Kuruizaki sanda rodo

Firstly we have to realise how young Gakuryû Ishii was when he Directed this film. He was just 23. Straight out of film school. His third full feature-length movie.

It's got 0 CGI. It's got a lot of action. A LOAD of shaky Kinji Fukasaku-style action camera shots. Lots of biker-gang brawls.

This is a very early adaptation of a manga comic book. It's also way before the boom of the Japanese straight-to-video market and just out of the period of intense yakuza movies from the 1970's.

The 1970's was the golden years for the Japanese cinema aficionado. However in the 1980's there was the start of a major decline of J-Cinema.

It was also hugely expensive for a broke director with no financing to create a movie. His 'Reservoir Dogs'! The gangland action is huge. The rage and the beauty of street violence is encapsulated so well.

Lots of dangerous driving. Lots of fun action sequences. Characters with real yakuza attitudes. Gang warfare for the biker clans. The characters are very unique. Just wait for the guy with a Nintendo controller attached to his head. I laughed out oud properly when I saw that.

This is pure popcorn cinema with an audacious punk-rock soundtrack. He couldn't get the music rights for bands like the Clash so he had to pick small Japanese punk bands instead. This made it more rewarding for me and much more authentic.

With the rebel yell and the punch of the gas you'll go long into the night with this great movie. Top draw.