Director: Ishii Sogo

Ishii Sogo was born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1957 and began to
create films at the age of 19. A fan of both punk and psychedelic
music, the two genres have had a great influence on his work. As a
young adult, Ishii attended the Nihon University College of Art,
where he directed Panic High School. In 1982 Ishii directed
Crazy Thunder Road, a movie about punks and bikers that stage
a protest against the building of a nuclear power plant. Although
controversial , the film gained him acclaim with delinquents across
Japan. The film gained more praise after being released by Toei
and Ishii became recognized as one of Japan’s up and coming
directors. His next film, The Crazy Family (1984) was widely
acclaimed and received the Grand Prix at the Saruso Film Festival.
In 2000 Ishii released Gojoe, an epic samurai story about the battle
of two mortal enemies. The movie met mixed review in Japan. Some
loved the unique retelling of the story and beautiful camera work, while
others believed the movie ruined a classic tale. In same year Electric
Dragon 80000V was released. A throwback to Ishii’s older films, the low
budget, 50min Electric Dragon was very different from Gojoe although
many consider it to be a cliff notes version of the latter.

Paraphrased and edited from:
GNU Free Documentation License Version 1.2, November 2002
Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.