/cult/ - culture and media

Rubber's Lover, written and directed by an insane Japanese dude named Shozin Fukui. The plot is tricky to summarize, but in a nutshell:

A very muscular and very crazy scientist and his two only-slightly-less-crazy and very-argumentative assistants hope to prove to the world that a combination of ether and sound waves (courtesy of a giant multi-speaker rig that would make Spinal Tap drool in jealously) are the key to unlocking telekinetic powers in humans. After one test subject's very messy demise and their financial backers withdrawing funding, they kidnap the secretary sent by their financial backers to shut down the project. They then use her in the ether/sound experiments along with their other remaining test subject, a dude who used to work with the scientist before the scientist decided that he needed a lab rat more than he needed a partner. It helps that said test subject has a fetish for the sound that tight rubber clothing makes, which for some unexplained reason heightens the telekinetic-unlocking effect.

Then things, as the philosopher says, go very very wrong for everyone.

There's also 964 Pinocchio, made by the same director/writer, sometimes sold under the alternative title of Screams of Blasphemy. A lobotomized male sex slave named 964 Pinocchio is dumped on the street by his client because he can't maintain an erection. He's adopted by an insane homeless woman who obsessively draws maps, and after he does some wandering she then traps him in her underground lair while murderous agents of the scientists/pimps that made Pinocchio try to track him down to recover him.

Again, things go very very wrong for everyone.

Both are shot in super-grainy super-high-contrast black-and-white. Partly for cool visual style, mostly to hide the cheapness of the special effects. They were made on shoestring budgets. Rubber's Lover is the later, slightly-higher-budget, more-coherent movie, and serves as sort of a prequel for 964 Pinocchio.

I would say Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell are the big hitters that have lasting appeal and are cyberpunk to the bone. Strange Days has also become a personal favorite of mine. The Fifth Element has a delightful cyberpunk flavor, but I wouldn't call it a cyberpunk movie.

>>392

Strange Days is a good one. It's very Gibson-esque, while also having some cool ideas of its own.

>>393

Strange Days is one of the movies where the summary sounds generic, but then you watch it and it's really solid. I watched it the first time, just because it came on… but I've gone back a couple times and rewatched.

>>391

Addendum: Only part of 964 Pinocchio is black-and-white. I just rewatched it, most is colour. My memory is awful.

>>391
>>391
why do you feel the need to completely tell the plot of the movie? why not just a name and some info that doesnt involve the entire fukken plot man? I mean thanks for your effort, but why spoiler all this

>>403

Because what I detailed for each movie all happens in about the first ten minutes or so. I don't consider that to be spoiler territory.

Akira
This is one of my all time favorite cyberpunk movies, and probably my favorite animated movies in general. It looks great, the story is compelling, and it all takes place in a cyberpunk future.

District 9
Elysium
Chappie
All of Neill Blomkamp's films are pretty cyb. District 9, Elysium, Chappie. District 9 is by far his best overall, Elysium as the best effects, and Chappie is a bit of a mess. They all have a very cool futuristic style that is worth at least a watch.

Alien (1979)
I always liked the futuristic style of the Alien films set designs. Not necessarily cyb but if you're into that kind of thing you'd probably love the design of the first Alien movie's space ship.It was directed by Ridley Scott who also did Blade Runner, the man knows how to stylize the future.

CitizenFour
For real life cyberpunk watch CitizenFour the documentary about Edward Snowden, I believe you can find a copy on https://cryptome.org/ that's where I found my copy.

an unpopular opinion most likely, but i found blade runner extremely overrated soykaf. if not for rutger hauer's character and performance it would've been a 1/10 for me. same with some other well-regarded 'cyberpunk' movies, like strange days for example, a complete bore, and johnny mnemonic.

immortel ad vitam by enki bilal is really nice. recent judge dredd is really nice, a very clean and well-executed action movie, no bullsoykaf, good aesthetics, give it a try. aaand that's about everything i can recall right now, if we're not talking about anime.

I feel like the aesthetics of Blade Runner make up for the story not really paying off. Ghost in the Shell on the other hand I've always found disappointingly overrated. The plot and characters are just so fucking dull

Equilibrium

>>408
it's a not so good movie made from a fantastic piece of cyberpunk literature.

>>408
must be a generational thing, most of the young people I know don't rate it, I guess the visuals aren't all that special today but unlike 90s CGI they have aged quite well I think, it's all in the lighting and stage decoration

>>408
>>411
>watching blade runner for the plot
>watching gits for the characters
That's like watching 2001 for the quick pacing and the complex dialogue.

>>581
Interestingly, I found the movie Blade Runner better than the book Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep. They had a completely different focus though, and it seems like everything the book did, all the concepts, ideas and philosophies it flirted with might have been revolutionary back when it came out, but are fairly standard and only explored skin-deep by today's measure.

>>585

>That's like watching 2001 for the quick pacing and the complex dialogue.

Ah, good ol' Arthur C. "Dialogue? What Dialogue?" Clarke. I stand in awe of Kubrick; he was able to turn something Clarke wrote into a watchable movie without making significant changes.

No disrespect intended to Clarke, of course. He was a great writer. But his work doesn't exactly lend itself well to the silver-screen treatment. (Rest in peace, ACC. Hopefully your heaven includes many frolicsome Sri Lankan lads.)

>>411
not really, the aesthetics are also overrated soykaf.

Pi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo18VIoR2xU

>>391
These sound very interesting and I thank you for sharing. I think you told just enough about the plot to interest me without spoiling anything, unlike the other lainon says.

I was wondering if you had the means to download those movies, my search has only found underseeded torrents :'(

>>406
solid stuff, I also really liked Alien for its design (the horror storytelling was also superb IMO, using sexual fears and rape to make the stuff even scarier was brilliant).

If you're into the style check out Giger, he designed the alien from Alien (ha) and he also worked on some other interesting stuff, namely Jodorowski's Dune (interesting documentary if you have the time).

The new Blame! Movie was great for its aesthetic, def recommend trying it

>>602
Do you like the music of 2814?
When I OD on 2814, I have to watch Bladerunner again.
I also love me a good bit of noir.

>>713

Give me a day or so and I'll see what I can do.

>>716
thanks lain

Perfect Blue could be taken to be cyberpunk if you think about how losing control of ones avatar relates to the age of social media

>>780

I've always thought it a shame that Marshall McLuhan never lived to see modern social media. I'd bet that he'd have some fascinating things to say about it.

I'd recommend Alphaville, especially if you like the french new-wave.

It has a similar kind of retro-future aesthetic to Blade Runner, coming purely from the fact it was filmed in 1960s Paris with no sci-fi sets. It's mainly from the tradition of film noire detective/spy pics, but the plot centers on a computer which controls every aspect of society, and the people living there becoming less and less "human".

Watching it today, it hasn't aged at all; in fact it seems crazily prescient for 1965.

>>806

Another one in the same vein is 1976's Network. So many eerily-accurate predictions on media and celebrity. It's even more relevant today.

i can't recommend primer enough. <3

Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future

Pretty much shows the origin story of the television host/personality known as Max Headroom, a flawed AI that everybody seems to love. It's a short film, only about an hour long. While I didn't grow up in the 80's, it gave me what I assume was a very real attitude the public had towards technology at the time.

Ridley Scott has rightfully been mentioned in this thread before for Blade Runner, but i'd like to point to Black Rain purely for the aesthetics.

>>408
Nobody really likes Blade Runner for the story, the only thing that's thought provoking about it is the is Deckard a replicant or is he not thing. The reason it's so well regarded is mainly due to the cinematography and setting of the film.

Why has no one said The Matrix?

… RoboCop?

>>939

not the remake of robocop, though

>>939
The what?