Post-Human Nightmares – The World of Japanese Cyberpunk Cinema (2011) | Hacker News Reader

Post-Human Nightmares – The World of Japanese Cyberpunk Cinema (2011)

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111 pointskeiferski27 comments

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.

Wikipedia calls it “cyberpunk body horror”

> Tetsuo: The Iron Man (鉄男, Tetsuo) is a 1989 Japanese cyberpunk body horror film.

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

...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.

I file that film firmly under Not Safe For Anywhere!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

I should probably rewatch Tex at some point. I remember enjoying it in general but finding the ending to be disappointing.

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.

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.

Your questions make me realise I've long held the presumption this is a cultural response to events like Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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...

It does feel there's something of a line between the older folklore and the urban, technology-infused tales, but overall it is a great connection to make. Takashi Miike's The Great Yokai War is a nice little take on the old and new sensibilities: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Yokai_War

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...

Can you clarify what you're implying here? It's almost like you believe that not having a standing army makes a country's people pursue extreme artistic outlets.

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

...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.

Yeah that is fair. I am admittedly basic in my understanding of movies. From the outside it does feel as if one side is more prolific.

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.

site appears down. internet archive to the rescue: https://web.archive.org/web/20210125133431/https://www.midni...

It would help if the images were big enough to actually be seen, or if at least I could click on it to expand.

I was wondering about that, maybe they're trying to avoid any kind of copyright claim? Even though the images would fall under fair use.

Would be nice to have an update on what's happened in the almost ten years since this article was written.

Well that was some terrible mental images

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