Speed Cinema Screenings: Burst City 5/17/26 3PM

“Burst City resolutely puts the punk into the Japanese cyberpunk movement that emerged in the early 1980s.” —Budd Wilkins, Slant

Fans of Tetsuo: The Iron Man take note! An early landmark in cyberpunk cinema, Burst City is an experimental, dystopian musical from underground filmmaker Gakuryū (formerly Sogo) Ishii that ignites a Molotov cocktail of Mad Max-style carnage and real-life Japanese punk bands. In a derelict industrial wasteland on the outskirts of Tokyo, two rival bands and their unruly mobs of fans gather for a Battle of the Bands-style protest against a nuclear power plant, bringing them face-to-face with the yakuza industrialists that want to erase their turf. 1982, Japan, DCP, in Japanese with English subtitles, 115 minutes.