Hachimiri Madness! Filmseries: "The Adventure of Denchu-Kozo" and "I am Sion Sono!"

Friday, April 21 at 9:30PM

The Adventure of Denchu-Kozo (Denchu Kozo no Boken)

Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto
Japan 1988, DCP, color, 47 min. Japanese with English subtitles

The early jishu films of two of the most well-known filmmaker/artists from Japan show the unbridled energy that this form of filmmaking allowed. In his joyfully inventive film, Tsukamoto—who can currently be seen playing one of the main roles in Martin Scorsese’s Silence—prefigures many of the cyberpunk themes of the more grim visual assault of his international breakthrough film, Tetsuo, The Iron Man (1989). Here the story of a teenage boy who discovers an electric pylon growing out of his back and is soon forced to battle cyborg vampires over the future of humanity touches upon Tsukamoto’s theme of the body melding with technology in a playfully manic tone.

I am Sion Sono!
(Ore wa Sono Shion da!!)

Directed by Sion Sono
Japan 1984, DCP, color, 37 min. Japanese with English subtitles

The intensely prolific Sono is one of the most constant presences from Japan at international festivals now, but his career is one of creativity in overdrive well beyond film. A published poet by his teens, Sono became an important presence in poetry, experimental theater, and— with this personal, adrenalized experimental film— stepped into the world of moving images. Navigating sometimes exuberant, sometimes uncomfortable territory, I am Sion Sono! explores the possibilities of film as part of a much larger artistic project.

Film descriptions by Alexander Zahlten.