This screening takes a deep dive into Japan during an era of absolute cinematic imagination, where electrically charged fairy tales for the modern age come alive onscreen.

Shinya Tsukamoto’s preoccupation with lo-fi body horror and cyberpunk is redolent in The Adventure of Denchu-Kozo, a fiendishly gonzo-style coming-of-age tale that was made two years before his Tetsuo: The Iron Man series. Almost a decade after establishing a cult following around the cyberpunk biker film Burst City, director Gakuryu Ishii revisits his particular bent of punk rock in the retro-futuristic Electric Dragon 80,000V.

Shinya Tsukamoto (b. 1960, Tokyo) began making films at the age of fourteen when his father gifted him a Super 8 camera. Tsukamoto’s career has ranged from filmmaking to production and screenwriting, directing, and acting. The aesthetic of his ‘Tetsuo’ series made him a pioneer of the Japanese cyberpunk movement and he grew a cult following. Besides The Adventures of Denchu-Kozo, Tsukamoto is known for his works Tokyo Fist (1995), Bullet Ballet (1998), and Vital (2004).

Gakuryū Ishii (b. 1957, Japan) is a director and writer and a pioneer of the cyberpunk movement in Japan. Growing up nearby American military bases, he was exposed to American rock music and was involved in the region’s punk rock movement as a teenager. He founded Kyōei-sha (Crazy Film Group) when he was a student at Nihon University and began making his own 8 mm and 16 mm short films with equipment borrowed from the school. Besides Electric Dragon 80.000V, Ishii is known for his works Burst City (1982), Angel Dust (1994), and Labyrinth of Dreams (1997).