Flashback to the Japan of 1983: Childish idol Seiko Matsuda was topping the charts, Japanese guys were trying to dress like Boy George and kids in discos vainly watched themselves dance in floor-to-ceiling mirrors as Frankie told them to "Relax." Believe it or not, this is the exact moment hip-hop hit Japan like a bolt from the blue (or the South Bronx, to be precise).
In October 1983, the seminal independent movie "Wild Style" opened in Shinjuku's Milanoza Theater. The film is a document of New York City's nascent hip-hop culture of breakdancing, rapping, deejaying and graffiti art, and it lit the fuse on a new type of youth culture that exploded across the world.
Directed by Charlie Ahearn and featuring the likes of Rock Steady Crew, Cold Crush Brothers, Grandmaster Flash, Fantastic Freaks and more, "Wild Style" may have been an underground sensation in the U.S., but in Japan it went mainstream.
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