Movie Details
| Title: | Crazy Thunder Road | |
| Director: | Sogo Ishii | |
| Year: | 1980 | |
| Genre: | Biker | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 09.23.07 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 09.23.07 | Alamo South Lamar | This Screening is part of event: FantasticFest 2007 An ultra-rare screening (Apparently it's played in LA once and that's it for the country ever) of this Japanese punk biker movie, the student film from Sogo Ishii. I think it might have something to do with one gang fighting with another, but there's a facist para-military gay guy that keeps popping up and about halfway through the picture the plot all but disappears until all of a sudden one of the guys has sharpened hooks for a hand and wants to kill everybody in his town with the help of an arms dealer and a pre-pubescent drug pusher. So I never really knew quite what was going on, but I didn't let that stop me from enjoying the movie. There's a real energy to the camerawork that makes perfect sense as a student film. Ishii's trying all kinds of stuff and really playing around and the movie has an energy that reminded me a bit of the French New Wave films, Shoot the Piano Player in particular due to its added similarlity of taking a distinctly American genre and churning it through the inevitable translation to another. I felt like the notion of making a "biker" film filtered down to each individual shot. There were so many that just showed a large group of guys hanging out and being bikerly, even some insert shots of guys just sitting there looking tough or like they don't care. Then the costumes and hair and all the usual stuff on top of course and the requisite "zone out" segment of the film where logic and plot take a coffee break and the actors are left to play around. And then at the end, it's like I'm watching Mad Max meets The Exterminator as the dude guns down everybody on screen wearing his cool black outfit with the shoulder pads and opaque black goggles and helmet. excitemet! The music was also great. Punky bikery songs that I've never heard of because they're Japanese but no less rowdy and bassliney. Really good stuff. Glad I got to see this one. |
