Crazy Thunder Road

Original title: Kuruizaki sanda rodo

1980
1h 37m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

When Ken, the leader of a once-notorious Tokyo biker gang, falls in love with a barmaid, he quickly loses his rebellious ideals. The rest of the gang feels betrayed, especially the troubled ... Read allWhen Ken, the leader of a once-notorious Tokyo biker gang, falls in love with a barmaid, he quickly loses his rebellious ideals. The rest of the gang feels betrayed, especially the troubled kid Jin, who revolts against his former friend.When Ken, the leader of a once-notorious Tokyo biker gang, falls in love with a barmaid, he quickly loses his rebellious ideals. The rest of the gang feels betrayed, especially the troubled kid Jin, who revolts against his former friend.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

647

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 3 wins total

Photos15

+ 11

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Originally shot on 16mm as a film school graduation project by the director, it was snapped up for circulation by Toho and restruck on 35mm.

Connections
Referenced in Century of Cinema: Nihon eiga no hyaku nen (1995)

User reviews5

Review

Featured review

6/10

Turns out you can spell "style" without "substance."

Crazy Thunder Road is a great movie title. That needs to be said, first and foremost.

It's all about presenting a certain vibe more than it's about telling a story, and it convey a punk/rebellious feeling well. That's enough to sustain it for a while, but certainly not the entirety of the Crazy Thunder Road's duration. Either it ran out of steam, or it just lost me, but either way, it started to feel a bit tedious after some time (and a good amount of time before it ended).

Still, this loosely plotted almost dystopian story about young gang members and their chaotic lives had me tor a while, and for the parts that were good and kind of engaging, I guess I can kind of understand the cult appeal. And it definitely hits the beats and has the feel you'd expect from Gakuryû Ishii. He's a distinctive filmmaker who makes a certain kind of film extremely well.

That style was more enjoyable and consistently entertaining in some of the other films I've seen from him, but it works enough here to make this one decent overall. It's got some highs in the first half or so, and a few more lows in the second half. I think it does what it set out to do, but I also wish it aspired to do a little bit more.