Release Date: 1982.
Rating: Classic.
Burst City (Bakuretsu Toshi Bāsuto Shiti) is an explosive Molotov cocktail of youth gone wild amid a landscape dystopian urban decay. It’s a world of speed tribes, yakuza gangsters, brutal cops, and biker warfare set to a soundtrack of some of Japan’s most notorious punk bands. Featuring performances The Stalin, The Roosters, The Rockers, and INU, first-time director Sogo Ishii broke new ground in Japanese cinema with this punk rock, action, musical biker film.

As much a drama as it is an action film, Burst City weaves two parallel plots. One following building of a nuclear power plant and a circle punks in a nearby community who are fighting to prevent its construction. The other follows two young bikers–a mute and a hardcore punk–who roam the city on the hunt for the man who murdered the mute’s brother. The plots eventually collide when the bikers discover that the ruthless executive who runs the nuke plant is the man they’ve been searching for. This culminates in the bikers, plant workers, and punks all banding together in an all out war against the executive, his yakuza enforcers, and the city’s heavily armed “battle police”.

Released in 1982, Burst City came as a shock to the system as it introduced audience to the razor-edged culture and anti-social attitude of Tokyo’s then burgeoning punk scene. An established cult-classic, to this day Burst City remains a defining film of the subculture.

Cast & Credits:
Director: Sogo Ishii
Writer: Sogo Ishii, Mitsuhiko Akita, Jûgatsu Toi (original novel)
Stars: Takanori Jinnai, Shinya Ohe, Tsui Tobu, Kō Machida, Shigeru Izumiya.
Soundtrack: The Roosters, The Rockers, The Stalin, Machizo Machida, INU.


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