Tag Archives: sf&f

In this japanese cyberpunk, two “scientists” use drugs and torture for “scientific” reasons. 91min imdb

Recap:

So there are two scientists (one mad, one evil) and a depraved nurse who use a mix of drugs and torture to either give their victims psychic powers or kill them. Because of their incompetence their funder sends his assistant to tell them that they’re fired. So the scientists go all in and drug and torture both their last surviving human guinea pig and the assistant. Trouble is that they now succeed and can not stand up to the powers that they unleashed.

Well, since japanese cyberpunk seems to be mostly about body horror and fear of technology, shot in b&w and with an artsy attitude, I shall say that this movie is pretty well done. It is very impressive and a morbid fun to watch. Much unlike the first two movies of this kind that I watched, this time I was quite able to follow the plot. I don’t know if others will say that this means that the movie is not artsy enough, but speaking strictly for me, I very much like to understand the story. However this movie does not have theoverwhelming look that Tetsuo has, so I guess I recommend to watch this one first for the story and then Tetsuo for the visuals.

Movie 90min subtitled

Trailer

Japanese cyberpunk classic about a salary an who slowly morphs into an Iron Man. 67min imdb

Recap:

The worst happens straight at the beginning: the Metal Fetishist slices open his leg to insert a metal rod. Later he sees the maggots in the open wound, runs in panic and is hit by a car.

Then the Salaryman who has hit him grows a metal pimple, and then he has strange encounters first with a woman with glasses, then with his girlfriend. Slowly he turns into Iron Man, and then his girlfriend dies, impaled on his metal peepee.

And that was only the first half. In the second half Iron Man and the Fetishist have a lengthy confrontation, very anime style.

So this counts as a classic japanese cyberpunk movie, and I must say that I like it. Everything about it is unusual, it’s got strong images, an unreal mood, yadda yadda, insert everything that real reviewers write to tell you that a movie is good.

Of course, the story is rather thin and not easy to follow, but that’s okay. For me the movie was fresh and unlike the stuff that I’m used too, and I guess that I can see quite a few more of these before I go like, “oh no, what a conventional japanese cyberpunk”.

Some of the reviews I read claimed that this one was only for gore aficionados, but I don’t completely agree. As I said above, the worst part happened straight at the beginning. From then on the movie went more and more over the top, and the less real everything became, the less I was shocked by the violence. But so much is true: this is indeed a special interest movie. I guess that you don’t have to be a gore fan or edgelord, but it helps to be a nerd for weird stuff.

Movie 67min subtitled

Trailer

Movie 63min

Movie 60min subtitled

No trailer

Surreal japanese cyberpunk 63min imdb

Recap:

A man and a woman enter an old factory. Inside they meet a man who attacks them and a woman that emits Death Powder, which seems to be a hallucinogen, because things now get pretty trippy. After that a man claims that the Mu are only 20km away. Three people claim that they want to deliver a parcel, but they can’t be regular mail men because they remove a lock to get inside, but the inside of the building has transmogrified into a monster.

Well, obviously I didn’t quite understand the plot. It seemed to be about things like life and death or mind and body or heaven and hell, who knows. But from all that I read this is the birth of japanese cyberpunk and thus about fear of technology. Well, why not. What I am not gonna do: I am not going to spend endless hours of reading theories and explanations trying to understand an 1h movie. I am not going to call this a turd just because I don’t understand it. And I am not going to glorify it as high end art just because I don’t understand it. This is arthouse alright, but unlike conventional arthouse this isn’t dumb and boring and pretentious. It looks cool and is impressive and, yes, it’s surreal. Surrealism was good enough for Bunuel, and everybody loved Bunuel, including me. And I guess I like this even better because it looks better, dirtier, more stylish.

So instead of judging this movie I just say I’m glad that I watched it, because it was something unseen. Also, I eventually will watch more of the same, because this is just the first of japanese cyberpunk. They other movies may be just rip-offs or maybe they will evolve the genre, or whatever. Maybe some of them will even tell a story that I can actually follow.