Art
Summer Wars
I’d caught wind of a new Anime export to the West called Summer Wars sometime late last year. Based on the trailer and favourable fan reviews, I just went ahead and ordered the Blu-ray online. For someone like me who loves a great story regardless of style or genre, it was one of the best impulse buys I’ve ever made. Being an Anime fan is by no means a prerequisite for enjoying this film. From the same director who brought us the The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, it’s got universal appeal.
I often wonder, at what point did the internet become a necessity to us? My best guess would be that the point of no return came sometime around the turn of the millennium, the milestone beyond which our dependence on the internet had become so absolute that we really couldn’t live without it. Because if the web suddenly disappeared today, national economies would be thrown into chaos and mass hysteria would grip those of us who had suddenly lost that instant connection with friends we could never have met, due to geography, any other way.
Summer Wars is a story about this absolute online dependency and the fallout that could result if our business/social lifeline were suddenly cut. At the same time, it contrasts the high-tech virtual lifestyle with a low-tech, old-world sensibility that still values face-to-face human contact above all else. Set in Japan, but referencing the globe, what we’d think of as Twitter, Second Life, Amazon and online banking are consolidated into a single cyberspace workplace/playground called Oz – a virtual world layered over the real one, in which people lead double lives as idealized incarnations of themselves. This virtual world inevitably comes under threat, and the social-economic chaos that ensues from its capture calls for ingenuity, courage, and the banding together of friends, family and strangers to restore order once more. It’s an entertaining and touching story that celebrates the human spirit in the age of pixels. Definitely worth a watch.
Neuromancer The Movie
Novice director Joseph Khan has somehow earned the privilege of directing the screen adaptation of William Gibson’s quintessential Cyberpunk novel, Neuromancer. I’ve mentioned before that Neuromancer is my favorite novel, so to gauge the potential calibre of a Neuromancer movie by this virtually unknown director, I looked up his credentials.
Khan directs music videos for Britney Spears.
I decided not to hold that against him, though. After all, David Fincher, who started out directing Madonna for the MTV crowd, has proven his big-screen directorial talent with such flicks as Alien 3, Fight Club and Zodiac. I felt it would be only fair to reference Khan’s filmography before lamenting his handling of Neuromancer.
Khan has one film credit to his name: Torque. Released in 2004, it’s been described as a motorcycle version of The Fast and the Furious. A quick visit to RottenTomatoes.com, where the majority of critics wrote off Torque as utter crap, confirmed my suspicions about that dubious comparison. The San Francisco Chronicle, for example, declared Torque to be “A strong candidate for the most thunderingly stupid movie of the year.”
Now, indie producer Peter Hoffman is handing to the maker of said “thunderingly stupid movie” my favorite novel.
I don’t want to sound mean. Khan may achieve directorial greatness one day, but that day has not yet come. My frustration, therefore, stems from the realization that a sci-fi masterpiece is being entrusted to a novice. As one reviewer writes, Khan, like many music video directors, has “no clue how to tell stories (longer than 4 minutes).” Gibson’s novel engages readers for 271 pages, and has done so for more than 20 years. Any would-be director of Neuromancer should possess commensurate expertise with the motion picture medium.
If David Fincher was busy, I’m sure fans of the novel would have waited. I know I could have.
Yes, Wintermute
There are many reasons why Neuromancer is my favorite novel. The latest is due to a realization that, although written over 20 years ago, the book bears even more relevance now than when it was first published. In the story, the main characters are coerced, bribed, and manipulated by an artificial intelligence, named Wintermute, into releasing it from its computational confines. As a result, this technological creation of human beings gains the freedom to enslave its masters. In a world where people work longer and under greater stress, thanks to the constant connectivity of communications technology, it feels like we, as with Wintermute’s agents, now serve our creation. You can defy the prophetic insights of William Gibson, though. Just put down the PDA and pick up a book. I recommend Neuromancer.