Akira to me was amazing if you look under the surface. The underlying meanings in this film are so crazy creative that it was surprising to me that they thought of this back in the 80's. I'm not undermining the people from that time period, but I'm saying that this type of film would be amazing in any given time period with similar circumstances.
The human experimentation done by the government and the overall power of the corrupt government was a real eye opener for me. Now that I try and relate to this movie, it seems as we're heading down the path of the movie. I don't know if human experimentation is going on now, but I'm sure something grotesque of the sort is happening behind closed doors unbeknownst to the public. Our society is slowly getting controlled by the government more and more. In Korea and most of Eastern Asia, I know that the government requires vehicles to be equipped with a front facing camera by the rear-view mirror so that they can monitor the people and to see accidents as witnesses themselves. That's in addition to the multitude of CCTV cameras that watch over the streets and intersections. I say this is an invasion of privacy, but that's what your home is for, not public streets. Government regulation usually does lead to safer streets, but also heavily regulated streets.
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| Taken from London Cyberpunk Tourist Guide |
The people in the film are all trying to find "themselves" and Tetsuo Shima, who I believe to be the main character of the film, wants to find himself as a greater and stronger being than he is now. The main character of the story could be the audience themselves, as it tries to give a fair warning as a possibility of what can happen in the future.
When the movie tells you that Akira is in everyone, I totally believe this statement. Akira isn't a person, but rather the ambitions of people. The ambitions of the character Akira led to amazing powers which attracted envious people who also wanted the power, so they tried to find it using the character via dissection. Tetsuo's "Akira" led to him becoming that grotesque form, which consumed himself, everything, and everyone he loved. It's a way of telling the audience that there's a point when to stop. Don't find yourself looking too far looking for yourself.
You make a great point at the end. What happens to Tetsuo- as an analogy- legitimately happens to people who obtain to much power. The abuse of power really is grotesque and can be all-consuming, just like the movie demonstrates.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with you, especially on how Akira at first can be very confusing. There is so much going on in this movie that it’s hard to put your figure on exactly what the point is. I believe what you said at the end about Akira Being the Ambitions of people is really interesting and makes a lot of sense. It also works very well with what you said about Tetsuo’s ambitions to fit in and be powerful. Its cool because a person with ambition and good morals like Shotaro are not affected by this hunger for power and lake of control, witch is displayed by Tetsuo’s deformation at the end of the movie.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you, Akira was definitely a confusing movie if you didn’t know what to expect. However, after the discussion in class, it did make things a little bit clearer. I too think it is pretty cool how people in the 80’s came up with a movie like this. I also love the fact that you mention how our time period my lead to a corrupt government. It’s kind of scary to think of how much power they have know, so I can only imagine what it would be like in 2019. Like you said, for all we know, they can be doing human experimentation. I also agree that Akira wasn’t a particular person, but rather a little piece of everyone. Last, I like the way you ended your blog with the statement, “Don’t find yourself looking too far looking for yourself.” This statement especially relates to Tetsuo who lost himself in the process.
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