Toronto: Electric Dragon 80,000V

[Jasper Sharp]

This was shown at Rotterdam alongside Sogo Ishii's other screening for this 
year, GOJOE. If you haven't seen it in Japan, its down to the fact that the 
film is only 50 minutes long, so I'm not too sure in what format this will 
be distributed. Mr Ishii didn't seem to know  either when we interviewed him 
for Midnight Eye - the interview has yet to go up on site, but you'll be 
able to get the full lowdown on the director's career and a review of the 
film sometime within the next few weeks.
It's an absolute knockout film, anyway, and damn loud! Apparently the sound 
editing took up far more time than the actual visuals, which are pretty 
slick in themselves.
I don't think I can actually describe the film any better than it being the 
equivalent of having 80,000 V run through the basal ganglia for 50 minutes. 
Unforgettable, though I'd wish Rotterdam had treated us to a 12minute 
Shiatsu Massage from Mr Ishii after, rather than before the screening...


Midnight Eye - japan_cult_cinema
www.midnighteye.com




>From: "Don Brown" <the8thsamurai at hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>Subject: Re: Toronto line-up so far
>Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2001 02:42:59 -0000
>
>No, I meant Miike's film called "Audition", and its climax which explores
>fascinating new directions in podiatry.
>Koroshiya No. 1 sounds interesting, without knowing a lot about it(?).
>I've heard it sticks fairly closely to its manga origins, but then again
>Miike's work has often been described as steeped in manga aesthetics.
>Anyone caught his zombie musical yet?
>So you've seen Koroshiya No. 1, and now my friend back home in New Zealand
>has just seen Ishii Sogo's "Electric Dragon 80000" at the Auckland
>International Film Festival.  And here I am in Osaka, having seen neither
>of them.  Funny, for some reason I thought being in Japan would make it
>easier for me to see Japanese movies.  Not necessarily the case.
>Opinions on "Electric Dragon", anybody?
>Don Brown
>
>>From: "Julien Seveon" <js97 at hotmail.com>
>>Reply-To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>>To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>>Subject: Re: Toronto line-up so far
>>Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2001 00:15:11
>>
>>I'm not sure, but are you talking about the "new" Miike film, Ichi
>>The
>>Killer ? I've seen it two weeks ago and must admit that the level of
>>violence is indeed pretty high. At first the film rather look as a
>>very dark
>>comedy than a straight nasty violent film - although the gore scenes
>>are
>>only attended for strong at heart viewers ! But, after a while, the
>>violence
>>really get to me and by the end I was really feeling bad. I don't
>>want to
>>say too much about it, in order not to give up any surprise, but the
>>final
>>scenes were just too much for me. Did I like the movie ? I'm not
>>sure
>>exactly what to think of it. If you're looking for a good shocker
>>then Ichi
>>is a film you don't want to miss. Otherwise most people would
>>probably want
>>to stay away from it.
>>In any case Miike is definitly the most surprising director I've
>>ever seen !
>>
>>Julien S?v?on
>
>_________________________________________________________________________
>Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.
>


_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.