Before looking at the core and peripheral movies of this genre I thought it would be best if I first look at the two films that are commonly considered the precursors responsible for the whole genre coming into existence. To understand the difference between films that are Japanese and are Cyberpunk and the genre entitled Japanese Cyberpunk or Extreme Japanese Cyberpunk I must first give a brief outline detailing the genres defining factors.
Japanese Cyberpunk: is a genre of underground film produced in Japan starting in the late 1980s. The genre is not very closely related to Cyberpunk as understood in the west — the focus is industrial and incomprehensible, not high-tech and scientific. There are no computers in Japanese Cyberpunk. The genre is primarily defined by the movie Tetsuo: The Iron Man,but originates from a combination of what occurs in the 1982 movie Burst City and the 1986 film called The Phantom of Regular Size.
Burst City (爆裂都市 Bakuretsu Toshi) is a Japanese science-fiction punk-rock musical / action film. Released in 1982, the film was directed by Sogo Ishii. Primarily a showcase for both various specific punk rock bands of the time, such as The Roosters, The Rockers, and The Stalin, the film is also purely demonstrative of the culture and attitude of the punk rock community of Japan in the mid-to-late 1970s and the early 1980s. The film was distributed by the Toei studio.
The plot is not very complex, as much of the action and drama of the film relies on musical interludes, character interactions, and commentary on the class system in the film’s fictional universe. What plot there is follows groups of rival biker gangs in a dystopian future who are attempting to rebel against the construction of a massive power plant in “their” part of Tokyo.
The film is highly regarded among critics and audiences alike. Its hyperkinetic, unrelentingly high energy style was wildly different from other films of the period and extremely innovative. The film is also regarded for being purely inspired from music, and the way the punk aesthetic, culture, and music exerts its influence over every element, scene, and character in the film. It has been called one of the “starting points in contemporary Japanese cinema”, along with Shuffle, Panic High School, and Ishii’s own Crazy Thunder Road.
This definitely paved the way for the Japanese Cyberpunk genre, as it gave the future directors responsible for the genre an aesthetic on which they could attach their surrealist industrial visualisations of the future. This punk movement was born from a bubble economy that rejected its offspring like it did its tragic past. Be it rejection of repression, pre-cognition of future events or just pure mindless anarchy, the movement opened up a cinematic space that would eventually fuse with disheartening visions of an industrial future. It cannot be purely coincidental that this began happening before the economy fell. If cinema can be perceived as a reflection of a national consciousness then is it possible for a movie to reflect something that is collectively known, but is yet to happen? Some food for thought…
The next film that I’ll be looking at is the 1986 short film called The Phantom of Regular Size(18mins 27secs). This is a key figure in the creation of the genre because it reflects the point where cult director Shinya Tsukamoto made his first film that attempted to hybridise the punk genre with the surreal, industrial and the mechanical. Although this mix-mash is simple in its execution and in its use of effects it can literally be perceived as Tetsuo: The Iron Man as a child. Without it the genre would never have gotten enough acclaim to be recognised and consequently perpetuated through other directors ie. Shigeru Izumiya and Shozin Fukui (to name just the core contributors).
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