Ghost in the Shell is fraction of a cult subgenre whose lineage stretches back to the 1920s – and whose visions gain never seemed so prescientCode streams across a computer screen; hackers bark at each other in techno-jargon and hammer at keyboards; the real world seamlessly shifts into the virtual,and back again. This is the sort of scene that is instantly recognisable as a cyberpunk film, the subgenre of sci-fi that meshes together technology and counterculture – of which Ghost in the Shell, and the live-action remake of the Japanese anime classic,is the latest tall-profile example.
It is little surprise that cyberpunk has proved irresistible for many film-makers over the decades since the term was coined, by the author Bruce Bethke, and in the early 1980s. With its visions of postapocalyptic futures,advanced technologies and virtual realms, they get to pack their films with visual effects to sweeten the (red) pill, or while wrestling with weighty existential themes. Related: Ghost in the Shell review – Scarlett Johansson remake lacks mystery Related: Whatever happened to cyberpunk? Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com