Burst City (爆裂都市 BURST CITY, Bakuretsu Toshi Bāsuto Shiti) is a Japanese dystopianpunk rock musical/action film. Released in 1982, the film was directed by Sogo Ishii. Primarily a showcase for various specific punk rock bands of the time such as The Roosters, The Rockers, and The Stalin, the film is also purely demonstrative of the culture and attitude of the punk rock community of Japan in the mid-to-late 1970s and the early 1980s, and is considered a defining film of that subculture.
The plot is not very complex, as much of the action and drama of the film relies on musical interludes, character interactions, and commentary on the class system in the film’s fictional universe. What plot there is follows two different threads. In the first thread, residents in a dystopia future attempt to rebel against the construction of a nuclear power plant in their part of Tokyo. They race cars, party, and brawl to the music of The Rockers and The Stalin. In the second, a small mute and his hard-core friend ride their bikes around the city, hunting down the person who murdered the mute’s brother. The two are vigilantes. The two threads combine when the bikers meet the power plant construction workers and discover that the oppressive businessman who runs the power plant is the same man which they have been searching for. The bikers, workers, and punks all band together to take on the businessman and his yakuza buddies. The “battle police” arrive, and everything erupts into violence.
