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Shozin Fukui is one of Japan's hidden cyberpunk talents. After a period of experimentation that resulted in three short films, he burst onto the scene with his first full-length feature film: 964 Pinocchio. It's not what you call a very accessible film, probably one of the most relentless films I know, but cyberpunk fans really owe it to themselves to check it out as it takes the whole punk atmosphere to a new level.When people are talking about Japanese cyberpunk (not your everyday conversation topic, but still) the conversation inevitably centers around Shinya Tsukamto (Tetsuo, Vital, Tetsuo: Bullet Man, Nightmare Detective 2 and Sogo Ishii (Dead End Run, Kyoshin, Electric Dragon 80000V, August In The Water). Dig any deeper and you're likely to encounter Fukui's...

By now you probably should've realized Sogo Ishii (August In The Water, Electric Dragon 80.000V, Kyoshin) is set firmly on my shortlist of favorite directors. I appreciate his punk approach to cinema, but he also has a softer side he's not afraid of showing. Dead End Run combines both aspects of Ishii's work and blends them into an explosive rush of beauty and style. The result is a 60 minute anthology film featuring three phenomenal shorts. Dead End Run is Ishii's "gone-digital film". Like many others he started experimenting with digital film in the early 2000's. While the image quality may be a bit grainy at times, it's clear that mobility and editing benefit a lot from the digital approach. Bluntly said, Dead End Run...

The films of Sogo Ishii (Gojoe, Electric Dragon 80000v) can be quite a handful to track down, but if you are aiming to see the full version of Kyoshin (Mirrored Mind) you better get ready for some serious digging. Then again, once you succeed in tracking it down you're all set to uncover one of Ishii's most impressive and engaging films to date. Kyoshin is Sogo Isii's Vital and then some, so brace yourself for some prime punk-goes-bio action. I was lucky enough to catch the full version of this film at the now-gone Dejima festival in Amsterdam a couple of years ago. A shorter version of Kyoshin appeared on a Korean short collection DVD (Jeonju Digital Project Box) which is almost impossible to find...

Electric Dragon 80000V belongs on the list of films that created a small yet fanatic niche for Japanese movies at the start of this millennium. It's guerrilla film making at its craziest, bringing some of the brightest talents of modern Japanese cinema together to create something highly unique. Definitely not a film for everyone, but if you've got the least bit interest in Japanese punk cinema, you simply cannot miss out on this one. Sogo Ishii (August In The Water, Dead End Run, Kyoshin) made quite a ripple in the international (underground) film scene with this film, especially when he literally blew the speakers at a high-profile film fest (I believe it was Rotterdam) when showing his film there. Legend goes that Ishii himself kept...

Things have gone rather quiet around director Sogo Ishii. His latest film dates from 2005 and didn't exactly enjoy a broad release (still eagerly waiting for the DVD myself). A terrible shame, though it does give one the chance to catch up on some of his older, lesser known films. And so I sat down in front of August In The Water, one of the hidden gems, yet to be discovered even by most fans.

Even more so than Shinya Tsukamoto, Sogo Ishii is the godfather of Japanese punk cinema. Crazy Thunder Road and Burst City put punk on the map a decade before Tsukamoto could even get started on Tetsuo. But Ishii also has a softer streak, put to maximum effect in Kysohin, his latest film. An ode to nature and humanity, far away from all the grit, dirt and noise so often featured in his films. Kyoshin seemed to...