Erekutorikku Doragon 80000 V

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!

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.

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.

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

Electric Dragon 80.000V is a striking black-and-white raunch through Tokyo, with an extremely simple plot line to accentuate the force of the film. It's about a troubled man who was shocked by high voltage wires when he was young. When his anger rises, he starts releasing electricity uncontrollably. The only thing able to calm him down is his... electric guitar.

The director, Sogo Ishii, is well known for his high-energy pieces, and began his career well before current highly regarded directors such as Takashi Miike and Shinya Tsukamoto, and produced bloody critiques on society even before Shinya reached for his first drill. Most notably, Sogo Ishii worked with Einsturzende Neubauten to produce Half Man, part documentary, part music video, and very good.

Electric Dragon 80.000V doesn't let you go, even when you're following in the footsteps of the main lead as he trawls through endless alleyways with pounding music in the background. Part of that is because of Tadanobu Asano, the relentlessly talented actor who has singlehandedly created a new sort of stardom in Japan, and it's no surprise he is called their Johnny Depp. The mastery over the direction is breathtaking - left deliberately rough to jar your senses, to neither keep you on the edge of the seat nor let you relax, you are driven to contemplate what exactly this is all about. The movie's fun to watch too!

The storyline reaches its conclusion none too soon, and none too late either. At just over 60 minutes, you get the feeling that there's going to be more of these, and you would be right. A sequel was produced which I'm dying to see.