“Live-action, Japanese cyberpunk… is raw and primal by nature, and characterised by attitude rather than high-concept. A collision between flesh and metal, the sub-genre is an explosion of sex, violence, concrete and machinery; a small collection of pocket-sized universes that revel in post-human nightmares and teratological fetishes, powered by a boundaryless sense of invasiveness and violation.”
- “Post Human Nightmares: The World of Japanese Cyberpunk Cinema,” Mark Player, 2011
This list ventures to assemble the few, true, undeniable entries in the short-lived Japanese cyberpunk genre. The selected films are Japanese films released between 1982 and 2009 which feature industrial/mechanical aesthetic elements, themes of transhumanism & the advent of new technology, and a countercultural attitude. Other hallmarks of the genre include gore/body…
“Live-action, Japanese cyberpunk… is raw and primal by nature, and characterised by attitude rather than high-concept. A collision between flesh and metal, the sub-genre is an explosion of sex, violence, concrete and machinery; a small collection of pocket-sized universes that revel in post-human nightmares and teratological fetishes, powered by a boundaryless sense of invasiveness and violation.”
- “Post Human Nightmares: The World of Japanese Cyberpunk Cinema,” Mark Player, 2011
This list ventures to assemble the few, true, undeniable entries in the short-lived Japanese cyberpunk genre. The selected films are Japanese films released between 1982 and 2009 which feature industrial/mechanical aesthetic elements, themes of transhumanism & the advent of new technology, and a countercultural attitude. Other hallmarks of the genre include gore/body horror, punk rock music & iconography, cerebral scenes & imagery, and a dense/incomprehensible plot.
Important filmmakers:
Kei Fujiwara
Shozin Fukui
Gakuryū Ishii
Shigeru Izumiya
Takashi Miike
Yoshihiro Nishimura
Mamoru Oshii
Shinya Tsukamoto
For a list of Japanese cyberpunk shorts, click here. For a more in-depth list of related films, click here.
