Electric Dragon 80,000 V
Director: Ichii Sogo
Year Released: 2000
Rating: 3.0
Confrontational cult film from Japan is live-action anime inspired, no doubt, by Tetsuo: The Iron Man, a previous black and white experimental film. Here, the main character, whose brain was altered by an electric storm as a kid, runs a special 'store' for lost lizards, plays a high-powered guitar and is at odds with a half-man, half-metallic criminal. Strange, tongue-in-cheek and incomplete - but still worth tracking down - this will find the right audience (and a good share of defenders) now that it's being released on DVD. The 'soundtrack,' which is avant-garde noise rock, will undoubtedly alienate, but since I have a weakness for loud, intense music (Merzbow, Gore Beyond Necropsy, K.K. Null and the Boredoms are all on my CD rack), I was pleased.
