I really do miss the optimism (the internet will bring the world's peoples together!), and feel like the cyber noire could help with a lot of the naivete about our surveillance state and the enormous amounts of power wielded by a few companies.
(OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWYGHqum5xE&list=OLAK5uy_lsQ... )
Speaking of music, Tabaran is a lesser known gem from that era (it's both an album and an eponymous track): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdvNFKL8h2U
Instrument wise I don't mind banjo+didgeridoo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr3iI8gg2fo
the Kora: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSD_amb-l9Q
and the occassional bit of upside down back to front guitar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyppTLuJm14
It plays much better today, as retro-futuristic nostalgia, than it did during its run in theaters in 1995.
It triggered a discussion my wife about William Gibson and how his visions play out a lot better on the page than on the screen.
Then she mentioned, without any input from me, that it seems like all the current Metaverse hype comes from people who must have watched and read all this stuff in the 90's and wanted it to be real, but never figured out how to actually make it work.
The fight scene in the Japanese restaurant seems directly Matrixesque. The second half of the film is unwatchable. It's often overlooked as an influence, but not underrated as a movie.