Death Powder
Encyclopedia
Death Powder is a 1986 science fiction
/horror
film written and directed by Japanese poet/folk singer Shigeru Izumiya
. It is credited as being the first core film of the Japanese Cyberpunk
sub-genre that emerged during the 1980s, predating both Katsuhiro Otomo's
anime film adaptation of Akira
and Shinya Tsukamoto's
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
. Izumiya also stars in the film, alongside Rikako Murakami and Takichi Inukai, as a group of scientists that have stolen a cybernetic android.
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
/horror
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
film written and directed by Japanese poet/folk singer Shigeru Izumiya
Shigeru Izumiya
Shigeru Izumiya is a Japanese poet, folk singer, actor, tarento. He established record company "For Life Records" with Takuro Yoshida, Yosui Inoue, Hitoshi Komuro in 1975...
. It is credited as being the first core film of the Japanese Cyberpunk
Japanese cyberpunk
Japanese Cyberpunk is a genre of underground film produced in Japan starting in the late 1980s. The genre is not very closely related to Cyberpunk as understood in the west — the focus is industrial and incomprehensible, not high-tech and scientific...
sub-genre that emerged during the 1980s, predating both Katsuhiro Otomo's
Katsuhiro Otomo
is a Japanese comic book creator, screenwriter and film director. He is best known as the creator of the manga Akira and its animated film adaptation. Otomo has also directed several live-action films, such as the 2006 feature film adaptation of the manga Mushishi.-Biography:Katsuhiro Otomo was...
anime film adaptation of Akira
Akira (film)
is a 1988 Japanese animated cyberpunk science fiction film directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, written by Otomo and Izo Hashimoto, and starring the voices of Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama and Taro Ishida. The screenplay is based on Otomo's manga Akira....
and Shinya Tsukamoto's
Shinya Tsukamoto
is a Japanese film director and actor with a considerable cult following both domestically and abroad.-Biography:Tsukamoto started making movies at the age of 14, when his father gave him a Super 8 camera. He made a number of films, ranging...
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
Tetsuo: The Iron Man is a 1989 Japanese cyberpunk film by cult-film director Shinya Tsukamoto produced by Japan Home Video. This, his third film, is an extremely graphic but also strikingly-filmed fantasy shot in the same low-budget, underground-production style as his first two films...
. Izumiya also stars in the film, alongside Rikako Murakami and Takichi Inukai, as a group of scientists that have stolen a cybernetic android.