Crazy Thunder Road

Crazy Thunder Road is a great movie title. That needs to be said, first and foremost.

It's all about presenting a certain vibe more than it's about telling a story, and it convey a punk/rebellious feeling well. That's enough to sustain it for a while, but certainly not the entirety of the Crazy Thunder Road's duration. Either it ran out of steam, or it just lost me, but either way, it started to feel a bit tedious after some time (and a good amount of time before it ended).

Still, this loosely plotted almost dystopian story about young gang members and their chaotic lives had me tor a while, and for the parts that were good and kind of engaging, I guess I can kind of understand the cult appeal. And it definitely hits the beats and has the feel you'd expect from Gakuryû Ishii. He's a distinctive filmmaker who makes a certain kind of film extremely well.

That style was more enjoyable and consistently entertaining in some of the other films I've seen from him, but it works enough here to make this one decent overall. It's got some highs in the first half or so, and a few more lows in the second half. I think it does what it set out to do, but I also wish it aspired to do a little bit more.

"Crazy Thunder Road" is quite a rarity for avid cult-cinema purchasers to come across! Sogo Ishii directed it (easily one of the influential Asian directors of the previous century) and, if I'm not mistaken, it's the ONLY Japanese film revolving on crazy bikers and violent gang wars. The basic premise of this film is extremely reminiscent to Walter Hill's classic "The Warriors", but the elaboration is in Ishii's very own personalized style, meaning an overload of hectic camera-work and editing, loads of boisterous punk music and demented characters that could have come straight out of a comic book franchise. When the leader of the once-notorious biker gang of Tokyo falls in love with a barmaid and quickly loses his rebellious ideals, the rest of the gang feels betrayed. Especially the reputedly troubled kid Ken revolts against his former friend and encourages the other members to join him in forming an entirely new and much "meaner" gang. The hostile attitude of the new gang causes the other gangs to declare war, and since Ken nearly isn't powerful enough to defend himself against the others, he needs to revert to the old leader for help. "Crazy Thunder Road" is a bizarrely compelling film with a lot of action and a unique atmosphere. Even more than his leather jacket-wearing biker characters, Sogo Ishii shamelessly revolts against society by depicting the big city suburbs as manic & ominous places where only scum lives. The film is incredibly fast-paced and chaotic; so don't be surprised when sometimes the continuity isn't perfect or major plot holes appear in the storyline. At one point, an executed gang member even comes back to life and joins his pals again. Especially bearing in mind "Crazy Thunder Road" was the graduation film-school project of 20-year-old student, it's an impressive effort to say the least.

This film essentially begins with members of a Japanese motorcycle gang known as the Maboroshi Kamikazes having to discuss their future. The current leader named "Ken" (Koji Nanjo) has matured and wants to settle down with his girlfriend "Noriko" (Michiko Kitahara) and start a new life. At the same time, he still feels an allegiance with his Maboroshi brethren and, having their best interests at heart, advises them to join an alliance with some of their rivals to prevent needless bloodshed. Unfortunately, this doesn't sit well with one of his hot-headed lieutenants named "Jin" (Tatsuo Yamada) who considers compromise to be the same as weakness and, being the loudest voice in the room, manages to convince a few of his weak-minded colleagues to follow him. The problem, however, is that the other motorcycle gangs, most notably one known as the Dokuro Skulls, sense how divided the Maboroshi Kamikazes have become and want to finish them off--once and for all. Likewise, a right-wing paramilitary organization led by a man named "Tadashi" (Hiroshi Kaiya) also realizes this and seeks to recruit some of these young men to his cause as well--and it's now up to Jin to make the best decision for his gang. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was an interesting film which combined elements of a typical biker setting with punk nihilism to reasonably good effect. Where it fails, to some extent, is toward the end in which it takes a rather bizarre turn that leads it completely off the rails. At least, that is how it seemed to me. Even so, I certainly don't consider this to be a bad film necessarily, and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Often hailed as Japan's Mad Max, Crazy Thunder Road becomes all the more impressive the more you learn about its production. Being a graduation project by director Gakuryû Ishii, it may be a narrative mess but the highly experimental style and limitless rockabilly energy produced a movie that radiates of pure aggression. There's a rough and ready charm to the effects and Kinji Fukasaku-influenced action, often drawing comparisons to Fukasaku's own anti-establishment protagonists with added grunge, grim and neon lights. The soundtrack is honestly my favourite part of the film, using songs by Japanese bands of the time in a near musical sense, it's combined with frantic editing and heightened emotions that immerse you completely within its context. Fast-paced, quick-witted and brilliantly stylised Crazy Thunder Road points toward a new style of genre filmmaking even if that direction is somewhat confused in execution.

Firstly we have to realise how young Gakuryû Ishii was when he Directed this film. He was just 23. Straight out of film school. His third full feature-length movie.

It's got 0 CGI. It's got a lot of action. A LOAD of shaky Kinji Fukasaku-style action camera shots. Lots of biker-gang brawls.

This is a very early adaptation of a manga comic book. It's also way before the boom of the Japanese straight-to-video market and just out of the period of intense yakuza movies from the 1970's.

The 1970's was the golden years for the Japanese cinema aficionado. However in the 1980's there was the start of a major decline of J-Cinema.

It was also hugely expensive for a broke director with no financing to create a movie. His 'Reservoir Dogs'! The gangland action is huge. The rage and the beauty of street violence is encapsulated so well.

Lots of dangerous driving. Lots of fun action sequences. Characters with real yakuza attitudes. Gang warfare for the biker clans. The characters are very unique. Just wait for the guy with a Nintendo controller attached to his head. I laughed out oud properly when I saw that.

This is pure popcorn cinema with an audacious punk-rock soundtrack. He couldn't get the music rights for bands like the Clash so he had to pick small Japanese punk bands instead. This made it more rewarding for me and much more authentic.

With the rebel yell and the punch of the gas you'll go long into the night with this great movie. Top draw.