Bullets 'n' Babes

The usual thing; comments, questions, whatever.

I think someone here has seen The Crazy Family at least. I'll be posting some mini reviews of some films myself some day.

Seems like Sogo Ishii is hitting the R2J dvd again. The films from the Sogo Ishii – Punk Years box set are now getting individual releases (although some are double packs, which is because some of the movies are actually short films). Interestingly, also included are some films from the second box set, but not all. Missing are at least Tokyo Blood and Mirrored Mind. The Crazy Family, Dumb Numb DVD Live Friction, which were also in the Box Set 2, have been released individually already before.

Coming in March 2009

Panic in High School (1976) / Isolation of 1 Divided by 880 000 (1977)


Attack: Hakata Street Gang (1978)


Crazy Thunder Road (1980)


Crazy Thunder Road (1980) – Collector’s Edition


Shuffle (1981)


Asia Strikes Back: Remix Version (1983 / 2005) / The Master of Shiatsu (1989)


August in the Water (1985)

I'm dying to see "Crazy Thunder Road" and "August in the Water", but I guess these releases won't have subtitles, right? Anyway, but I love "The Crazy Family". There's a german release available called "Die Familie mit dem umgekehrten Düsenantrieb" ("The Family with the reversed Jet-Propulsion"), which is a reference to an historic event where a pilot of a passanger plane suddenly activated thrust-reversal in mid-air, thus causing a catastophic crash. In Japanese language this expression became an idiom for someone going completely bananas all of a sudden. Likewise, the movie itself is pure anarchic fun.

No subs of course. A custom scrip is available, though. And it's a great film.

Also do note that generally speaking Ishii doesn't believe in dialogue. For example Shuffle features an average of 2.5 lines of dialogue per minute. Asia Strikes Back is supposed to be completely free of dialogue, only english language text screens. I'll start reviewing these films soon.

You can find a bit more info about the Crazy Thunder Road SE in the link below. The street price is set around 9000 yen...

http://www.ishiisogo.com/blog/topics.cgi

Sogo Ishii – Punk Years 1976-1983 (R2J 7 Disc Box Set)



Panic In High School (1976)
Isolation Of 1 Divided by 880 000 (1977)
Attack! Hakata Street Gangs (1978)
Crazy Thunder Road (1980)
Shuffle (1981)
Asia Strikes Back: Remix Live Version (1983 / 2005)
+ Bonus Disc (interviews, featurettes, live concert etc.) (195 min)
+ Asia Strikes Back Original Soundtrack CD
+ 160 page booklet
+ Film cell

Also notice that each dvd features extras, such as commentaries, interviews, outtakes etc.

There’s an excellent dvd review at asiandvdguide, so you can refer to that as far as pictures of the set and extras go. All I can say is that this a landmark release in dvd history. I wonder if any other filmmaker has ever received such loving treatment on dvd.

http://adg.invisionzone.com/index.php?s ... 03&hl=sogo

What I will do is post my thoughts of the films, with some screencaptures.

Panic in High School (1976)

Punk director Sogo Ishii’s first film is an 8mm short clocking at 16 minutes. A student goes insane and comes to school with a shotgun. Ishii shows the development of the situation and the arrival of police, but doesn’t include characterization. The almost complete lack of dialogue further supports the ”news report” type of feeling.Technically the pic is low grade, but packs a lot of interest value as the starting point of one of Japan’s most remarkable directors. Ishii was 19 years old when he directed this film. He later remade the story into a feature length film in 1978 with Yukihiro Sawada, under Nikkatsu’s finance.

Isolation of 1 Divided by 880 000 (1977)

In his second film Sogo Ishii triples the length (43 min) but also improves quality on several areas. The biggest surprise, however, is Johann Sebastian Bach, who finds his way into the speakers time after time and refuses to make way for the punk mastro’s more typical tunes. But Ishii has ear for classical too, as he syncs music with the visuals while following a crippled young man living alone in big city. At times it feels more of a collage of images than a traditional film, but it’s an impressive and rather beautiful piece nevertheless

Attack! Hakata Street Gangs (1978)

Gang war breaks out in the streets of Hakata in a feature length Sogo Ishii’s film that is more facinating in depicting its own time than as a story driven movie. The film doesn’t shine technically, but does offer an interesting, almost documentaristic view of a Japan that is not so often seen in movies. While realistic gang films are nothing new, directors like Kinji Fukasaku usually tell more cinematic stories set in higher levels of society. Ishii’s camera descends to the grassroot level and shows the small time street gangs that operate in the less wealthy neighborhoods in smaller cities far away from Tokyo or Osaka.

Crazy Thunder Road (1980)

A motorcycle gang is about to close down as the time of wild riders is considered to be over. But the young hothead Jin (Tatsuo Yamada) disagrees. He’s ready to fight the whole world alone. Sogo Ishii’s punk tuned love song for all the crazy bikers and rebels remains one of the key Japanese movies of the 80’s. Looking at the quality of the film as well as some action scenes that put bigger studios productions into shame, it’s almost impossible to belive this was a film course graduation work by Ishii. The Toei executives found Ishii’s 16 mm work impressive enough to blow it on 35 mm and give it a well deserved cinema run.

Shuffle (1981)

Sogo Ishii returns to short form with a 33 minute chase movie. A killer runs from the police, and the viewer runs with him. Especially the beginning can be a bit hard to endure as the camera is moving at the same speed as the actors. Some breaks are offered in form of flash back scenes. The 16 gone 35 mm visual output is mostly black and white, with the visuals corresponding to the characters’ physical state and feelings (the image getting more twisted and blurred as they get more exhausted). Not an easy film, but an interesting and at times very hard hitting experiment.

Asia Strikes Back: Remix Live Version (1983 / 2005)

Closer to a 30 minute music video than a movie, this Sogo Ishii film takes place in an underground military base where a small team of soldiers with psychic abilities continue their fight. Liking Asia Strikes Back depends almost entirely on the viewers musical preferences. Unfortunately I like neither the original soundtrack nor the 2005 remix live version. Nevertheless, once again it’s obvious Ishii is a follower of his own path and not quite like any other filmmaker. Notice that there’s no dialogue in the film, only on screen texts in English.

The 2nd box set is called 'Sogo Ishii – Psychedelic Years'


Crazy Family (1984)
Master of Shiatsu (1989)
Dumb Numb DVD Live Friction (1989)
Tokyo Blood (1991)
August in the Water (1995)
Mirrored Mind (2005)
+ Bonus Disc
+ Crazy Family soundtrack cd
+ 100 page booklet

Hopefully I’ll be reviewing this some day. Currently, however, I cannot afford to buy it.
2011 edit: bought it ages ago, but lack time to review it...

More interesting Ishii stuff:

HK Mania interview with Sogo Ishii
http://www.hkmania.com/from.php?fromurl ... iieng.html

Midnight Eye interview with Sogo Ishii
http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/sogo_ishii.shtml

Midnight Eye Sogo Ishii article
http://www.midnighteye.com/features/con ... shii.shtml

Sogo Ishii’s official website
http://www.ishiisogo.com/

Trailers for the box sets

Punk Years:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1qa5Y6BvkU

Psychedelic Years:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMWTisPZOTw

Panic in High School (1978)

Sogo Ishii was given a chance to remake his original student film as a feature length movie for Nikkatsu. No doubt it sounded like a good deal for both parties; a 21 year old director getting an experienced studio to back him up, and Nikkatsu, now mostly stuck with their pink film production, investing on a rising talent. But Ishii, who shot the film together with co-director Yukihiro Sawada, was not pleased with the results. Although the film does feature many reconizable scenes and elements Ishii’s input appears to have been toned down to some extent. The storyline of a student who goes mad and attacks his school also can’t quite carry a 94 minute film. However, a failure Panic in High School is not. The first and especially the last third are quite effective. And, unfortunately, the film has only become more timely 30 years after its release.

Pioneer's dvd features a nice anamorphic transfer. The first 20 minutes is interlaced, the rest is progressive. Extras are limited to booklet and trailer. The dvd is out of print, so you may need to use second hand retailers.

Burst City (1982)

Sogo Ishii and Toei first collaborated in 1980, when Toei distributed Ishii’s brilliant graduation work Crazy Thunder Road. Two years later the studio hired Ishii to make another film for them. What Ishii did, basically, was take the money and shoot a post apocalyptic, 2 hour punk rock concert. Traditional narrative is almost completely lost and rock, riots and real life bands take over. A hugely influential piece that no doubt features a lot to enjoy to those who share Ishii’s state of mind. To casual viewers, however, Ishii’s self-righteous freak show played in fast motion is likely to be an unbearable experience.

The caps below are from Discotek’s R1 release. The transfer looks very similar to the Toei disc reviewed at advdg. I’ve included a couple of comparison caps.

Electric Dragon 80 000 V (2001)

Sogo Ishii is from a distant planet located in another universe. Many of his films don’t follow any known patterns or rules. Electric Dragon 80 000 V stars Tadanobu Asano as an 80 000 volt dragon detective madman who encounters Thunderbolt Buddha (Masatoshi Nagase). Impressively shot in black and white – reminding Ishii’s 1981 film Shuffle – with music by Ishii and Asano’s noise band Mach 1.67, and a typical 50 minute running time. Works.

Caps from Discotek's R1 release. The LE comes with a soundtrack CD.

Poster for Panic in High School (1978)


and a VHS cover.


Panic in High School opened the same day as Toshiya Fujita's Kaerazaru hibi. A double feature?


Kaerazaru hibi


Panic in High School


More stills


If you want to own some of that stuff, head over to yahoo

Sogo Ishii is now Gakuryu Ishii
http://jfilmpowwow.blogspot.com/2010/02 ... kuryu.html

The official website has also been renamed:
http://www.ishiisogo-gakuryu.com/

Angel Dust (1994)

Sogo Ishii’s return to cinema screens after a 10 year break is a hugely over-rated psychological thriller. The serial killer chase is original but intentionally vague. Ishii invests in mystic atmosphere, dream-like scenes, and unexplained characters, to the extent of making the actual storyline and its pieces feel disconnected and meaningless. After keeping the audience guessing for nearly 2 hours the film arrives to a disappointing climax. What seems like a simple ending might reveal more layers in a closer look, but the pieces of the puzzle seem to exist mainly for playing with the viewer rather than creating a sensible entity, making it an unrewarding challenge. Ishii’s stylistic choices don’t always hit the target either; the music fails more often than not, and the main character’s fashion sense is a sad memory from the mid-90. The film’s unpredictability and occasional nice audio-visual touches nevertheless manage to keep the viewer slightly interested. Ishii followed Angel Dust with his youth oriented 1995 film August in the Water, which implemented some similar elements into a semi-apocalyptic new age story. The result was one of the decade’s best movies.

The R2J looks like a non-anamorphic transfer that just happens to be anamorphic... and I'm not talking about a good non-anamorphic transfer here. The detail is VHS level, and there's so much ghosting that even I could notice it and be distracted by it. Subtitled HK dvd exists, but it's apparently of terrible quality.

Ishii is back: Ikiteru Mono Wa Inai No Ka
- http://wildgrounds.com/2011/11/25/ikite ... i-is-back/

HungFist wrote:Ishii is back: Ikiteru Mono Wa Inai No Ka
- http://wildgrounds.com/2011/11/25/ikite ... i-is-back/

Ikiteru mono wa inai no ka review
http://pageofmadness.wordpress.com/2012 ... nai-no-ka/

Ironically enough, I just picked up Angel Dust on VHS a couple of weeks ago. Haven't watched t yet though.

Ikiteru mono wa inai no ka R2J 2012/09/21
- http://www.allcinema.net/prog/show_dvd. ... sid=846062

Note that UK's Third Window Films will also be releasing the film on DVD October 22nd, 2012
- http://thirdwindowfilms.com/films/isn039t-anyone-alive

I somehow managed to miss the film in cinema http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v716/ ... cepalm.gif

Is there a proper DVD release of Angel Dust? Particularly with English subs? I have a VHS release, that seriously can't be all there is!