Electric Dragon 80000V

[Don Brown]

I made it along to the opening of Ishii Sogo's newie "Electric Dragon 
80000V" in Osaka yesterday.  To make extra sure I got a good seat, I 
arrived at the theatre a good hour and a quarter before the screening 
started, but there were already about thirty people waiting in the foyer to 
be let into the tiny 70-seater.  
  But it was well worth the wait.  There was a sense of fun inherent in the 
film that you don't often encounter, and yet it avoided becoming some kind 
of self-absorbed in-joke made by the director and his mates to amuse 
themselves.  It's loud, obnoxious, and is obviously a rather 
"autobiographical"(?) work.  It recaptures some of that punk quality that 
was present in Sogo's films before he made his lengthy sabbatical from 
feature films in the late 80's and early 90's.  It's undoubtedly a dumb 
movie, of the disengage-brain-at-the-door variety, but it does have one of 
its own (well hidden).  I liked it a lot.
  There was another long queue for the next screening too.  Many were young 
girls who were obviously there to see Asano, and some of the guys looked 
like they had shelled out for a ticket just to get their hands on the 
limited edition Micro Man figures made especially for the film.  I admit to 
being sucked in and buying a set for myself, only to realise that they were 
actually quite naff.  Oh well.  
  As an Ishii fan, I think I enjoyed this film more than Gojoe.  Not that 
Gojoe's a bad movie (far from it), but something about Electric Dragon was 
more satisfying.  
  I would have loved to have done the subtitles for this one - there's 
hardly any dialogue, and what's there is pretty funny.  You could probably 
get away with watching this one without subtitles, even if you don't 
understand Japanese.
Don Brown

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