Gakuryū Ishii
| Gakuryū Ishii | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 15, 1957 Fukuoka, Japan |
| Other names | Sōgo Ishii |
| Occupation | Film director |
| Website | |
| http://www.ishiisogo-gakuryu.com | |
Gakuryū Ishii (石井 岳龍 Ishii Gakuryū, born January 15, 1957), formerly Sōgo Ishii (石井 聰互 Ishii Sōgo) is a Japanese filmmaker known for his striking visuals and sometimes outlandish subject matter.
Ishii was born in Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture, and is a graduate of Fukuoka Prefectural Fukuoka High School and Nihon University College of Art.
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[edit] Punk era films
Soon after entering university in 1976, he made his first 8 mm film with the aid of friends, a short work titled Panic in High School (高校大パニック). The film, about a student rebellion when a school's administration refuses to acknowledge complicity for a student's suicide, garnered him attention outside of school and was released theatrically.
For his graduation project, he filmed Crazy Thunder Road (狂い咲きサンダーロード) (1980), again directed with friends of his who were in biker gangs. This film was a based on the Bōsōzoku aesthetic, and enthralled film studio Toho such that they struck 35 mm prints of the 16 mm film and released it theatrically. It was widely considered controversial, and the Japanese film board Eirin condemned it for presenting violence sympathetically.
In 1982, he directed Burst City (爆裂都市), a stylish action film about a wild gang of quasi-mutant bikers who ride into a town staging protests against the construction of a nearby nuclear reactor plant. The film starred members of Japanese punk bands The Roosters, The Rockers, The Stalin and Inu, among others. He became a favorite among rebel and punk cineastes in Japan. The film is also credited as a precursor to the underground Japanese Cyberpunk movement that emerged later in the decade.[1]
In 1984, Ishii directed his most widely-acclaimed movie to that point, The Crazy Family (逆噴射家族), the title of which literally translates to The Back-Firing Family (or more crudely, "the fucked-up family"). A savage satire of Japanese family life, it depicted an average household (mother, father, son, daughter, and later grandfather) moving into a new Tokyo home, only to have their perfect life collapse due to pressures from within and without. The daughter obsesses over her singing career; the nominally-demure wife does table-dances for the guests; the son stabs himself to stay awake during his exam-cram sessions; the father digs a giant hole in the living room floor, finds termites, buys ant poison and tries to kill everyone en masse. The film garnered the Grand Prix at the Saruso Film Festival.
[edit] Second period
For the next ten years Ishii made few films, other than various shorts and the Einstürzende Neubauten concert film Halber Mensch. In 1994 he returned with his first feature-length film in ten years, Angel Dust (エンジェル・ダスト), about a female psychological profiler trying to find a serial killer who murders a young woman every Monday at six P.M. on the Yamanote commuter line.
In 1995 Ishii made August in the Water (水の中の八月), which dealt with a teenage girl gaining supernatural powers after a mishap and using same to better understand her purpose in life. In a similarly mystical vein was 1997's Labyrinth of Dreams (ユメノ銀河), wherein a bus conductor discovers that her driver may in fact be a serial murderer.
[edit] Recent films
In 2000 Ishii made Gojoe: Spirit War Chronicle (五条霊戦記), a samurai epic that combined both his original hyperkinetic filmmaking approach (violence, wild editing and camera movements) with his newer, more stately concerns (man's place in the universe). A spectacularly-photographed, revisionist retelling of the legends of Saito Musashibo Benkei and Yoshitsune, it recast the two as mortal enemies destined to clash on the bridge named Gojoe. The swordplay, choreographed by a member of the Chinese opera, brought to mind ballet fused with conventional chanbara fighting styles. Opinions over the film were divided in Japan: some lambasted it for being a trashing of conventional myth, while others praised it for being an imaginative re-envisioning and retelling of a well-worn story.
Ishii also directed Electric Dragon 80.000 V in the same year, a low-budget, black-and-white 50 minute short about two superheroes, "Dragon Eye Morrison" and "Electric Buddha", who clash in nighttime Tokyo. The film starred two actors who also appeared in Gojoe: Spirit War Chronicle, Tadanobu Asano and Masatoshi Nagase.
In 2003 Ishii released Dead End Run, a collection of three short films each revolving around the concept of reaching a "dead end." Asano and Nagase again starred.
[edit] Name change
In a blog entry dated January 17th 2010[2], Ishii announced that he had changed his pseudonym from Sōgo Ishii to Gakuryū Ishii. He had decided to change it in 2001, and intended to reveal it with the announcement of his next feature-length film following Gojoe: Spirit War Chronicle. Unfortunately he was subsequently unable to make another feature, and the opportunity escaped him. Later in 2010, production was announced for a new feature entitled "Ikite iru Mono wa Inai no ka", at which time he also publicly revealed his name change. The kanji character for "gaku" means "mountain," and the character for "ryu" means "dragon." This is the inspiration for the name of his new production company, Dragon Mountain.
[edit] Filmography
[edit] Director
- 1976 Panic in High School (高校大パニック, Kōkō Dai Panikku)
- 1977 Solitude of One Divided by 880,000 (880000/1の孤独, Hachijūhachiman-bun no Ichi no Kodoku)
- 1978 Charge! Hakata Gangsters (突撃！博多愚連隊, Totsugeki! Hakata Gurentai)
- 1978 Panic in High School (高校大パニック, Kōkō Dai Panikku), a commercial remake of Ishii's debut film for studio Nikkatsu, co-directed with Yukihiro Sawada.
- 1980 Crazy Thunder Road (狂い咲きサンダーロード, Kuruizaki Sanda Rōdo)
- 1981 Shuffle (シャッフル, Shaffuru)
- 1982 Burst City (爆裂都市, Bakuretsu toshi)
- 1983 Asia Strikes Back (アジアの逆襲, Ajia no Gyakushū)
- 1984 The Crazy Family (逆噴射家族, Gyakufunsha Kazoku)
- 1985 Halber Mensch (半分人間 アインシュテュルツェンデ・ノイバウテン, Hanbun Ningen )
- 1989 The Master of Shiatsu (THE MASTER OF SHIATSU 指圧王者, Shiatsu Ōja)
- 1989 Dumb Numb Live Friction 1989 (DUMB NUMB LIVE FRICTION 1989, Damu Namu Raibu Furikushon 1989)
- 1993 Tokyo Blood (TOKYO BLOOD, Tōkyō Buraddo)
- 1994 Angel Dust (エンジェル・ダスト, Enjeru Dasuto)
- 1995 August in the Water (水の中の八月, Mizu no Naka no Hachigatsu)
- 1997 Labyrinth of Dreams (ユメノ銀河, Yume no Ginga)
- 2000 Gojoe: Spirit War Chronicle (五条霊戦記 GOJOE, Gojō Reisenki)
- 2001 Electric Dragon 80.000 V (ELECTRIC DRAGON 80000V, Erekutorikku Doragon Hachiman-Boruto)
- 2002 Toki yo Tomare, Kimi wa Utsukushii (時よとまれ、君は美しい), episode 8 of the Shiritsu Tantei: Hama Maiku NTV television series starring Masatoshi Nagase, based on the trilogy of films by Kaizo Hayashi.
- 2003 Dead End Run (DEAD END RUN, Deddo Endo Ran)
- 2004 Mirrored Mind (鏡心, Kyōshin), an entry in the Jeonju International Film Festival's Digital Short Films by Three Filmmakers 2004 project, released in Japan as 三人三色 (Sannin Sanshoku).
- 2005 Mirrored Mind (鏡心・3Dサウンド完全版, Kyōshin: 3D Saundo Kanzenban), a re-edited and extended version of Ishii's short film for Digital Short Films by Three Filmmakers 2004, designed to be screened using a unique "3D virtual sound" system.
[edit] References
- ^ Player, Mark. "Post-Human Nightmares: The World of Japanese Cyberpunk". Midnight Eye. http://www.midnighteye.com/features/post-human-nightmares-the-world-of-japanese-cyberpunk-cinema.shtml. Retrieved 9 August 2011.
- ^ http://www.ishiisogo-gakuryu.com/topics/topics.cgi?page=40
[edit] External links
- Official website
- 石井聰亙 (Sogo Ishii) at the Japanese Movie Database (Japanese)
- (English) Sogo Ishii at the Internet Movie Database
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