Screenin’ The Wheels

April 2, 2013

Screenin’ The Wheels

Expat filmmaker previews new doc about Japanese biker gangs

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Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on April 2013

The fading world of the “bosozoku” motorbike gangsters is the subject of a fascinating new documentary by LA- and Tokyo-based filmmaker Jamie Morris.

Sayonara Speed Tribes shows up-close the world of Hazuki, an aging bosozoku gangster, and the crop of halfhearted youngsters he mentors. As bike-gang culture in Japan succumbs to police pressure he confronts his tough-guy past and dwindling options for the future.

The 50-minute film has its eye-catching, kinetic sequences of crazy rides through the streets that might seem like a real-life version of Akira. But it is also a sensitive exploration of what it means to belong to such a tribe in changing times.

Morris’s production company Figure8Productions specializes in documenting Japan’s rich subcultures, in films like A Quiet Revolution, a feature documentary on Japan’s uyoku (that’s the ones in the noisy black trucks).

Check out Sayonara Speed Tribes at one of three screenings this month at an art-house cinema in art-house Shimokita.