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4405 Rainier Ave S
Seattle, WA 98118

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BURST CITY

1982

Director

Gakuryū Ishii

Starring

Takanori Jinnai

Shinya Ohe

Tsui Tobu

Kō Machida

Shigeru Izumiya

Runtime

115 minutes

BURST CITY image

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“THIS IS NOT AN EXPLOSIVE MOVIE…THIS IS A MOVIE EXPLOSION!”

BURST CITY is one of the most daring experimental films of the so-called lost decade of contemporary Japanese cinema. A commercial failure, and still woefully underappreciated in the U.S., Gakuryū Ishii’s fast and loose epic planted its flag in the toxic compost of MAD MAX, RUDE BOY and THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION, and inspired generations of filmmakers to break free from conservative values and traditional storytelling techniques in favor of a sort of ecstatic propulsion.

The hyperkinetic storyline pits two rival bands and their misfit squatter tribes against battle cops, petty criminals and yakuza thugs who are determined to establish a nuclear power plant within the industrial wasteland of their dark future turf. Or something like that. The real beauty of the film is its snarling, choppy, uncompromising middle finger ethos and swaggering style.

Starring real-life punk legends like The Rockers, The Roosters, and The Stalin, BURST CITY hurtles through gritty 16mm concert footage like a misguided ballistic missile toward a truly cathartic and incendiary climax. (Wyrd War)