Viewed on DVD. Sound-track rock = four (4) stars; subtitles/translations = three (3) stars; scenario = two (2) stars; cinematography/editing = one (1) star. Director Gakuryû Ishii has foisted on movie audiences a low-budget TV-style music video consisting of unrelenting, meaningless (and repetitious) violence. This plot-less, overly-long, eye sore starts with some okay rock music which dissipates as the film moves along (thereby losing the movie's excuse to continue!). Ishii drums up a future Tokyo where streets are always filled with rock concert riots and gang warfare at night. Sometimes the police and, of course, Yakuza join in the rampage. "Acting" consists of mugging and shouting. Rock-music "score" is pretty good. Exterior sets (city dumps and abandoned industrial buildings) are strikingly original. Interior sets pretty much look the same because they likely are. Subtitles (which can not be turned off) capture about half of the song lyrics and dialog. Both translated dialog and lyrics appear in white at screen bottom with lyric text italicized. (Use of two colors would have prevented confusion as to what was what.) Signs are not translated. Cinematography (semi-wide screen, color) and editing quality is what one might expect from precocious children of five using their cell phone cameras! Shots (using super jerky hand-held cameras) are mostly monotonously limited to: out-of-focus somethings; repeats of accelerated street-level scenes from motor cycles; and in-your-face close ups of "actors." Wear lines turn up occasionally. Just turn off the video garbage and enjoy the punk rock bands on the sound track! WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

Wow. Seriously it's hard to say anything other than wow about this movie. It's definitely not my cup of tea but I know there is a fan base out there who has been clamoring for a fantastic version of this film to arrive on disc. I might not know who they are but the film has enough history and following that they will snap this up fast.

Made in 1982 by director Sogo Ishii the movie was intended as a showcase for several Japanese punk bands at the time. The movie itself has that punk rock feel to it not employing the standard narrative mode to get a story across but jumping around all over the place. It does that in spades but will that interest most viewers?

This is one of those movies where there is a slight narrative plotline but you have to dig to find it or read about it elsewhere perhaps. Set in a dystopian future (this film jumped on that bandwagon early on) it takes place in a part of town near a nuclear power plant. The young people there are rebelling against the plant racing cars, partying and jumping around to the punk rock bands they love. A secondary story involves a man seeking out the murderer of his brother who was run over. The two stories converge when they find out the man who killed the brother is the businessman who runs the power plant and his yakuza friends. That's it in a nutshell.

The movie isn't so much about either plotline as it is the music and the essence of what punk rock was at the time. Because of that it's been hailed by critics and developed a huge cult following. The band featured include The Roosters, The Rockers and The Stalin. By punk standards great, by today's standards maybe not quite. The movie jumps between the stories and musical performances by each band as the punk rockers surround them and behave like, well, punk rockers did at the time.

The film is noted for its hyper kinetic energy and anything goes style on display. Because of that critics have called it a movie ahead of its time and an original masterpiece. Today they consider it a look at a time when anything could happen and did onscreen. For me? It was annoying and most likely something that critics will enjoy more than film lovers. But I can see the historical aspect of it catching viewers.

Arrow Video has taken this release and done it up right as opposed to the more punked out versions of the past beginning with a hi def transfer of the film. Extras include a new commentary track by film expert Tom Mes, "The Punk Spirit of '82: Sogo Ishii on BIRST CITY a new 56 minute interview with the director, "Bursting Out" an exclusive 27 minute interview with academic and independent filmmaker Yoshiharu Tezuka on jishu eiga and the making of the film, the original trailer, an image gallery, a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Chris Malbon and for the first pressing only an illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Mark Player.

I don't know what was in the water, because the frenzy of 1979's Mad Max inspired imitators all over the world, from the Italian westerns with cars to the Filipino tricycle driving blasts of strangeness and, yes, this Japanese punk rock epic. This is one of the most frenetic and just plain loud movies I've ever seen, which made me fall in love with it right from the very first frame.

Whether its characters are rocking the stage, partying, fighting, getting wasted, hunting down a killer or battling any authority figure they can find, this is a film of noise, fury and high energy. It unites bikers, workers and punk as one to fight the Yakuza, which leads to the Battle Police shutting everything down.

Burst City has a soundtrack from all three of the major punk cities in Japan. The Stalin was from Tokyo, Machizo Machida was from Kansai, and The Roosters and the Rockers were from Kyushu. The cast and crew bonded by living on the post-apocalyptic set when they weren't shooting, like some end of the world squatters.

Shot on filthy 16 mm film, this movie stops and starts, changes speeds and amplifies the strangeness throughout. Director Gakuryu Ishii is often cited as being a major influence on Japan's cyberpunk culture with movies like Gojoe: Spirit War Chronicle and Electric Dragon 80.000 V, as well as music videos for The Roosters and Einstürzende Neubauten.

If you look closely, you can spot Japanese pro wrestling heel king Umanosuke Ueda, a bleach blonde heel who also shows up on Takeshi's Castle. He's one of the yakuza henchmen. If you're a fan of New Japan Pro Wrestling's Evil, you are watching the modern version of his character, which also inspired Mr. Gannosuke, Tatsutoshi Goto and Toru Yano.

This is 115 minutes of punk bands screaming*, motorcycles, fistfights, cops getting shotgun blasted and astounding fashion choices. It's non-stop imagery and sound. In my dreams of punk rock 1982 Tokyo, I imagine that everyone dressed and acted exactly like this film, racing dekotora trucks and chugging sake right out of the microwavable containers when they aren't plugging holes in their amps so they get even more distortion out of them.

This is one weird trip that you should totally take. Grab a helmet or something to restrain yourself, because this movie feels like it could give you whiplash.

*Becca: "Is this movie just an hour of Japanese people screaming?"