Burst City

After being possibly overly harsh on one of Gakuryū Ishii's other pictures, I thought I'd reassess his work by giving another one of his films a try and I'm glad I did. Burst City is and early entry into Japan's cyberpunk movement, the emphasis more so on punk here, and it is every bit as insane as you'd hope. Pure visual vomit covers the screen from the opening minute, never relenting as it shows an uprising against fascists through 30 minute long battles and musical vignettes. The set design is consistently impressive and you can see the influence upon directors such as Tsukamoto sprinkled throughout. A pure feast for anyone who loves punk and weird Japanese cinema.