½ Mensch / The Code Name Is Asia Strikes Back

  • Friday, June 7, 10:30 p.m. Cinema in the German Film Museum
  • with an introduction by Tom Mes
  • Hanbun ningen
    半分人間 アインシュテュルツェンデ・ノイバウテン
  • Japan 1985, 16mm, 50 min, without Dialog
  • Director: Sogo (Gakuryu) ISHII
  • Script: Fumiaki NAGASHIMA, Goro NAKAJIMA
  • Production: Directors Company, I.D.O. productions
  • Director of Photography: Akihiro ITO
  • Music: Einstürzende Neubauten
  • World Sales: Dragon Mountain
  • Cast: Einstürzende Neubauten

After having caught ISHII's CRAZY FAMILY at a festival screening, Einstürzende Neubauten invited the director to film their Japanese tour. The band's philosophy that all noise is music gave ISHII the perfect platform to explore his emerging fascination with metaphysics: at the level of the atom, everything is equal. (Tom Mes)

  • The Code is Asia Strikes Back
  • Ajia no gyakushu
    アジアの逆襲
  • Japan 1983-2006, Digibeta, 30 min, Japanese with English subtitles
  • Director: Sogo (Gakuryu) ISHII
  • Script: Shunichi NAGASAKI, Go RIJU
  • Director of Photography: Norimichi KASAMATSU
  • Music: Hiroyuki ONOGAWA
  • World Sales: Dragon Mountain
  • Cast: Yoshiki ARIZONO, Jun TAKEUCHI, Hidemaru, Isamu UNO, Johnny

A rock band was also at the source of ASIA STRIKES BACK, originally made to accompany live performances by The Bacillus Army, a punk super group with ISHII on vocals. The film is one of the earliest entries in Japan's cyberpunk cycle, a status only emphasised by the new soundtrack supplied by Hiroyuki ONOGAWA (Mach 1.67), composer of GOJOE and ELECTRIC DRAGON 80,000 V. (Tom Mes)

 

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