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P. P. Rider

Original title: Shonben raidâ
  • 1983
  • 1h 58m
IMDb RATING
6.7/10
117
YOUR RATING
P. P. Rider (1983)
AdventureComedyDrama

Three high-school students tangle with the Yakuza and the police as they set out in search of the class bully, who has been kidnapped.Three high-school students tangle with the Yakuza and the police as they set out in search of the class bully, who has been kidnapped.Three high-school students tangle with the Yakuza and the police as they set out in search of the class bully, who has been kidnapped.

  • Director
    • Shinji Sômai
  • Writers
    • Takuya Nishioka
    • Chieko Schrader
    • Leonard Schrader
  • Stars
    • Tatsuya Fuji
    • Michiko Kawai
    • Masatoshi Nagase
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    6.7/10
    117
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Shinji Sômai
    • Writers
      • Takuya Nishioka
      • Chieko Schrader
      • Leonard Schrader
    • Stars
      • Tatsuya Fuji
      • Michiko Kawai
      • Masatoshi Nagase
    • 1User review
    • 3Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win

    Photos

    Michiko Kawai, Masatoshi Nagase, and Shinobu Sakagami in P. P. Rider (1983)
    Michiko Kawai, Masatoshi Nagase, Shinobu Sakagami, Shinji Sômai, and Yoshikazu Suzuki in P. P. Rider (1983)
    Add photo

    Top cast

    Edit
    Tatsuya Fuji
    Tatsuya Fuji
    • Gombei
    Michiko Kawai
    • Michiko 'Bruce' Kawai
    Masatoshi Nagase
    Masatoshi Nagase
    • Jo 'Jojo' Kawasaki
    Shinobu Sakagami
    • Shôji 'Jishô' Nakamura
    Mitsuko Baishô
    • Ikuko
    Hideko Hara
    • Teacher Arare
    Masatô Ibu
    Masatô Ibu
    • Police Officer Tanaka
    Ryô Kinomoto
    • Masa
    Takehiko Maeda
    • Nobunaga's Dad
    Hiroaki Murakami
    • Kinta
    Yoshikazu Suzuki
    • Nobunaga Deguchi
    Casey Takamine
    • Moneylender
    • (as Kêshî Takamine)
    Minori Terada
    • Kimura
    Ichirô Zaitsu
    • Shimada
    • Director
      • Shinji Sômai
    • Writers
      • Takuya Nishioka
      • Chieko Schrader
      • Leonard Schrader
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    User reviews1

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    10/10
    Amazing film full of fun and energy
    P. P. Rider is even better than his first two films which I felt were already masterfully executed. The pace is brisker. The shots tighter and more ballet like, cycling across multiple crammed compositions in almost every single scene, with several sequences you must see to believe. Yet it's always hitting storytelling or emotional beats.

    I love the sheer irreverence here, and how he crosses humanism with formalism, while letting it function through performance as a theater. Every interest he has on screen reads for us. You almost don't want to imagine cinema any other way. That is the mark of a director who reinvents the language.

    The film is such a romp. I loved the fireworks out the window in the samurai sword bit, and how the director does not even try to keep the projection fixed. This kind of creative anarchy shows a total lack of pretentiousness. The boy band number--really by that point it is just an exercise of how far he and the performers can take a scene. Because unbroken scenes become feats. Those funny police men. And then this idea of this monster of a bully completely humiliated across its entire running time is a kind of hilarious revenge for us.

    I have been on a French New Wave kick before these and this is like Truffaut times five. This just takes all that energy, playfulness and style way farther, and how impossible it does this through the very opposite style of the fantastical, through a gritty realism.

    If there is a criticism it is that the Kurosawa-like mania of the piece may take away from the peaks of his earlier slowburns, and the soul of them. I came away from his first two films far more moved. But gradually I see an artist in Somai who is a master, restlessly trying to upstage himself and constantly coming up big.
    helpful•2
    0
    • ReadingFilm
    • Nov 8, 2022

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • February 11, 1983 (Japan)
    • Country of origin
      • Japan
    • Language
      • Japanese
    • Also known as
      • ションベン・ライダー
    • Production company
      • Kitty Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 58 minutes
    • Color
      • Color

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