Crazy Thunder Road Blu Ray Release

Gakuryu Ishii is not the first filmmaker many cinephiles think of when it comes to directors his early work is nothing but high-octane balls to the wall insanity mixed up in angsty youthful rebellion and a punk rock mind set. However, Ishii’s films are nothing sort of brilliant from the punk ideology of his early years to his nineties more experiential outings, and with the release of Crazy Thunder Road on blu ray from Third Window Films on the 21^st February 2021 it seems fitting to take a look at one of Ishii’s masterpieces.

 Crazy Thunder Road is a film quite like non other the film centres around the leader of a biker gang that falls in love with a barmaid and leaves his rebellious side behind. The rest of the gang especially a former friend of his fill betrayed by this and decide to revolt against there former leader and friend. The film was made as Ishii’s graduation project whilst at Nihon University where it was picked up at distributed by Toei Studios a famous film distribution company known for the Godzilla films.

The film like a lot of Ishii’s work is very much a punk film with its weird surreal nature and experiential camera and editing techniques. This punk spirit in very much here with its angsty teenage youthful rebellion angel being at the forefront of the story and a driving force for the insanity that follows.  

However, that is only one side of Crazy thunder Road’s story. Masculinity is a big theme throughout Crazy Thunder Road and Ishii’s work in general. On one hand there is an element of fantastical nature and almost fun to the film with the gang terrorising fellow bikers. However, the film very much tinged this with an element of sadness. When Tadashi leaves the gang, he is leaving behind his angry angst self and what made up his character up until that point. Without him the gang feels powerfulness and ultimately dissolves, this enrages Jin. His life was built on his masculinity he was a gang member, a biker, a rebel now in a world that he doesn’t know. Crazy Thunder Road feels a need to escape from this ideology whilst also celebrating showing its ending with a touch of sadness.

Crazy Thunder Road is what you could call a proto cyberpunk film.  The film does not have the technological or futuristic markings of its cyberpunk brothers, but the aesthetics and style of the film influenced the genre greatly. Crazy Thunder Road ultimately feels like a proto-Akira a gang of bikers the leader of which has a big brother dynamic with another member, were the other member feels emasculated and betrayed and therefore takes out his anger on both his former friends and society and the world. Along with the directors Burst City were the dystopian world of the film shares similarities with Akira also it is clear to see how influential this film and director is.

Crazy Thunder Road acts as both a cerebration of and warning of the punk ideals. The film is a tour-de-force of punk and experimentation showcasing the in asity of bikers. And although the craziness presented is fun there seems to be a precursory tale of the punk ideology buried within the narrative. As many of the bikers dismantle that life leaving one man to go on an all-out rampage. The way the volent biker gang is broken by the military showcases how these rebels are no longer the threat they once were and their identity at the hands of an oppressive system has been destroyed a theme throughout Ishii’s work. With Jinn declaring war on both bikers and military alike the film showcases a need for rebellion as a form of escapism against an oppressive regime and a world where rebels don’t belong anymore.

Like all of Ishii’s films the punk experiential nature shines throughout comminating in a one-of-a-kind experience that though all its rough edges create a movie quite like non other.