Burst City (1982) User Reviews

Post-apoc punk wild crazy and weird

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 14 November 2020]

I don't know what was in the water, because the frenzy of 1979's Mad Max inspired imitators all over the world, from the Italian westerns with cars to the Filipino tricycle driving blasts of strangeness and, yes, this Japanese punk rock epic. This is one of the most frenetic and just plain loud movies I've ever seen, which made me fall in love with it right from the very first frame.

Whether its characters are rocking the stage, partying, fighting, getting wasted, hunting down a killer or battling any authority figure they can find, this is a film of noise, fury and high energy. It unites bikers, workers and punk as one to fight the Yakuza, which leads to the Battle Police shutting everything down.

Burst City has a soundtrack from all three of the major punk cities in Japan. The Stalin was from Tokyo, Machizo Machida was from Kansai, and The Roosters and the Rockers were from Kyushu. The cast and crew bonded by living on the post-apocalyptic set when they weren't shooting, like some end of the world squatters.

Shot on filthy 16 mm film, this movie stops and starts, changes speeds and amplifies the strangeness throughout. Director Gakuryu Ishii is often cited as being a major influence on Japan's cyberpunk culture with movies like Gojoe: Spirit War Chronicle and Electric Dragon 80.000 V, as well as music videos for The Roosters and Einstürzende Neubauten.

If you look closely, you can spot Japanese pro wrestling heel king Umanosuke Ueda, a bleach blonde heel who also shows up on Takeshi's Castle. He's one of the yakuza henchmen. If you're a fan of New Japan Pro Wrestling's Evil, you are watching the modern version of his character, which also inspired Mr. Gannosuke, Tatsutoshi Goto and Toru Yano.

This is 115 minutes of punk bands screaming*, motorcycles, fistfights, cops getting shotgun blasted and astounding fashion choices. It's non-stop imagery and sound. In my dreams of punk rock 1982 Tokyo, I imagine that everyone dressed and acted exactly like this film, racing dekotora trucks and chugging sake right out of the microwavable containers when they aren't plugging holes in their amps so they get even more distortion out of them.

This is one weird trip that you should totally take. Grab a helmet or something to restrain yourself, because this movie feels like it could give you whiplash.

*Becca: "Is this movie just an hour of Japanese people screaming?"

If you eat, drink, breathe, and live punk, this film is for you. For anyone else, take it or leave it.

[I_Ailurophile · 5/10 · 25 November 2023]

Sometimes pictures possess value beyond the story they tell, the themes they explore, or the people who are involved in making it, or how it was made. Sometimes there's an ephemeral quality to a production that makes it a snapshot in time, capturing or representative of a particular cultural moment, or a mood, or a look at something that thereafter ceased to exist in the same manner. It quite seems to me that viewed forty years on, 'Burst City' is a title that can be described in the latter terms more than the former - not exclusively, but with heavy predominance. There are aspects of this that are very appreciable in and of themselves, but at the same time, unless one has a major interest in the cultural moment being spotlighted, or was involved in its creation, it doesn't necessarily hold up in the same way that other films do years after their release.

To wit: in both Norimichi Kasamatsu's cinematography and the editing of filmmaker Gakuryu Ishii and co-editors Naoto Yamakawa and Junji Sakamoto, we see a wild, inventive freneticism that inherently adds some spice and vigor to the presentation. It's a style that would inform and be adopted by Shinya Tsukamoto within a few years, and perfected. Within these two hours we're also given a setting of sci-fi dystopia (although, it's not really sci-fi any more, is it), and a story of fights by ordinary people against corruption, oppression, and state violence. Alongside these aspects we're treated to outstanding art direction - and costume design, hair and makeup, and stunts and effects - that blend together punk aesthetics, urban sprawl and decay, industrial environments, and a certain post-apocalyptic madness. Of course, there's also the fact that various contemporary Japanese punk bands were involved in making this, and were centered in various capacities. Yet the latter is quite specifically the key to the whole production, isn't it? Between songs used on the soundtrack, performances rendered in a music video style that are woven into the active narrative, and performances that are allowed to transpire more akin to a straightforward concert film, punk music is the lifeblood of 'Burst City'; for as much as punk aesthetics and attitudes influences the craftsmanship and storytelling, the entire vibe can be neatly summed up as simply Punk.

There's substantial value here in that alone, and the approach to the cinematography and editing bolsters it. I do hope you like Japanese punk circa 1980, however, because the thing is - beyond the music, which I do love and which I wish were featured more completely, there's not much of a movie here.

I said the entire vibe can be "neatly" summed up. Given the stated overarching ethos in the film-making and storytelling of Punk First, I suppose it's appropriate that the description of the vibe is the only thing about this flick that is "neat," but it does make it harder to engage with and enjoy. Sometimes the editing and especially the cinematography abandons reason altogether, and the slightest sense of order, and becomes so frenzied that the best points of comparison are found footage flicks where the camerawork is so sloppy that we as viewers can't even see what's going on. Sometimes even Ishii's direction, his orchestration fo shots and scenes, inhibits visualization of whatever it is he wants to show us. There is a story here, as I've noted, and distinct themes, but the narrative is extremely loose in the first place, and is furthermore told in such an extremely disjointed fashion that the best we can do is to vaguely guess at the course of events even such as they are. If you're here for the inevitable spectacle of violence to follow when rebellious youths clash with brutal state agents, well, you'll get it, but even the action sequences are undercut by the most wild, overzealous flailing that characterizes the camerawork and editing. The result is that in much the same way as the overall vibe can be chalked up to Punk First, trying to give an earnest, full description of what 'Burst City' is an represents is not just difficult but almost impossible, and I'm reduced to offering exactly three words, expressed just so: "Punk! Dystopia! Violence!"

Like some other films that have been made over the years, I'm sure all involved had a blast making this and can look back on the experience with fondness. For anyone that had especial ties to the punk scene of Japan in the late 70s or early 80s, or for whom it was very important, there's no doubt in my mind that this holds a special place in their hearts, just as would be true if the production had been American or English and centered bands and music from the United States or United Kingdom. Yet there comes a point where even the discrete descriptors I used above start to break down, and all that's left to say is that, well, they sure did make a thing. I see what Ishii intended, and what he really did make, and I admire the effort and the notion. The simple fact of the matter is that the choices that were made in telling this story (insofar as there is one), and in bringing it to life with Punk First, render the total affair so scattered, muddled, disordered, incohesive, and even downright incoherent that its lasting value is as a snapshot of the contemporary music scene and the folks involved, and nothing more. And if that in and of itself has no major meaning for a viewer, then one is just kind of at a loss.

I don't dislike 'Burst City.' I just think that, removed temporally, geographically, and culturally from The Moment, there's not really anything to be gained from watching. I'm glad for those who do get more out of this. I'm inclined to believe, however, that one is better served by just finding the soundtrack to listen to as one will, and appreciate the music all by its glorious self, rather than try to sit with a picture that almost seems like it doesn't want to make any sense at all. And as far as the punk values of nonconformity, resistance, etc - well, either you're out on the streets fighting the good fight instead of watching movies in the first place, or you're someone who can't make the bodily sacrifice and supports from the sidelines, in which case my assessment remains.

Cyberpunk Pioneer

[north_star22 · 2/10 · 9 July 2006]

I'd like to start this comment section by first off saying I do enjoy and appreciate to a certain extent the cinematic agenda of "cyberpunk cinema". I really enjoyed Fukui's "Rubber's Lover" and I appreciate the aesthetic genius of films like "Tetsuo", "Pinocchio 964", even the recent "Bottled Fools". But with that said and done, that is basically what all these films are, simply aesthetically pleasing. That statement reaches its height with this earlier film called Burst City by cyberpunk pioneer Sogo Ishii. With so clever, innovative and kinetic cinematography Ishii just creates a clash between Mad Max and Rock n Roll High School. There is no substance to this style, not even some of the obscure images that one may be used to from seeing Tsukamoto's earlier films. And actually in some ways, Burst City's style obstructs the viewer from any type of cohesion so what ensues is total anarchy. I was really excited about seeing this early film from Ishii too because I first really enjoyed the psychological thriller "Angel Dust" and then came to enjoy his return to form in "Dead End Run" but "Burst City" turned out to be a major disappointment.

THERE'S AN AUDIENCE FOR THIS BUT...

[kirbylee70-599-526179 · 3/10 · 19 April 2021]

Wow. Seriously it's hard to say anything other than wow about this movie. It's definitely not my cup of tea but I know there is a fan base out there who has been clamoring for a fantastic version of this film to arrive on disc. I might not know who they are but the film has enough history and following that they will snap this up fast.

Made in 1982 by director Sogo Ishii the movie was intended as a showcase for several Japanese punk bands at the time. The movie itself has that punk rock feel to it not employing the standard narrative mode to get a story across but jumping around all over the place. It does that in spades but will that interest most viewers?

This is one of those movies where there is a slight narrative plotline but you have to dig to find it or read about it elsewhere perhaps. Set in a dystopian future (this film jumped on that bandwagon early on) it takes place in a part of town near a nuclear power plant. The young people there are rebelling against the plant racing cars, partying and jumping around to the punk rock bands they love. A secondary story involves a man seeking out the murderer of his brother who was run over. The two stories converge when they find out the man who killed the brother is the businessman who runs the power plant and his yakuza friends. That's it in a nutshell.

The movie isn't so much about either plotline as it is the music and the essence of what punk rock was at the time. Because of that it's been hailed by critics and developed a huge cult following. The band featured include The Roosters, The Rockers and The Stalin. By punk standards great, by today's standards maybe not quite. The movie jumps between the stories and musical performances by each band as the punk rockers surround them and behave like, well, punk rockers did at the time.

The film is noted for its hyper kinetic energy and anything goes style on display. Because of that critics have called it a movie ahead of its time and an original masterpiece. Today they consider it a look at a time when anything could happen and did onscreen. For me? It was annoying and most likely something that critics will enjoy more than film lovers. But I can see the historical aspect of it catching viewers.

Arrow Video has taken this release and done it up right as opposed to the more punked out versions of the past beginning with a hi def transfer of the film. Extras include a new commentary track by film expert Tom Mes, "The Punk Spirit of '82: Sogo Ishii on BIRST CITY a new 56 minute interview with the director, "Bursting Out" an exclusive 27 minute interview with academic and independent filmmaker Yoshiharu Tezuka on jishu eiga and the making of the film, the original trailer, an image gallery, a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Chris Malbon and for the first pressing only an illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Mark Player.

A cinematic punk rock manifesto!!!

[Wetbones · 10/10 · 3 December 2003]

Without the work of Sogo Ishii there would be no Takashi Miike or Shinya Tsukamoto. That becomes quite clear in the opening minutes of BURST CITY. The hyper-kinetic beginning of the film with its lightning fast editing and violent images together with the use of music were obvious influences on Miike's DEAD OR ALIVE and BLUES HARP as well as a number of other films. And the camera-work, use of black and white photography and cyberpunk imagery were later recycled in Tsukamoto's TETSUO films as well as SNAKE OF JUNE.

BURST CITY is essentially a feature length punk rock music clip. The film is set in a kind of post-apocalyptic Japan where everyone is a punk, a freak or a brutal cop. There are non-stop riots in the streets, non-stop punk concerts, non-stop gang warfare, non-stop police brutality and non-stop car chases. This film is one hell of a wild ride and it left me feeling spun. The soundtrack is made up entirely of awesome Japanese punk rock and fits the images perfectly.

BURST CITY is powerful, frenetic, feral, rabid cinema that feels like a transmission from the gutter of the future.

Total Trash Except For Punk Music.

[net_orders · 3/10 · 8 October 2016]

Viewed on DVD. Sound-track rock = four (4) stars; subtitles/translations = three (3) stars; scenario = two (2) stars; cinematography/editing = one (1) star. Director Gakuryû Ishii has foisted on movie audiences a low-budget TV-style music video consisting of unrelenting, meaningless (and repetitious) violence. This plot-less, overly-long, eye sore starts with some okay rock music which dissipates as the film moves along (thereby losing the movie's excuse to continue!). Ishii drums up a future Tokyo where streets are always filled with rock concert riots and gang warfare at night. Sometimes the police and, of course, Yakuza join in the rampage. "Acting" consists of mugging and shouting. Rock-music "score" is pretty good. Exterior sets (city dumps and abandoned industrial buildings) are strikingly original. Interior sets pretty much look the same because they likely are. Subtitles (which can not be turned off) capture about half of the song lyrics and dialog. Both translated dialog and lyrics appear in white at screen bottom with lyric text italicized. (Use of two colors would have prevented confusion as to what was what.) Signs are not translated. Cinematography (semi-wide screen, color) and editing quality is what one might expect from precocious children of five using their cell phone cameras! Shots (using super jerky hand-held cameras) are mostly monotonously limited to: out-of-focus somethings; repeats of accelerated street-level scenes from motor cycles; and in-your-face close ups of "actors." Wear lines turn up occasionally. Just turn off the video garbage and enjoy the punk rock bands on the sound track! WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

A hyperkinetic punk film of intensity

[leagueofstruggle · 10/10 · 5 February 2004]

A shame few will get the chance to see this movie. It was suggested to me as a Japanese Death Race 2000. Oh, but it is so much more. A dystopian future against a backdrop of angry Japanese punk rock. Burst City is a raw look at an overamped society with its frantic, hyper camera work and loud brash music. As a fictional peek into punk rock, Burst City is still leaps and bounds above any other attempts. Well worth the look. Be prepared to search, however, and I don't believe there is a subtitled or dubbed version in existence. This is a shame as the film deserves greater exposure.

Crap City ?

[damien-90 · 1/10 · 18 June 2006]

I have seen a lot of Japanese Movies, and this must have been one of the worst i have seen in all those years. The Punk Music might be appealing to some people, but the rest of the film is awful. The so called Camera-work looks like they just ran around with the Cam, the "violent" scenes some People liked are cut fast and filmed with an extremely unsteady Camera so you don't see anything at all. Weird Gangs fighting each other makes it looks like an extremely cheap "The Riffs" aka "Bronx Warriors" RipOff, which was originally released 1982 as well. All in all the movie just was a mix of pointless and bad fights, mixed with punk music... Even for a giant Musicvideo the Visuals are extremely bad. Don't let yourself fool you by People how compare this to work by Miike or Kitano, because even their worst movies look like Oscar-winners compared to this waste of material.

Effortless Aesthetic Perfection

[Grethiwha · 9/10 · 10 December 2020]

I went into Burst City not knowing what it was. I hadn't seen footage or read much about it, and I hadn't seen any of Sogo Ishii's other films, to get a sense of the director. But from a glance at some of the director's filmography, posters and screenshots I may have seen out in the ether, I could tell there was a punk aesthetic in some of his films, that I personally found immensely intriguing, and there's a few of his films that I know by name and by poster art if nothing else and have long desired to see. I guess the reason I went this long without watching any of his films, was because I couldn't find any of them in any kind of half-decent quality.

Burst City it turns out, is some kind of insane 1980s Japanese punk rock concept album music video. Like "Tommy", but with ridiculous teenage Japanese punk songs with lyrics that make no sense, directed by way of a young Shin'ya Tsukamoto. What skeleton of a plot there is, you might sometimes sense occasionally, like an underdeveloped V-cinema Takashi Miike dystopian Mad Max sci-fi script, bobbing just below the surface, drowning under the enormity of the film's aesthetic. Basically, the story of the film, or the "concept" in the sense of the concept album music video, boils down to being about youth rebelling against "the man". But when Burst City is at its best is when it blocks out all pretence of a plot and with seeming effortlessness, becomes pure aesthetic perfection.

The first scene of Burst City, the first song on the album, which has no lyrics and sets the mood for the album to come, would be, from a directorial perspective, a masterfully brilliant opening to any film with a genuine narrative script that might be able to accommodate such an opening. Many of the other scenes in Burst City, too, feel like they could make really heart-pumping moments in a more conventional film. But the fact is that they're all together in this one nonsensical film, which may make the whole thing feel somewhat hollow in the end - like there's no substance here - OR it could be seen as freeing the film up from slavish adherence to a narrative that would diminish its aesthetic credibility.

The best comparison for Burst City would be another 80s cult Japanese musical film that was curated out of obscurity recently, "The Legend of the Stardust Brothers" released on blu-ray by Third Window Films. Another film that's more a full album music video than a narrative feature film, Legend of the Stardust Brothers, like Burst City, is also an extremely campy strange cultural artifact - or time capsule - of a film. I think the main difference is, where Stardust Brothers' camp is just funny, Burst City's camp, while undoubtedly funny, is, to be honest, kind of pretty cool at the same time. Kind of satisfying. How liberating it would be to be a ridiculous Japanese punk in the 80s. I'm kind of really really endeared to this aesthetic.

The Arrow blu-ray release, I have no doubt, presents this film looking true to how it was intended, and shown in theatres. Given the limitations of the source material, the blu-ray could frankly have been an upscaled DVD a lot of the time, and I probably wouldn't notice the difference, but I am confident nonetheless that this represents an enormous upgrade over any previous home release this film may have had. This is a hell of a gritty film all shot handheld at night in high-ISO high-noise super-grainy 16mm film, and watching it in any kind of digitally over-compressed, bad transfer, or compromised way, would murky and confuse the aesthetic and greatly diminish the experience, so I think it's fantastic that Arrow is offering this restored version.

The allure of discovering Sogo Ishii's punk rock aesthetic on blu-ray persuaded me to blind-buy the Arrow blu-ray when it was announced, but I wasn't in a hurry to watch it, as I had no particular expectation for it. As it turns out, this is the surprise blu-ray release of the year, and the best film I've newly discovered in some time. I hope some of Ishii's other films like Crazy Thunder Road and Electric Dragon 80,000V get similar releases soon.

Roger Ebert once said of the 1995 film Fallen Angels by Wong Kar-Wai "It will appeal to the kinds of people you see in the Japanese animation section of the video store, with their sleeves cut off so you can see their tattoos. And to those who subscribe to more than three film magazines. And to members of garage bands. And to art students." Well, none of those examples describes me exactly, but maybe I would fit right in with the types of people Ebert was talking about, because Fallen Angels is one of my most beloved movies. I wonder how he'd describe the hypothetical target audience for this film...

This is a really really strange movie but I find its enthusiasm kind of endearing.

[greg-e-porter · 9/10 · 31 August 2015]

The premise of the story is vague and there seems to be a couple different plot lines. First, a pimp and one of his girls are trying to get out of the slums. He pimps her out to a crime boss whose into S&M. That boss and his syndicate are trying to destroy the slums in a crooked construction scheme. For labor, the syndicate enslaves the city's population of mentally disabled homeless. Meanwhile, two rival gangs/bands drag race, fight, and crash each other's gigs to dominate the punk rock scene. The rivals are also fighting against the police because, well, you know, it's the police.

Burst City uses a lot of shaky hand-held camera-work. Not because they were going for some aesthetic effect but because it's cheap. In much the same way, there is an overall lack of lighting. Burst City jumps between plot lines and characters spending little time establishing either. The combination results in a movie that has the potential to be very confusing, if not incoherent.

In all honesty, I've seen this one and a half times. A few years ago, I attempted to watch it but I was too sleepy. I couldn't concentrate. This time I watched it on a flight from Baton Rouge to Lincoln. Unfortunately, I was a little sleepy this time too. I zoned out for just a minute and when I zoned back in, some character (I didn't know who) was killed (somehow) by someone (probably the syndicate) and, in response, the two rival gangs started fighting each other. The character was never mentioned again so I don't think it was that important.

"80's Japanese Sci-fi Punk Rock Musical, need I say more?" I wanted that to be my bottom line but I thought it might be a little misleading. Sometimes it can be fun to get together with some friends, get some pizza, and put on a low budget movie. But when you do that, you ought to choose a movie that is easy to watch. After all, the focus is hanging out with friends. This won't work if you try it with Burst City. It may just be a little too much to simply throw on the TV. That said, I give it a 4.5/5 because of its spirit.

From what I've read, Burst City was created by a couple punk bands who wanted to put out a movie featuring their music. The film's potential shortcomings are necessary evils when you consider this motivation. They didn't have the budget for smooth sophisticated cinematography or lighting but so what? They wanted to make a movie and they did it. It also helps that the music is awesome.

After watching this movie, I got into a punk rock mood so I re-watched the big budget, mainstream, Brass Knuckle Boys which is about a punk band from the 80's reuniting and rediscovering punk. Speaking of Brass Knuckle Boys, looking over my posts, it seems I never wrote a review about it. I will post that soon as well. Anyway, I am working on a post the compares and contrasts the depiction of punk rock in Burst City and Brass Knuckle Boys. In the meantime, I would recommend Burst City particularly if you are a fan of punk rock; it is a cool movie.