Gakuryū Ishii

Gakuryu Ishii (石井 岳龍, Ishii Gakuryū, born January 15, 1957), formerly known as Sogo Ishii (石井 聰互, Ishii Sōgo), is a Japanese filmmaker.

In 1982, Ishii directed Burst City, an action film about a wild gang of quasi-mutant bikers who ride into a town staging protests against the construction of a nearby nuclear reactor plant. The film starred members of Japanese punk bands The Roosters, The Rockers, The Stalin and Inu, among others. He became a favorite among rebel and punk cineastes in Japan. The film is also credited as a precursor to the underground Japanese cyberpunk movement that emerged later in the decade.

Ishii directed Electric Dragon 80.000 V, a black-and-white 55-minute film starring Tadanobu Asano and Masatoshi Nagase, in 2001.

In 2012, he returned with Isn't Anyone Alive?, changing his name Sogo Ishii to Gakuryu Ishii.

His 2013 film, The Flower of Shanidar, stars Go Ayano and Hana Kuroki.

Feature films

• Panic in High School (1976)
• Solitude of One Divided by 880,000 (1977)
• Panic in High School (1978)
• Crazy Thunder Road (1980)
• Burst City (1982)
• The Crazy Family (1984)
• Halber Mensch (1985)
• Dumb Numb Live Friction 1989 (1989)
• Tokyo Blood (1993)
• Angel Dust (1994)
• August in the Water (1995)
• Labyrinth of Dreams (1997)
• Gojoe: Spirit War Chronicle (2000)
• Dead End Run (2003)
• Isn't Anyone Alive? (2012)
• The Flower of Shanidar (2013)

Short films

• Charge! Hakata Gangsters (1978)
• Shuffle (1981)
• Asia Strikes Back (1983)
• The Master of Shiatsu (1989)
• Electric Dragon 80.000 V (2001)
• Toki yo Tomare, Kimi wa Utsukushii (2002)
• Mirrored Mind (2004)
• 60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero (2011)
• Neo Ultra Q (2013)