Electric Dragon 80000V
Don Brown
the8thsamurai at hotmail.com
Mon Aug 20 21:01:41 EDT 2001
>I appreciate Don Brown's raising of Electric Dragon as a topic on the list
(refreshing
>after all the 'can you help me find this?' postings). But I would like to
challenge the
>implicit agreement he seeks (via his 'undoubtedly') in calling this a dumb
film. I'd like
>to know what Don says about the 'well hidden' brain of this film; perhaps
we aren't be in
>such disagreement.
Hi Patrick. Yeesh, you certainly took me to task. Well, my use of the
words "undoubtedly" and "dumb" were in no way intended to be dismissive of
the film. I suppose I was clumsily trying to refer to the overwhelming
sense of fun inherent in Electric Dragon. The superhero elements, the
music from Ishii's band, the sparse but hyperbolic "dialogue", Nagase and
Asano doing overtime away from the set of Gojoe and apparently enjoying it.
In comparison with Ishii's other works, it doesn't have quite the
metaphysical depth and exploration of character and instead harks back to
the punkish energy of "Thunder Road" and his concert films, which appears
to have been the director's intention. In this way, I felt Electric Dragon
was a much more accessible work than "Angel Dust" or "August In The Water",
because of its reliance on sound and visuals. It lacks narrative depth,
but compensates for it with its barrage of sensory stimulation. That's a
rather convoluted explanation of the "well-hidden brain" comment.
I guess fundamentally we're not really in disagreement, as we both
enjoyed the film. I hope everyone else gets a chance to see it.
Don Brown
p.s.The soundtrack by Mach 1.67 is available on CD in Japan.
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