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January 30, 2007

When Cyborgs Have Feelings

What is this one, "When Cyborgs Have Feelings?" you're saying. Yup. I know what you're thinking, you're thinking, "This post is going to be about AI or maybe IA, Isaac Asimov."

'Kay, no, this isn't about futuristic gadgetry that figures out how to think, but about a movie that is.

Yesterday I got to tell three sets of people the story of how I just saw Ghost in the Shell.

You get different responses, of course, from different groups. And hearing what they all thought about the movie was kind of neat and put it in a different perspective and stuff. Some were California designers. Some actually knew a helluva lot more about anime than me. Some were folks I've been hanging out with lately as the days grow longer, hibernation comes to a close, and we all crawl out of our caves.

Anyway, getting back to shells and ghosts and stuff. I really didn't "get" this movie. I mean, first it was all dubbed over in English (which Akira and I didn't realize until we got to the END and the menu bar popped up and it said "Japanese with English subtitles" and we both cursed because 1) you really lose a lot of the character when those dubbed people voice over and you know, it's always the same people and voices, isn't it! and 2) Akira's native language is actually Japanese. So what if I don't understand これは難しい日本語の文章じゃないけど、だったらいいな。I mean, he does. And if 50% of the audience is right there getting it, then man, you know that is better than 0%.

So this movie was one of the ones that inspired Matrix, according to some credible sources. Anyway, I am a big fan of Matrix. Keanu Reeves did better in this than when he was chewing all that stupid gum in Speed.

So yeah, I saw the first Matrix on its opening night in the way front seat of a theatre somewhere in Manhattan. I was with a bunch of art students from Pratt, whom I was running with in those days, and we were all excited about the whole cape and kung fu and judo and slow-mo and title sequences and green laser lights bouncing around doing their thing.

The Fifth Element, the Matrix, and that one with Tom Cruise and those women who can see the future and have those little red "Yes" balls that roll around--what the heck was that movie? All of these seem to have been influenced by Ghost in the Shell. And I'm not a movie critic, okay. It's not like I've watched 4,582 movies through my childhood and teenage and early 20 years.

But I do like the motion of photography and sound, along with the time bit of it. Except for in dreams, you just don't get that anywhere else but film.

Posted by Dipika at January 30, 2007 5:44 PM

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