below pleads for him to come down. The imagine one tiny sweat drop on the boy's cheek attracting an electrical bolt from the transformer that strikes him and knocks him from his perch. One would guess that the boy would be fried through, but in the world of _Electric Dragon 80,000 Volts_ this is definitely not the case. Instead the part of the boy's brain that controls emotions is damaged. The boy has a hard time releasing his emotions and when he does it usually results in folks being knocked out cold. The doctors try to keep him in line by shock treatment, but this only keeps him subdued for short periods of time. However, he finds a way to calm his inner demons and this is through an electric guitar, and so Dragon Eye Morrison, Asano Tadanobom is born!!

This movie is quite odd. It is in black and white which makes it feel quite gritty and low budget, but it does make the film's atmosphere quite striking especially when Morrison's anger builds up to overflowing. There is very little dialog and most of the film is spent watching Morrison hunt for lizards. His profession is hunting for lost lizards. However, the scenes in which he fights his arch enemy, Thundrerbolt Buddha, are quite well done. This is a fun film for a bit of mindless entertainment. It should be noted that Asano is in a band with the director Ishii and he also did the calligraphy for the film.

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.

Waauu... you gotta love this visual stunning,loud and berserk jewel of a movie. Sogo Ishii has created a masterpiece with obviosly influences from

Shinya Tsukamoto's "Tetsuo" spiced with a bit of "Wild Zero"

Tadanobu Asano last seen in "ichi the killer". plays the hero "Dragon eye morrison", a punk with a mad history of violence.He was heavily overdosed with electro-shock therapy throughout most of his life to try and eliminate his over-agressive kickass animalistic tendencies,which has now left him with a charged 80,000 volts of electricity body!! And when he gets p***ed... His only outlets for his violent frustrations are his guitar..

Masatoshi Nagase is the villain "Thundebolt Buddha"who as a kid was struck by lightning whilst climbing a pylon... He got charged up with 20 million volts of electricity,and half of his body is now encased in gold/metal to earth him. For some reason "Thundebolt Buddha" decides to pick a fight with

"Dragon eye morrison" and starts winding him up to the max of the voltmeter, wich leads to the big clash of electric power on top of tokyo. Electric Dragon 80.000 V is a hillarious,intense very loud and visually flawless piece of work.And it seems theese two guys are tailermade for the role's....It comes highly recommended and in my opinion an instant modern cult classic!

This would be the perfect companion piece for Tetsuo the Iron Man. Sharp, over the top, and rather fierce lil' film that'll have you bugged out all the way till its conclusion. Though its only an hour long, the director packed in so much detail(including a gangster with a finger spinning phone/gun, missing lizard posters, an electric mattress, a supercharged guitar and more), humor and backstory that it seems as if the film is much longer but this certainly isn't a bad thing at all. One hour is more than enough and the filmmakers knew this instead of taking two hours to set everything up. This film is like an electrical surge to the senses. Like watching a car wreck but in slow motion. Hard, pounding music, crazy narration, sharp cinematography and an excellent use of the black, grey, silver, and white color tones only adds to the furious pace of the film. Not to mention some very funny performances by our two leads/challengers- a violence prone, guitar shredding lizard detective(imagine a Japanese Ace Ventura), and an electronic peeping tom/hitman/technogadget geek with split personalites(and half a metal mask). But, what makes these characters very cool- A shared love of electricity and an ability to conduct and harness it to use as they wish. This film is like a slow burn with two very volatile opponents slowly but surely heading on a crash course with each other. A very very very fun, funny and entertaining film. Highly recommended. 10/10