'Punk Samurai Slash Down': An audacious adaptation that may look better on paper
One of the frequent complaints lodged against the Japanese film industry is that producers are reluctant to bankroll anything that isn't based on an existing novel, manga or TV series. There's a lot of truth in the criticism, but not every screen adaptation of ...
The films and the fury of punk moviemaker Gakuryu Ishii
Last year's release of "Blade Runner 2049" and this year's Netflix series "Altered Carbon" have rekindled interest in the futuristic cyberpunk aesthetic, though those works were decidedly more "cyber" and less "punk." Punk is meant to be raw, gritty — easily identifiable as do-it-yourself. The ...
'Crazy Thunder Road' is still a mad, but great film
Sogo Ishii — or Gakuryu Ishii, as he now prefers to be known — was just 23 when he released "Crazy Thunder Road," perhaps one of the greatest films to emerge from Japan's punk era (an honor it shares with the director's 1982 follow-up, ...
