Crazy Thunder Road (1980)

Crazy Biker Road

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.

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