[HN Gopher] Post-Human Nightmares - The World of Japanese Cyberp...
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Post-Human Nightmares - The World of Japanese Cyberpunk Cinema
(2011)
Author : keiferski
Score : 101 points
Date : 2021-01-25 13:32 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.midnighteye.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.midnighteye.com)
| ExcavateGrandMa wrote:
| WTF how the story starts :D
| alexfromapex wrote:
| Well that was some terrible mental images
| twic wrote:
| Would be nice to have an update on what's happened in the almost
| ten years since this article was written.
| ousta wrote:
| Tsukamoto is one of the most underappreciated / unpopular great
| japanese director overseas. I never understood why he was never
| famous especially when Hideo Nakata, Kyoshi Kurosawa, Kitano,
| Koreeda (and Miike for audition) are super popular.
|
| His movie Kotoko is probably one the greatest modern horror
| movies.
| Minor49er wrote:
| What a great article. For anyone interested who hasn't seen it
| before, Texhnolyze is an anime that explores more of a dystopian
| cybernetic futurescape and its possible outcome for humanity. It
| was co-created by ABe, one of the main creators of Serial
| Experiments: Lain.
| Der_Einzige wrote:
| What's weird to me is that Serial Experiments Lain is my
| favorite anime of all time - but I did not find Texhnolyze
| enjoyable at all!
| livueta wrote:
| I don't think I _enjoyed_ Tex either, per se, but it
| definitely left an impression. I'll never look at an Edward
| Hopper painting the same way again.
| anotherman554 wrote:
| I should probably rewatch Tex at some point. I remember
| enjoying it in general but finding the ending to be
| disappointing.
| bluedays wrote:
| Sorta hits you like a punch in the gut. I'm not sure it's
| suppose to be "enjoyable". Then again, I'm not sure that all
| art has to be enjoyable.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| I don't think that's so weird. Sure, they had the same writer
| and character designer, but the themes were somewhat
| different. I mean, even though the movies shared the same
| director, not everyone who likes the Terminator also likes
| Avatar, etc.
| khimaros wrote:
| site appears down. internet archive to the rescue:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20210125133431/https://www.midni...
| dfxm12 wrote:
| I know they're referred to as Japanese cyberpunk, but it's almost
| like a different genre or subgenre, akin to body horror, with an
| over-emphasis on melding flesh and machinery, to the point where
| we have to question if the characters are human anymore. I feel
| like I heard a more specific name for this genre (or sub genre) a
| while back, but have since forgotten it. Or maybe "Japanese
| cyberpunk" is a distinct genre from "cyberpunk". I really enjoyed
| some of these, especially _Electric Dragon 80000 V_.
|
| My first exposure to something influenced by Japanese cyberpunk
| is probably Billy Idol's Shock to the System music video -
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx2fZU5USus.
| wodenokoto wrote:
| Wikipedia calls it "cyberpunk body horror"
|
| > Tetsuo: The Iron Man (Tie Nan , Tetsuo) is a 1989 Japanese
| cyberpunk body horror film.
| keiferski wrote:
| One of the films mentioned ( _Tetsuo: The Iron Man_ ) is
| available to watch for free on archive.org. Probably not safe to
| watch at work.
|
| https://archive.org/details/TetsuoTheIronMan
| b0rsuk wrote:
| It's a great film. It's getting tiresome for me towards the
| end, but for most part it's a movie that pulls me in based on
| visuals alone and that's rare.
| twic wrote:
| I file that film firmly under Not Safe For Anywhere!
| dfxm12 wrote:
| ...and if you subscribe to Shudder, this was on a recent-ish
| episode of The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs. He also goes
| into some history of Japanese cyberpunk as he introduces the
| film.
| xiaolingxiao wrote:
| Is there anyone here who is familiar with Japanese culture? The
| country's ability to express truly psychologically horrific
| "stuff" is unmatched by what's seen here in the U.S. Is it
| because the movie industry there is more permissive towards such
| genere? Is there something in the culture that prompt people to
| be inspired in this direction.
| jephson wrote:
| Your questions make me realise I've long held the presumption
| this is a cultural response to events like Hiroshima and
| Nagasaki.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| That's probably part of it and Godzilla is a direct response
| to it, but Japanese horror goes back further than that. If
| you're interested, it's worth exploring Japanese folklore.
| Something Wicked from Japan is an interesting collection of
| ukiyo prints about this:
| https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/something-wicked-from-
| japan...
| brbrodude wrote:
| I'm also very curious about on how the deep & disturbing topics
| seep in, I've seen some YouTube explainers commenting on
| philosophical stuff under some famous anime and I get confused
| about the "literature aspect" involved. I won't remember now
| what Youtubes I mean, but if I remember correctly the narrator
| really seem to meant that there were a lot of intentional
| references(possibly it was Ghost in the Shell).
|
| Is it just something like "rule of cool" in that they just pick
| whatever seems 'fucked-up-cool' or is it a culture of going for
| intellectual hard topics? Are japanese writers just hardcore
| about philosophy and 'deep reality' topics in general?(again I
| could be talking crap because I don't haven't even played all
| the games, but geopolical perspectives in Metal Gear Solid also
| pretty original and based in actual dry research instead of the
| charicatures we mostly get from western industry).
|
| If anyone is familiar plz help :P
| GuB-42 wrote:
| Generally, US horror is more "realistic" than Japanese horror.
|
| It is common for US horror movies to be "based on a true
| story", featuring serial killers that could be real life
| criminals. It is scary because it is not just a story, it is
| real life, and you are not safe.
|
| Japanese stories are more into the supernatural. They don't try
| to scare you by making things look as real as possible, instead
| they mess with your mind, trying to make you accept things that
| obviously fictive as genuinely threatening.
|
| This is just a general trend of course, the west also has its
| fair share of ghost stories too, and Japan has its deranged
| killers.
|
| My guess is that culture, in particular religion has something
| to do with it. The Japanese have a rich supernatural world to
| tap into, full of ghosts and spirits. Westerners essentially
| wiped that off in favor of an almighty god, where evil come
| from human with corrupted souls rather than from supernatural
| entities.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| _...is unmatched by what 's seen here in the U.S. Is it because
| the movie industry there is more permissive towards such
| genere?_
|
| Can you elaborate on this? On the face of your comment, I think
| you might just be unaware of a lot of films that have been made
| in the US. The article mentioned the American David Lynch's
| Eraserhead as an influence of these works. David Cronenberg is
| also undoubtedly a huge influence here as well (I know he's
| Canadian, but he largely works in the American movie industry).
|
| It's not like Tetsuo: The Iron Man was a huge financial or
| mainstream success. Most of these movies were mostly relegated
| to the grindhouse, and American has more than its share of
| grindhouse film makers (ala John Waters). Also consider that
| The Fly was as big a financial success as Akira.
|
| Basically, what I'm saying is that I don't think Japanese
| artists & audiences are very different from their American
| counterparts in this regard. It is not distinctly Japanese or
| American to dream up horrific stuff, but rather, it's _human_
| to hold up a mirror to an, at times, horrific existence.
| buzzert wrote:
| My personal theory: Article IX of their constitution[0].
|
| During WWII, the Japanese were absolutely brutal and
| persistent. Having your constitution rewritten to forbid a
| society like that from having a military could lead to some...
| extremely creative outlets in art.
|
| [0]:
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_9_of_the_Japanese_Co...
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(page generated 2021-01-25 23:02 UTC)