Electric Dragon 80.000 V (2001)

A violent, guitar-playing, electrically charged boxer faces off against an electronic wizard half-merged with a metallic Buddha.

Director:

Gakuryû Ishii (as Sogo Ishii)

Writer:

Gakuryû Ishii (as Sogo Ishii)

Stars:

Yoshiki Arizono, Tadanobu Asano, Masakatsu Funaki

Cast

Credited cast:
Yoshiki Arizono	...	Villain A
Tadanobu Asano	...	Dragon Eye Morrison
Masakatsu Funaki	...	Narrator (voice)
Masatoshi Nagase	...	Thunderbolt Buddha

Storyline

A young boy gets jolted with electricity as he's climbing a tall cable pylon. As he gets older, he experiences intense fits of violence in which bolts of electricity burt from his fists. Elsewhere in Tokyo, there is an electronics wizard who also happens to be a vigilante with a taste for electric weapons. When the pair catch each other's attention, the result is a battle that will light up the city.

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Plot Keywords:

supernatural power | electricity | weapon | violence | light | 

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Genres:

Action | Fantasy | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

7 March 2002 (Germany)

Also Known As:

80.000 voltos elektromos sárkány

Company Credits

Production Co:

Suncent CinemaWorks, Taki Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

55 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Black and White

Did You Know?

Quotes

Narrator: The dragon. A mythological creature? No. It exists -- inside us.

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Connections

References Altered States (1980)

User Reviews

Dragon Ball Ishii!

With "Electric Dragon 80.000V", director Sogo Ishii brings homage to ... himself, really! Who else could he pay tribute to, because HE is the one man who single-handedly started the wild and anarchist Japanese punk-cinema and, even though other directors may have had a lot more success with it (for example Shinya Tsukamoto with "Tetsuo"), Ishii is and will always remain the pioneer of punk. That being said, "ED8kV" is an extremely weird accomplishment and it's probably the type of movie that spontaneously causes people to suffer from epilepsy & twitching. It feels like a 55 minutes long industrial videoclip, with chaotic camera movements, extremely loud noises and the most unique use of black and white photography you'll ever see. Ishii also put quite a bit of wicked imagination into the script, as he revolves his film on an unorthodox type of super-hero named Dragon Eye Morrison. The young punker-protagonist survived a massive electro-shock as a kid, but the accident somehow sparked severe aggression and powers. He sleeps with chains around his wrists and boisterously plays on his electric guitar to control the anger. Eventually, he's allowed to let out all his furious anger in a battle against his oddly masked nemesis Thunderbolt Buddha. Crazy film, a lot less nightmarish than the aforementioned "Tetsuo", but definitely an unforgettable visual attack on pretty much all your senses. Ishii's direction feels genuinely hostile and aggressive, as if he wanted to take revenge on big studios and meddlesome producers who always interfered with his personal visions and ideas, resulting in final cuts the director didn't even like. "Burst City" is the ideal example of that. As said, the film is only 55 minutes long, but personally I thought it was more than long enough! A couple of minutes extra and I probably would have started hallucinating about talking lizards and malicious Buddha's myself. And my tympanum membranes probably wouldn't have survived a longer version, neither.