Electric Dragon 80000v

HE IS THE MAN! And that goes for Sogo Ishii as well. Shot in stunning Black and White and with a soundtrack that will blow you through the back wall of your viewing area, the Electric Dragon rears back and roars for 55 minutes. A bold experiment in rock and roll storytelling, the ever interesting Ishii pulls every trick in the book to keep the viewer engaged in his tale of a boy and his guitar.

Beginning with the awakening of a dragon in a young boys soul as he is electrocuted...we follow this boy as he learns to fight, to rage and to release the power built up in him. But the thing that saves him is his guitar. After learning to control himself, our hero Dragon Eye Morrison has found some peace as a reptile hunter. An odd vocation as he lives in the densely packed city...

But he loves his lizards. Wait....oh my GOD.

HERE COMES THE CHALLENGER!

The enigmatic Thunderbolt Buddah has decided to test the mettle of the Dragon..using his high tech trickery and powerful current, he will root him out. Thunderbolt does seem a little edgy as his near robotic side seems to war with his flesh. When he figures out where and how to hurt Dragon Eye, he brings it all to an explosive climax that will leave one man disappatied-so much static in the wind.

Ishii balances his thin narrative on his pinky finger, and drenches the image with dense wires, strange actions (watching Electric Dragon Morrison hunt lizards in the sewer?), cellphone slinging baddies who need to be beaten down by a Buddah, and lizard eyes. Melded with a soundtrack from Mach 1.67 and Hiroyuki Onagawa, the two elements synch up to keep the viewer off balance, and smiling at the sense of fun obvious in the work of everyone involved. The players are great, especially Asano Tadanobu, selling you on their pain and passion with an ease that doesn't come across in many films. When Dragon plays his guitar you feel it while your ears bleed. Also, listen for ProWrestling and Pancrase Fighting legend Masakatsu Funaki as the voice of the Narrator...

Hell, I'd venture you'll need a guitar after watching this film....

Sogo Ishii continues his reign as lord of the strange (and his work for Einstürzende Neubauten is still unsurpassed in the history of industrial music filmmaking). I hope that some forward thinking american distributor would pick this up, perhaps coupled with films like Half Human...I know that any cult fan would NEED that on the shelf. To date, Angel Dust (a wholly different, yet very satisfying experience) is the way most US fans know this filmmaker. I think they would really like the wild side of Sogo Ishii.

Highest marks for Japanese Pop Culture fans-forget Wild Zero, this is Rock and Roll filmmaking! And it's also a Rock and Roll DVD, a true special edition. Loaded with behind the scenes info, music videos, information, and premiere footage. Sadly, none of this is subtitled, but you can't go wrong with the music videos and the storyboards are extremely interesting to say the least. Released by Pioneer Japan-you couldn't ask for more-and it has my favorite menu screens to date.

So don't just sit there, go find a copy of this disc..right now...and don't tell your neighbors what's coming until things start exploding!

GUITAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!