In a world of souless belated sequels, this film is so so much more than it needed to be. It's an absolute gem; both visually and thematically beautiful. Thanks for taking the time to tease out some of the sparks of life for us.
I just dont understand why ppl dont love this movie as it deserves.... villeneuve is a master of the craft and in my honest opinion BL2049 is by far his best movie so far.... and is a hard claime to make because he made some really bangers movies (prisioners, sicario, arrivel, dune) and i even think is his masterpiece.... not sure if he can top it.... its a perfect movie... ppl talk alot about the pacing alot (in a bad way) and i just found it on point... i love the movie to death
@@vickdinvick5485 He's my favourite director working at the moment - such an eye for the human experience in the midst of crazily big and transcendent events: Everything looks gorgeous, and the characters' reactions are super relatable.
Oddly though it's so much more and at at the same time so much less. I feel like it has an amazing build up for K's character only to just lose that completely the moment the film brings Deckard into the picture. I mean, I get that it is the sequel to Blade Runner for sure, and that means you have to at least include Deckard - but that doesn't mean you have to hand the conclusion to Ford as a participation trophy when Gosling and others have done most of the heavy lifting with such amazing performances. Excepting the emotional fake Rachel scene in Wallace's pyramid, to me Ford's performance (as most of his films of the last decade) feels very phoned in relative to his performance in the first film, which only increases the sense of wrongness in his being the last man standing at the end - almost like a random new participant was handed victory in a hard competition without ever earning it while those who busted their guts are left literally bleeding out in the snow. Also leaving the so called 'future of replicants' in the hands of a decrepit Deckard at the end is the height of idiocy - no matter K's philosophical musings he is more than intelligent enough to realise this, as Deckard himself should be. Who could possibly be better for the protection of this replicant messiah? A clapped out old man who spent the last 2 to 3 decades in the desert doing nothing - or a honed, relentless killer that can literally be bashed through a wall and keep on going? In my mind the perfect ending would have been a callback to climactic ending of the original film at JF Sebastian's home - except this time with Deckard saving the replicant K from death as Batty once did for him, only to die of his wounds against Luv.
I thought it interesting that there were a lot of shots of K's hands touching things. He couldnt walk past any piano without touching the keys (he likes music) and he touched the bees, and he touches the snow. K's sense of wonder at the world mirrors Joi's sense of wonder when she reaches out to touch the rain falling on her holographic hands. Touch is a big deal i nthis movie. Things are not real until an artificial being touches them: the snow, the little horse, the piano, the rain...
Denis just do be loving his hand shots; Kate washing her hands.Louise pressing her hand against the glass wall. Paul grabbing a fistful of sand when he leaves the ornithopter. Adam and Anthony holding their hands up when they first meet. It's all in the hands!
One idea of several years ago in robotics and machine learning was the importance of hands not just as active output, but as sensory input. Hand shots could be just an aesthetic interest of Villeneuve's, but they fit the meanings of 2049 in a number of ways. Another big moment for sense of touch is the love scene, in which JOI wants to share physical touch and can only do so through Mariette.
I think you may be reading too much into it. It's good certainly, but in all fairness the scene doesn't require a whole lot from him acting wise, about as much as anything he did in GOTG1 at most.
The reason K's fate was cathartic AS WELL AS sad to me was because it read to me as him taking the phrase "Dying for the right cause. It's the most human thing we can do" to heart. it seemed that being a martyr for deckard and his daughter was Ks last effort to give his own life meaning after the revelation with joi.
Yep. Despite being petitioned by the police (government interest), Wallace (corporate interest), and the underground resistance (rebellious interest), he rejects all of them and decides to help a father and daughter connect. He had such thorough empathy for Ana's situation because he'd already "walked in her shoes." Hell, he imagined he WAS the miracle child at one point, and felt the memories first hand. Sacrificing himself for Ana/Deckard had to be the most obvious worthy pursuit. He knew how much reconnecting would mean to them, and the sacrifice allowed him to express gratitude for being lent a piece of Ana's soul. She contributed a little bit of warmth to an existence which had been otherwise designed for endless cold servitude and manipulation.
The Japanese aesthetic makes sense if you consider the national mood of the time in which the original Blade Runner was made. People thought the Japanese economy was set to overtake the American economy, because its exports were spreading around the world, and Japan was buying up assets in the United States. It's not just a choice for style, and certainly not for representation, it's a reflection of American anxiety about losing their hegemony over the rest of the world. I figured they would switch to a Chinese aesthetic for Blade Runner 2049 to reflect contemporary anxiety about China overtaking America, which it has already done economically. Maybe the creators chose to keep Japanese for the purpose of continuity, or maybe they just didn't want to risk their chance at getting a Chinese release by portraying China in a bad light.
agreed. The whole "there aren't asian people" bit is just hyperbole. We see the game Cyberpunk 2077 take this to the next level where the post-apocalypse world is essentially dominated by Japanese corporations. Night City is controlled by groups like the Arisaka corporation. As you said, this is a product of what seemed like imminent Japanese takeover of the world economy. Didn't pan out that way. But to its credit, 2049 actually has a ton of russian in it.
No dude it’s racism all fiction that critiques the real world and leaves out the critique of racism in it is inherently racist ALL of it no matter what
You made the point better than I did. Well done. Anecdote: in the early 80s the vakue of Tokyo real estate alone was more than the entire US. One company in Japan was worth more than the entire German stockmarket. THAT was the sirt of thing driving the thinking
I think the Asian aesthetic was a product of the view from the 1980's, when the first Blade Runner film was made, that Japanese culture would be more mainstream in the same way that American culture had become. This is thought to be the result of the rapidly growing economy of Japan at that time, a phenomenon that ended with the Asian economic Crisis in the 90s. I remember the 90s before that economic crisis, people in the western world were encouraging children to learn Japanese in anticipation to this new global cultural hegemony. It has very little to do with how multi ethnic or national western society, which would be more influenced by Japan, is. it's the equivalent to, let's say, American culture being a major cultural in a country like Australia despite this county barely having a community of Americans.
This is the answer. In the 80’s the expectation was that the future would be taken over by an Asian economy and population boom. In these sci-fi stories this would extend to an Asian expansion of culture and create a mixed language, a creole of English and Mandarin. I always thought the reason we didn’t see many Asian actors in the “slums” of blade runner and other dystopian films was because Asia was a post Akira nuclear waste land. The past had been forgotten and only the mixed culture lived on in the surviving west. Firefly captured this beautifully. Blade Runner established the idea and set the tone for an entire generation of films.
Yeah I’m Asian and grew up in a non-English speaking country of one, and can clearly see this The effect of cultural hegemony extends beyond immediate presence of the ethnicities involved in “establishing” them. As an example, just look at how many people in South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, etc. all embraces English as a second language to a degree, because it’s the cultural capital necessary to gain gateway into higher echelons of the hegemony and related resources. Be it material or informational There are whole demographics of younger generations who are more exposed to English speaking medium that they’re as adept in communicating with it, and in some cases are even more fluent in them than the nationally recognized language of the country. Though of course there’s correlated tie in with socioeconomic status as well, as the higher you & your family are, the more likely you have better means of affording that cultural capital (although the internet does offer a relatively democratized alternative to this too) And as an opposite example, have we not seen an active movement within predominately white & English speaking societies somewhat adopting Chinese language and culture? Just look at John Cena for a prominent example. He’s the most recognized amongst plenty of others in this phenomenon of people making themselves more accessible to a potential new world power that has their own cultural hegemony structure. In the past, it has even happened to Australians learning Indonesian back when Indonesia’s economic trajectory & wellbeing was ahead of China’s, which China overtakes so the trend also changed Honestly, I also appreciated the few representations of Asians in lower socioeconomic background, as it’s often a myth that Asian = affluent, when it’s not the case. The only thing that’s missing is to give face to the figurative “head of representatives” of this cultural hegemony, that being Asians in absurdly high positions of power. Maybe in the sense that, yes, Weylan’s the genius inventor & head of his corporation, but he’s only able to afford that space by conforming to his Asian benefactors Something that I think Cyberpunk 2077 did well. The damn Arasakas are undeniably Asian in ethnic origin, and they’re one of the forces that run the whole town full of other ethnicities. Located a distance away from actual Japan. So idk why they used it as a bad example
Cyberpunk is paranoid and fearful of Asian influence coming to dominate the west. It was always white-American anxiety and it grew out of the Japanese miracle economy of the 70s and 80s. If you don't know or appreciate the history of Cyberpunk it's easy to dismiss this aspect of the stories as racist. Racism is too simple and a reductionistic way to interpret the Asian aesthetic. It's actually a deeply fearful Xenophobia that is creatively informing these stories, and to dismiss that simply as racism completely misunderstands the kind of fears and worries that might give birth to a story in the first place. Stories are not always pretty, and that should be ok.
I was always of the belief that Joi ultimately wasn't sentient. That the holograms are distinctly different from the replicants. K wants Joi to have agency, so her program changes to fit that need. It SEEMS like Joi has her own internal dialogue, own wants and needs, precisely *because* that is what K wants from her. He wants someone "real" someone who isn't just doing what he wants. The big holo-billboard just seems to confirm this.
regardless of where you think she falls into a spectrum of intelligence and sentience, I loved how Joi's addition adds so much to the already complex and endlessly fascinating discussion about life, nature, intelligence/sentience, consciousness, and artificiality.
So she's a program that can do absolutely anything just like humans? Give me a break. I know that this is open for interpretation but I just wanted to point out these parts of the official screenplay (where scenes are described in words), which kind of lead me to believe she also had emotions and maybe even conciousness: #1 JOI I’m done with you. You can go. Mariette sets the horse back. Puts on her coat. Stares right back. Refusing to see Joi as more. Mocking. Back on her hard mode. MARIETTE “Quiet now.” I’ve been inside you. Not so much there as you think. And she’s out the door. As we CLOSE IN ON JOI... a flinch... a feeling?... #2 Joi looks out at the rain-streaked view of the lights below. SUPERSTRUCTURE looming threateningly under the rain’s shadow. The multi-tiered structure’s side BLAZES with the harshelectric light of AN AD SPIRE. A GIANT AD PLAYS, for a tacky erotic version of JOI: Whatever you want. Joi. Joi looks away. Ashamed of it. K Don’t be. She smiles her gratitude. They fly on... #3 THE SPINNER CRASHES INTO A VALLEY OF TRASH! POV FROM A MESA: The rain stops. The Spinner smokes. K IS INSIDE. Unconscious. Unmoving. Forehead BLOODY. INT. K’S SPINNER. ON THE EMANATOR, fallen at K’s feet. Its LIGHT blinks ON. JOI PROJECTS. Looks about her. 48. CLOSE ON JOI: SEEING K. NOT BREATHING. MAYBE DEAD. JOI’S CONFUSION TURNS TO WORRY. TO FEAR. JOI FLICKERS. Scared, panicked. All she can do is repeat, with unnerving, inhuman steadiness, her image cracking: JOI K... K... K... K... K... K... Her voice and emotions rise even though K has not yet looked to her to see it. #4 K and Joi are both sitting, looking at the little wooden horse, in awe. K’s mind reels with possibility. Joi looks restrained. A sadness in her eyes. There is something different about her. 55. JOI I always told you. You’re special. Born not made. Hidden with care. A real boy now. K sees her unusual melancholy, despite the discovery. K What’s wrong? She FLICKERS like before. Turns away, embarrassed. JOI I’m sorry. I saw you. Dead. The thought of you. Gone. Hurt me. She faces him. Eyes full of love. Utterly convincing. #5 K enters, intensed, wild-eyed from the possibilities. Joi waits for him, against the windows, already projected. K You were right. You were right bout everything. But Joi HAS OTHER PLANS at the moment. Moved. She walks slowly toward him. JOI Shhhh, I know. I have something special for you. You deserve more than me. I can’t even touch you. K I feel you plenty. K runs his hand over the outline of her face. CLOSE: The ruffle of her static makes the tiny hairs on his hand quiver. JOI Silly trick. Haptic static. You’re special, like I always knew. I want to be real for you. K You’re more real to me than any of them. She pulls away. Her voice changing. To something REAL, sad. #6 K They’ll be coming soon. You’re coming with me. JOI No. K halts. Joi just refused him. A first. JOI (cont’d) Not like this. If they come here looking for you they’ll have access to all my memories. You have to delete me from the console. K doesn’t understand. JOI (cont’d) My present. Put me there. The emanator. JOI (cont’d) None of the rest can touch me. I can be me with you. Only. Always. K I can’t. It’s just a weak processor. JOI A body. K If anything happened to it, that’s it... you’d be gone. Joi finally smiles. JOI Yes. Like a real girl. K faces her. JOI (cont'd) Please. I want this. I can’t do it myself. #7 In the end, they of course leave it up to you: K is on his back -- breath short -- then CUT OFF as LUV STOMPS HIS CHEST. His insides rupture. Luv steps close. Ready to end him when -- JOI (O.S.) STOP! JOI HAS PROJECTED Enough of a distraction that Luv for the moment leaves K. Steps over ahead of K to... The emanator. Luv sees K reach and crawl for it. Trying to reach it before she does. Luv locks eyes with Joi. Raises a foot. K shakes his head. Don’t. Luv thrills at the chance to administer such a unique pain. LUV I do hope you’re satisfied with our product. K and Joi meet eyes. Breath held. She knows what’s coming. Spends her last moment looking at K, loving him. Joi reaches a hand toward his. Just enough time to say it. JOI I love y-- And Luv CRUSHES the emanator with her boot. Joi dissipates. Is gone forever. ON K. Destroyed. Whatever she was, digital fantasy or evolved personality, he loved her as true.
Agreed. When she insists on being moved to the emminator that can also be interpreted as something K wants, but probably would not admit aloud. Both of them know that if he runs as he plans to, Wallace Co. will use her data to find him and learn a lot more about what he's seen thus far. All of her actions are selfless, which is a very human attribute, but when everything she does is for K and not herself, (ex: calling the replicant woman for him even though she obviously doesn't like it based on the conversation the morning after, sacrificing herself to save him) it falls into line with the JOI AI advertising of her being whatever the buyer wants. Also one of the only times in the movie K raises his voice is when Joi suggests he takes the name Joe, and he tells her sternly to stop. I imagine it upset him because she was just feeding into his idea that he may be the born child, telling him what he wanted to hear, and he was believing it. Then when she suggests the name Joe for him (I'm sure he has seen her commercials before calling either himself or others Joe as they are everywhere) and he remembers that she is actually just programed to say that, just as she is programmed to say what he wants to hear about being the chosen one.
I don't think it matters one way or the other. I think whats more important is that the characters in the movie that are supposedly without a soul, or who arent truly able to have personal wants, desires, or really feel emotions are shown to hold more humanity in them than all of the actual humans portrayed throughout the movie.
There's a subtle touch which reveals the softness behind K in the first 5 minutes of the movie. His choice to leave the gun on the table out of his reach when he stands up to confront Sapper Morton is heartbreaking in retrospect. It demonstrates how willing he is to sacrifice his own wellbeing in an effort to not cause undue harm. He'd rather get stabbed than hurt the wrong person or kill a replicant. Once I considered that, it made the ending of the movie make a lot of sense. That heroic kindness was always there, it just wasn't always easy to see.
Something I don't hear talked about often about this movie is how Stelline says she's in the dome because of health issues and those might likely be because she's born from a replicant. It's a small detail, but bigger than I think most people give it credit for.
I was actually wondering if she really doesn't have health issues, and it was just planned for her to live isolated so that no one ever finds out her identity somehow? But If you're right, it means the replicants will never have a real chance to live independently even if they did discover the way to reproduce, which adds another layer of hopelessness.
How does a replicant acquire immune issues? Is this more foreknowledge of certain experimental genetic therapy? Artificial genetic reproduction causing immune system dysfunction.
@@hylianro Deckard is the original Nexus 7. Rachel was created for him, to see if they could reproduce "in the wild". But they were never in the wild, they were always under glass.
Isn't a child's immune-development acquired largely from the immune system of the mother? A child in the womb gets some measures of immunity from the mother's own immune system, with antibodies against diseases that the mother experienced, but survived through, and those remaining immune system remnants in the mother get passed, in some degree, to the child growing inside her? If I'm not completely off-base, then wouldn't a theoretical child from a father, regardless of whether the Father is Human or Replicant, and a Replicant Mother be at a disadvantage, since the Replicant Mother didn't grow up for decades, from womb to woman to mother, and therefor didn't experience or get exposed to pathogens a Human Mother probably would've? Replicants don't have time to experience the breadth of pathogenic threats, have an immune system defeat them, and have the antibodies present to pass to her child? Also, are we even sure that Human diseases, parasites, and the like affect Replicant physiology the same way, if at all? Maybe Ana Stelline is without immune protections, but in a society advanced enough to construct artificial Humans for decades *already*, shouldn't a scientific solution be available? Would pursuing a scientific treatment expose her DNA profile to the nefarious people who seem to lurk everywhere in the BR universe, especially in the world of genetics? Would Wallace have noticed & found her & dissected & studied her? If so, that could explain dodging possible treatments, especially if the treatment is purely in the realm of genetic editing, and not just "take these pills every night with a glass of water" or "inject this into yourself twice daily" & if the condition may be genetically-treated by editing DNA, with Wallace sitting atop a throne as THE king of genomic f*ckery, post-Tyrell, he'd know, and probably quickly. If the immune disease was both incredibly rare, and even remotely a potential effect of Repli-reproduction, I see Wallace's obsession with that ***sole topic*** as an indicator of the certainly he has led many, many studies, with creations of lists of probabilistic issues that *might* manifest in any offspring of a theoretical Replicant/Replicant or Replicant/Human Hybrid conceived & birthed child may face, given the very novel method of- and potential health & developmental issues of- that offspring. But was Ana Stelline's backstory true, in any form? Is she sick at all? Is she being kept in a cage by the Replicants who wish her to be their Messiah? Before her business flourished, who funded her? The Replicant Underground? Who got her educated, post-orphanage, so that she could excel in such a creative, but technologically-demanding field? Does she even know if her backstory is real? Does she know if she's got the illness or if it's a fabrication to protect her from the "outsiders" or even to keep her immobile and "protected" by whomever wishes to leverage her, as in, her status as a Replicant-born being? Replicant freedom advocates would find her invaluable. Niander Wallace, were he to zero in on her & discover her lineage, would find her both priceless in helping him learn to make slaves who make more slaves themselves. Wallace may, conversely, fear that her existence will blur the slave/master, replicant/human line irrecoverably, and in addition to destabilizing the industry he virtually rules, incites massive class warfare in the most literal sense. The stratification that society is build upon would become, even if resisted, unfeasible within a few generations, with the appearance of freely-born replicants, who have no serial numbers, have a true childhood and life to learn empathy and emotional intelligence that Voight-Kampf Testing says is the only way to know, sans serial numbers, who is human, and who is MORE human than human...and even Rachael was a massive jump toward defeating Voight-Kampf, decades prior, with more advanced Nexus models following. Going further into the likely progression in earth society, citing historical analogues, some I lived through personally, was too bleak for me, so I deleted all, of that, and decided to say this and go do something optimistic & calming: Any society, ours or BR's, that feeds itself directly on those of the least social/economic/medical/educational standing, those with no means with which to defend themselves from society itself, is doomed. That's not deep or profound. I wasn't trying to be. I don't know what "hope" could look like in the BR universe after 2049, not in any realistic way. Maybe, instead of finding hope in a society, the hope is in K getting Deckard to see Ana. It was enough for K, so I'm going to follow his lead.
To the point about the female death scenes in the original bladerunner, they were made that way in order for the audience to be shocked by the violence that deckard inflicts. It reinforces that these "non-people" are actually people. Deckard is disgusted with himself after gunning down Zora, and the audience is meant to feel that. It would not have the same impact (especially in the 80s) if these were male characters, where the audience percieves them as enemy combatants worthy of wrath.
Presentism is projecting the present on the past. We can all be sure these are different times from the rest of history. Where everyone gets butthurt over the littlest of things.
Lmao thanks for mansplaining this to us. Seems like somebody didn’t understand the perspective he just heard and the man-splain reflex activated. So alpha!
It’s ironic that you describe Blade Runner as reveling in female death. The scene with the female replicant (Zhora) crashing through the glass as she runs from Deckard actually changed how I looked at violence forever. When I saw it as a 15-year-old, I had an internal shift where my childish ideas of heroes and villains sort of fell apart. That scene, seeing her body being ripped apart by Deckard’s gunshots, somehow made me recognize her humanity, and her very identifiable terror as she ran for her life, only to have her body so horribly and irreparably destroyed. I watched the rest of the film from that perspective, and came to the conclusion, heavily confirmed for me by Roy’s speech at the end, that Blade Runner is about how precious life is, and demonstrates our common humanity, that we are all in this together, that every death diminishes us all, and to recognize the stupid brutality and arbitrary nature of power. Roy’s speech at the end is, of course, a timeless illustration of the ultimate human tragedy - that we all must face death, and everything we’ve ever cared about, everything we were, is lost forever. But why did Roy save Deckard in the first place? I believe it was precisely because, knowing he was in his final moments, all life became precious to him. He didn’t want his last act to be the death of another person - even the person who had just killed his last friend. And of course, he saved him because he was frightened, and he did not want to die alone. All those elements, plus the gorgeous visuals and one of most beautiful and haunting sound tracks of any film, combined to make Blade Runner my favorite movie, and it’s still my favorite even 30 years later. p.s. One very big additional clue that Deckard was a replicant was how he treated Rachel when he was sexually aroused. Such aggressive behavior might be expected from a person with little or no actual life experience who was struggling with powerful, unfamiliar emotions. This isn’t, of course, an excuse, it’s just an explanation…one that seems consistent with the film.
I have to roll my eyes are statements like that. All the men that are killed in glorified ways, then a few women are killed and now it's reveling in female death.
Decker's aggressive behavior towards Rachel didn't prove he was a Replicate. A vast majority of human males treat women like objects of possession. It highly prevalent in Japanese, European and North American culture. Former US President's Donald Trump and Bill Clinton were prime examples.
I always loved Ks deference to Joi. That softness just tore me up. I think its what makes K a hero. I've read reviews that claim Gosling's performance was cold and mechanical. I saw warmth. This essay really touched me, thank you!
If you watch drive, that's Ryan playing a human who acts like a machine who interacts with the world as a machine , as K he plays a machine who's humanity peeks out whenever it can
Like with a lot of oppressed minorities, some find it easier to dehumanise them than accept we're mistreating humans. I think that's what we're seeing in K.
@@Sinewmire I don't think that's it - I think some reviewers just cannot appreciate the subtleties in these kind of films and performances. The entirety of BR2049 is like a critique on slavery as a match to the open question in the OG Blade Runner of what kind of treatment exactly drove those replicants to be so heartless and ruthless towards Chew and JF Sebastian who had done nothing to them. We see that treatment throught the lens of K and how he is seen as little more than a disposable tool to the LAPD chief who can be discarded if he goes off track.
To me, that last shot, with the hand when he looks at it while dying, to me, he is realizing he is human. he is making the same decision that Joy made. Doing something for selfless love. He chose to be real, by making the most human decision, giving a child and father a moment to meet without the fear that separated them before. I wish he had not died either, I think the people that didn’t think he died wanted him to live as much, but the movie events killed him, but before that, he was real, not because he was half human, but because he just simply made choices that showed he was. (Sorry, this movie gets to me too)
"The day you were born was the day G-d decided the universe could no longer exist without you" The tear floodgates finally broke open upon hearing Rabbi Nachman of Breslov's words after an emotional final chapter of this video (about a movie that I love very much) Beautifully written & put-together. Damn it, you got me crying again! lol
@@alexman378 In some religious traditions - including that of the Rabbi being quoted - you don't pronounce God. It's a signifier of the ineffability of the divine, and can also be a gesture of respect.
@@wyndgrove9452 Right… OK, I haven’t heard this one before, but with the way I keep seeing normal words getting censored left and right in social media, I was like “we’re censoring God too now?”
so happy to finally hear someone else say joy & k/joe’s relationship was real enough for them and that characters don’t have to be martyrs to prove anything 😭
Great video! However I'm a little bit more optimistic about the ending than I think you are. When K sees the hologram of Joi at the beginning of act 3 he is reminded that Joi was a preprogramed AI, but I think it also gets him to start thinking about who he wants to be. By this point in the film K is at his lowest point. He has lost everything, including the belief that he was human and not just a robot. He's just a machine built to kill other machines and it is eating at him. Then he walks by an advertisement for the Joi hologram. It just serves as a reminder to him that HIS Joi is dead. She was a product. A fantasy. And its a fantasy he can't get back. he stares at her longingly. But then the hologram says "you look like a good Joe." I think that comment starts to make him reflect a bit. Sure, he believed a lie but where did believing that lie lead him? Didn't it make him more than he ever thought he could be? Hasn't he lived more than he ever thought it was possible for him to be? Why can't he be Joe? Why can't he choose to be Joe? Pinnochio becomes a "real boy' by realizing he was always a real boy, he just had to choose to believe he was one. Now he has two choices. He can choose between going back to murdering for his bosses at the LAPD, or he can start killing for the replicant resistance, beginning with Deckard. Instead, he chooses something different. He chooses to reunite a father with his child. The replicant leader says "dying for the right cause is the most human thing we can do" and Joe does this at the end of the film by choosing to give his life to protect love. JOE dies at peace because he has finally become the person that he wants to be.
I would go furthrthat a fantasy looking down on joi, like she choose her own mortality supporting joe, th danger, she became hr own person that choose that. An she was the one who made joe really question his humanity an asking questions. Encoraging him. Even the ending scene was remiscent to one with her. And that seeing that she indeed as her own person that is gone, did likely inspire him as she well id sacrigice her safety. I like to think it led to a !what would joi do" moment given how he felt the rain.
Or: look how little this advertisement and my Joi have in common, aside from a superficial resemblance. How little this holograph assuages my grief, bc its actual object really is well and truly gone (which, by her own logic, made her some kind of human). How I, too, can be different from what they made or imagined me to be - even if I’m not the center of this like I thought I was (as the universe doesn’t revolve around me, no matter what this ad says).
I do like this interpretation, because one thing I think LK neglected to mention is that while Joe has been following the decisions of others throughout the movie, saving Deckard is something he did all on his own, the most active decision he's made in the movie.
"The Day you were born is the day God decided that the world could not exist without you." Way to ROCK my whole world...I love that, Rabbi Nahman, this channel, the world, and Ladyknightthebrave. You are incredible, you are amazing, you are INFINITE. Thank you.
OMG, Decker doesn’t refuse to kill Rachel “because she’s pretty”. It’s because she’s the first replicant to be implanted with memories. She subsequently behaves human enough to appear on the other side of the uncanny valley for Deckard. The other nexus 6s don’t have implanted memories and don’t behave “normal”. They’re stuck in the uncanny valley and deckard is easily able to dispatch them because we have a gut instinct to loath things that look and pretend to be human, but clearly are not.
Yeah and also it's not like she's the only pretty replicate. Some of them were used as sex slaves essentially. Other replicants are attractive. Deckar was never attracted to them because he considered them machines. The whole reason that he can even romantically fall in love with Rachel is because he considered her sentient enough to be considered a person like he is.
this movie makes me think about how much invisible and silent subtext plays with my heart more than dramatic and explosive emotional scenes. it gives me shiver when i just think about the meaning of things and how a person feels as the character in the movie just stay silent and look away.
I watched this on nebula, and had to swing by to say I loved this movie so much it inspired me to write a 170k story about a robot learning to be human. (Mashed up with some iRobot and The Velveteen Rabbit)
@@toasterbunnie295 That's awesome! I'm glad to provide a little more inspiration :D Mine was also a romance, so the Velveteen Rabbit allowed me to lean into different types of love for the different characters.
In cyberpunk the reason for the asian aesthetic is from the 80s when japan was an economic powerhouse. Just like in asia today you will see dual chinese/japanese/korean and english language things, culturally asia took over the west in the cyberpunk-verse, as it has in real life kind of, although not to the degree of having dual languages on everything- yet.
To be honest, I read that scene where K sees the giant ad Joi, not as him thinking that everything with her was fake, but that K is grieving for the loss of the one person that mattered to him, after his whole mission revealed he's really just a regular joe. I read that as K feels he has lost everything and maybe saving Deckard and bringing the old man to his daughter, is the one good thing he could do with his life. In the end, i feel K died because he was emotionally rock bottom, and he wanted to spend what's left of himself doing a thing that was neither commanded by his LAPD superiors, nor what the replicant rebels told him to, but the one real choice he made for himself. not necessarily for the greater cause. nonetheless, i really, really love your reading. this is one of my all time favourite films. and this is the best video essay i've ever watched about it. thank you so, so much :)
Aside from the wonderfully insightful ending monologue about mattering, there is one big thing that I was delightfully surprised to take away from this. You made a case for not liking the original Blade Runner without resorting to stating it as absolute fact that, "I don't like it, therefore you should not." And as someone who does often feel soft and goey inside...thank you for reminding me that it's ok to be a Lindt Chocolate Truffle.
I interpreted the ending as K being called joe by the joi advert makes him decide he may not be special in the way he wanted, but he can do good and make his life mean something by saving dekard and get him to meet his daughter. So the film is saying that where or how we are born doesn’t make us human it’s what we do with our lives. Which I think is a very positive interpretation. Which also debunks class, race or anything compared to morale standards k is more human than love cause k choose to be good and sacrifice himself. Even though they said the daughter would be the new replicant symbol of freedom k despite being just another replicant was far more of a Jesus like figure in his actions. That are actions define us above all else.
Don’t want to defend the lack of asian representation but I’ve always felt (implicitly, without reviewing the logic) that the prominence of asian culture in cyberpunk media was akin to a geopolitical statement showing the likely promulgation of eastern technology and language as we move into the future. It’s like how Meji-era Japan adopted Western dress and ideas without an accompanying influx of westerners themselves.
Yeah i find it really strange that video essayists want to chalk up any Asian references in cyberpunk as pure orientalism and racism, which is really so reductive, i mean yeah its the 80s but that was the age of Japan’s economic rise which was also an evident theme in many other movies at the time, and the awareness that geopolitics was changing, the rise of technological enterprises and developments from the East as well as major immigrant populations on the West coast and giant population booms in China. I mean jesus it becomes a little far-fetched that any depiction of Asia in Western media is orientalism, but vice versa is a-okay.
I didn’t expect to get so choked up at the end of a video essay on one of my favorite movies lmao This was excellent, thank you for putting out such a great video!!
i am obsessed with how i am not a film nerd (it's extremely difficult for me to sit and watch one) but i could watch your discussions of absolutely any film because the work you put in is simply stunning and you almost always make me cry. this essay as it stands is just a wonderful form of response to media that i am sure i will rewatch a million times. thanks for the work you put into your videos, you're one of my favourite creators on youtube right now.
Agreed. I'm in a similar boat with this channel. While I am somewhat of a film nerd, I'm also a massive procrastinator with a short attention span, and there's so much I haven't seen. And I typically only watch video essays for content that I *have* seen, otherwise it makes no sense to me without context. But this channel is an exception, and I can listen to her talk about anything. I owe her so much for introducing me both to "The Book Thief" novel and the 2 "Happy Death Day" films, which all brought me so much joy this year (2022) that I now click on almost everything that she uploads.
Yes an interesting review of Bladerunner. Clearly a lot of work involved. It did start to get a little strange towards the middle though. Some personal bias and odd conclusions. The original was pretty much a love letter to asian culture from street vendors to Edward James Olmos's racially blended charater and language. The whole movie is very 'Manga'. The comments about gentiles were very weird, so not going to go there. As for the male deaths being short and sharp as opposed to the female ones, well, the death of Mr Tyrell was so graphic and drawn out that it was practically snuff porn, so I don't know what she's on about there.
The Tears in the Rain monologue is one of the most powerful moments I have ever identified with in a movie. I even cried from empathy for Roy. I saw this movie for the first time, in my mid 30s, after a major quality of life improvement that allowed me to feel emotions. Going decades without emotions and then suddenly feeling, gives you the psychological stability / emotional tolerance of a toddler, much like the replicants in the film. At the time, I was on the run from "family", who couldn't simply live and let live. I found out that I was the product of a rape. I didn't ask to be born, but since I was, I just wanted to enjoy the time I had left in peace.
"Going decades without emotions and then suddenly feeling gives you psychological stability and emotional tolerance of a toddler" Thank you for spelling that one out. Helped me understand wtf is going on as well
@@rawnukles the concept 'we did not ask to be born' is interestingly much more a western outlook, with many other cultures, including much of the third world, ( I use that expression in the same ignorance as this videos subject suggests), having at their heart an awareness that a soul might actually return, and for a reason. This again proves how much western influence dominates such things as technology, where these ideas are being expressed, where as the very peoples who seem to be considered 'left out' of the Asian/ Eastern influenced cyberpunk genre also miss out getting to express their deeper cultural 'beauty' and philosophy in these films. This is, naturally, only my opinion, and not intended to be offensive.
I've been a fan of Villeneuve going back as far as Incendies. Blade Runner 2049 was one of my favourite movies of 2017. The film moved me deeply, and yet somehow there were even greater depths of feeling and meaning that were only revealed to me by your video. I sobbed repeatedly while watching it, and there are very few UA-cam videos about which I can say that. Thank you so much for this beautiful creation.
This is a brilliant video essay (if not the very best--I've seen so many) on Villeneuve's (and "team of dreamers") masterpiece, Blade Runner 2049. So much to commend. There is a lacunae in the essayist's commentary and that is on the character of Luv, who I think is as complex as Joi (Love and Joy right?!). I would "luv" to know what Ladythebraveknight thinks about Luv's agency and autonomy. She is clearly not simply Wallace's blindly obedient and submissive "angel." There seem to be more to her character (wonderfully and subtly portrayed by Sylvia Hoeks) than is ever discussed and I hope the author might apply her insight and intelligence to saying more about how Luv fits in this piece of genius filmmaking.
I’m happy there’s a video like this about Blade Runner 2049 because I couldn’t believe the lack of videos on this movie it’s baffling how underrated this movie really is 😭
Considering that the original Blade Runner was also underrated in it's day and only started to be reevaluated over time kind of makes 2049 a worthy successor in more ways than one. True Sf that actually has something to say has never been that popular with general audiences.
It probably won't be until around 2049 that it's appreciated 😂 I was very excited when BR2049 came out because I am a fan of the original but I didn't know it was going to be as amazing of a sequel as it actually is.
2049 will never be appreciated like the original blade runner is. It's just not that great of a movie, compared to Denis Villeneuve's other work, such as Dune, or Sicario. Is it pretty? Yes. Is it well acted (besides Jared Leto and Harrison Ford)? Yes. But the story and characters are just very hollow and undeveloped. It doesn't even remotely compare to the original's neo noir atmosphere, or the amazing character arcs of roy batty or deckard. God, you can't even compare the antagonists of 2049 to roy batty and his friends. What did jared leto and his sidekick even do besides be evil? There's nothing remotely approaching a "tears in rain" quote. Hell, I bet you can't even name a meaningful quote from this movie, because the dialogue is cheesy and forgettable. The original poised multiple dramatic questions that really made you think, about mortality, what it is to be human (roy batty being "more human than human" by the end) and so on. 2049 has basically nothing to say. It's a theme park ride, as opposed to the shakespeare play that the original was. And there's nothing wrong with a theme park ride, but by god don't try and pretend like it will be appreciated 50 years from now. Nobody will remember this movie
@@moonasha dude. You are kooking hard. Considering the trash we are fed with movies these days BR2049 is an amazing movie. PLUS it's a sequel. I can agree Leto is lame and blah is blah here and there.. but we're talking about a SEQUEL that actually stands up and delivers instead of just gaining finance off of a name. Plus, your whole "lack of character arc" argument is arbitrary. It is obvious that "K" is the main character we follow and he has a very meaningful, insightful, and troubling story arc within the world of Blade Runner which is what made it so satisfying. You got some pessimistic viewpoints you need to work through brother. Take a step back and enjoy life. Is someone paying you to be so critical? Chill bro. Try again. Enter experiences with an open mind. Best wishes to you 🤙
Thank you for this. This film has been very meaningful to me as it was the last time I went to the movies with my mom before she passed unexpectedly. I was pretty much shaken to my core seeing it in imax, being such a devotee to the sublime aesthetic of the first film. The emotional depth and thoughtfulness you shone such a bright light on, I'm in tears.
I personally like the first blade runner more than 2049, even though I think 2049 is just better in every way, but I think it's because I watched the first movie at exactly the right time in my life. it's a movie about depression to me. I was going through some stuff at the time in college which tanked my mental health. (I'm not trauma-dumping, I swear. This ties into the movie) I was not suicidal, but I was convinced I wasn't going to be able to live beyond a few more years at the time, and felt like I was alienated from other peers in college who had all these dreams of a future, while I got physically nauseous just thinking about that. And being in college, there were times where I felt like I was getting constantly reminded of the lack of future I was going to have. I didn't want to talk about my future, and when I did, I was just lying. And watching the first blade runner in those conditions is a freaking trip. I related hard with both deckard and Roy. And J.F. Sebastian! I read Deckard as someone who was completely alienated and cut off from other humans. He desperately craved human interactions but always seemed slightly out of sync. While nothing about Deckard suggested that he was suicidal, he reads as someone who was very depressed. Functional, but depressed and didn't see a lot of joy in existing. And I'm probably projecting, but he also read to me as the kind of person who had lived in that state so long that he could no longer interact with other people naturally without falling flat on his own face. And Roy, of course, was someone who was forced to contemplate his impending death with every breath, not knowing how to process the grief of that, knowing he has so much more to offer and to experience. And J.F. Sebastian was a reflection of both those characters, in his own way. He has accelerated death like Roy, and has completely isolated himself from other humans, like Deckard. He's also more sweet and less of an asshole than Deckard, so I personally like him the most, lol. It's not hard to see why these specific characters would have been relatable to me in that moment of my ilfe. But what I really enjoyed about that movie was that the visuals re-enforced an other-wise decent story about depression with an entire world that also expressed that feeling of alienization. it captured a certain mood about a specific mental health state that at least I personally, have experienced. And funnily enough, the lack of representation aside, the way the movie framed asian culture as both familiar and alien also worked for me, being a first-gen chinese immigrant. It wasn't just the characters, but how the world around them, their stilted interactions with other people, all felt like a reflection of what being in that mental rut felt like in visual and auditory form. It feels like blade runner the movie, describes what a certain kind of depression feels like better than I ever could with words. During college, there has been times where I've intentionally walked out into the city in the middle of the night, walking around, so I didn't have to think about or even see other people, and ergo didn't have to think about my future or anything else. It was probably unsafe so I don't recommend it. While nothing about the city at night is ever like anything in blade runner visually, there's a mood that feels kind of similar. There's no one in the streets, but commercial buildings still have bright lights. They felt completely different at night though--the shadows were starker and without people, it's more haunting. It's the same feeling I think some people get out of watching people explore abandoned malls. That's how it felt, and that's how I felt watching the world and environment of the first Blade runner movie. And personally at least for me, that helped me in the moment. The movie made me felt seen, reminded me in a visceral way that I wasn't alone, that a huge amount of people understands what I was going through in the moment felt like, and understood so well they were able to make an entire movie around it, where every element of the film from the stilted dialogue, the sound editing, visuals, music, characters, all contributed to an expression of that mood. And through that, the movie also grounded me, and prevented me from fully shoving my own head up my ass too much in self-pity and despair. But basically, if people ever get a chance, I highly recommend giving the first movie another chance if you didn't like it, but try watching through the lens of seeing it as a movie about depression. Deckard was coasting through life, not enjoying or really going out of his way to experience it in any way. And his job involves killing replicants through 'retirement' because they're not human, while he himself is constantly made to feel like just a cog in the machine, barely human. But by the end, he is forced to truly fight for his life, and has a real moment of connection with Roy. Roy saves him because when deckard was facing his own death in the face, he spits at Roy in one last act of defiance. Which. For a man who was completely depressed the entire movie to that point, is honestly kind of inspiring. In a strange way it was probably also inspiring and commendable in Roy's eyes, since he was also moments from death. And in turn, after hearing Roy Batt's monologue and processing his close brush with death and his whole experience the past few days, Deckard truly tries to give living an actual chance. That's what the end is about in that respect. The whole 'is he a replicant' thing is just truly boring and silly, like LKB says in the video.
It valid, it seems the movi has a speial plac for you and no one can take that away. Nor o you have to justoify it (besides its rally popular which, shows many do)
@@marocat4749 I agree completely. I wasn't trying to justify it as much as trying to provide a specific perspective or lens I think people can try to look through if they ever want to try watching the original again. I didn't really know a graceful or succinct way to fully express this interpretation without going into a bit of personal experience, which is why I used my own personal history with it. I hope it didn't come across as too manipulative or personal since it deals with things like depression. This is just the comment section of a yt video, but I think similar social dynamics still play out; when anyone taps into their own personal experiences and it deals with depression, it can be more difficult for other people to go against it, if they are kind. I tried to talk about my experiences more neutrally so it doesn't dissuade other people from feeling that as much, but the same downsides are still there, even if I've successfully toned down feelings of voyeuristic discomfort.
I like the OG Blade Runner more, even though I thought that most of BR2049 was better (excepting the score for which Vangelis has no equal, fight me 😂). Where I go off the rails on BR2049 is where Deckard ending it as the last man standing felt remarkably unearned like the screenwriter had simply decided that was the outcome regardless - K's death in the snow feels like Hampton Fancher simply discarded him as the LAPD would have. Watching Gosling's great performance that feels especially unfair considering how lackluster most of Ford's performance was, his faux Rachel response scene being the exception that does not redeem it, a few seconds of good performance vs a whole film in Gosling's case. This is compounded further by the fact that Deckard isn't even introduced until 2/3 into the frickin film! It's bad enough having seen Blade Runner to get this ending, but if you had not seen it first then the ending to BR2049 is like a new competitor enters an F1 race 2/3 into the laps without making any effort and someone else just blew out everyone elses tires so that the new competitor could sail across the finish line with no resistance. Unearned and very disappointing - Deckard needed to be in the film for sure, but he certainly did not need to survive it in order for it to have a satisfying ending.
As a fan of video essays, and the things that you make video essays about, I'm not sure how the algorithm kept your channel buried until today. Excellent content, this is the fourth(?) of your videos I've watched today.
It was amazing to see the visual parallels pointed out between Ana Stelline and K, and also to hear about Pale Fire featuring the idea of this ghost trying to tell her own story through someone else. I think that by giving K her own lived memories, Ana is programming him in her own way. When you said that K's aggression feels like a secondary response, and that his first instinct is to shy away from violence, I thought that it was Waller that programmed in the killer instinct, but that Ana put in his kindness with her memories. And the happy memories he got to make as a result of that side of his programming were part of what made him want to pay that chance at happiness back to Ana in the end.
The idea that even though K is built for violence, his soft demeanor emerges from the memories he has from Ana is one of those things that's so obvious now that someone has said it, I can't believe I didn't immediately figure it out on my own!
I don't know that the memory of the horse in the orphanage (the only one we're given access to of K's memories) seems like a particularly "happy" memory, given that he gets the crap beaten out of him ... in fact, if I wanted to give someone good memories to look back upon, that one seems pretty horrifying. And in fact Ana says "someone lived this" in regards to the memory in question, which K misinterprets to mean that "HE" had lived it, but which I think means that SHE had lived it (which makes sense when you find out she is the child of Deckard and Rachael, and was likely in that same orphanage at some point in her childhood). It's implied in the film that she utilizes her own memories as the basis for some of them, so it's possible.
"I thought that it was Waller that programmed in the killer instinct" There was no killer instinct - he explains this clearly in the scene with Sapper that his kind don't run. It's quite simple, they do what they are told and stay stabtle or they get ended. K is under no illusion in that regard.
When I first watched this film, I came out with a very cold and intellectual reading of it. I really enjoyed watching your charged, emotional and poignant take on the film - I feel like I fell in love with it all over again. Seriously, this work is beautiful!
I always love any essay on blade runner 2049 hearing people gush and love on it just makes me so happy. And just brings back up my deep love for the movie, it’s truly one of my most favorite movies of all time.
I loved this movie. He keeps Rachel alive in the first movie because she’s wildly different from the other replicants - she’s the first one to have artificial memories. And yeah he falls in love with her. Confirmed in the second movie as HE STILL LOVES HER.
Thank you again for making this wonderful video. I loved watching it come together, and I love it even more now that it exists. I have so many feelings about this film and you discussed them so well. Thanks for letting me be a little part of an excellent work💜
Im tired of discussions of cool stuff going like this: Piece of media (in this case Blade Runner): shows bad thing (objectifying women) done by the antagonists. Random people and some critics: You show (insert bad thing) in your movie? how dare you endorse (bad thing)? You are a (insert insult)!
The thing I love about Joi is that, despite being the "least" human of all the characters, she seems to have the most humanity. It makes it all the more tragic when Joe realises that she named him Joe as part of her regular AI programming -- that it was all an imitation.
Wow. Insanely good analysis of an insanely good film. I saw 2049 for the first time a month ago and have been OBSESSED with it since. I’ve been scouring UA-cam for the best breakdown vids of this movie and this is hands down the best one I’ve found. I loved how you explained how the entire concept of Blade Runner/the cyberpunk genre came to be, and ngl Chapter 9 got me pretty good. Bravo! 🙌🏼
I'm old enough to remember when Bladerunner came out on VHS and I loved that movie, despite it's flaws. When 2049 came along I saw it in the cinema three times and cried every time when K passed. Thank you for your beautiful analysis of one of my favourite movies.
I never thought that I'd watch a video essay about Blade Runner and end in tears. This was a truly remarkable video from beginning to end, I hope you feel proud of this
Your last words really moved me. They echoed what a lot of Ryan Gosling's roles portray, a side character in their own story. I think that's why he resonates with people a lot. But I liked how you put an uplifting spin on it, saying that it is enough to be exactly that, unlike many (men) that get bitter about it and feel as though they are robbed of being "the strong protagonist". It's okay to be soft, it's okay to freeze in the face of danger, it's okay to just be. Great video! And the third of you I binged. Keep up the great work!
Plenty of countries have a huge English language/Latin character presence without many anglo-celts being physically around, why couldn't it be the same in a world where 80s Japan continued on to become the dominant economic and cultural power? Dumb nitpick, I'm out.
OOOH this couldn't have come at a more opportune time!!! I just recently remembered this movie and rewatched it on a whim a few days ago and have not stopped thinking about it since, so the fact that you are releasing this now is seriously like fate. Amazing analysis as always, thank you for making my cry in the best ways.
I think you misunderstood the scene with Joi advertisement. Looking at it overflood by sorrow, he realises they're nothing but expendable products, slaves.
It makes me so happy to see someone finally share the take that JOI had become a fully realized being within her story arc. I struggle to recall anyone who didn't think that she was just fake in the end. She was one of my favourite parts of the movie because it's building on the idea that artificial intelligence can evolve just like the replicants. Amazing video essay as usual 🤌
I man it also adding to joes arc lot an thir relationship. She even inspires him, an becomes a full individual thats mortal in a way. I love how his thoughts in th end, go to her, and she reminds him with another version of her, to think fo himael what he wants to do.
I like how the movie never definitively says anything about Joi. The movie never says if she has agency or not, and it never really assigns any specific value to their relationship. In the end, I was left with the feeling that whether their love was real or not, it felt real and meaningful to me. So what's the difference? Maybe there is no difference? And those are cool feelings to be left with.
"I struggle to recall anyone who didn't think that she was just fake in the end" I don't see why, Luv is completely taken by surprise when Joi tells K to disconnect her eminator modem and destroy it. This alone shows that a representative of the company which makes Joi did not expect this behavior.
Joi is a fascinating character and reminds me of another digital girl Monika from ddlc. Both are programmed to be a doomed character yet both rebel against it. How does one defy their nature? The very codes that make up their thoughts? Monika knows she is to be a guide character, leading the player to many love interests and she rebels against that. Joi is a product made to be whatever the user wants yet there's this fire inside her. Monika can only visualize, think within the scope of small world of ddlc and deicides chasing after the player is defiance. Because how else would she know anything other than that when the reality she can witness ends at the player? Joi feels similar this way as she too is tied to K, lives in proxy to K and can only see as far as K can go. Perhaps her choosing to be in eminator is the same mistake Monika falls into. Believing their choice is solid when it was formed on incomplete shaky worldview. Geniune isn't formed when one pushes a button that's says to form a geniuneness but through persistent actions. I guess i feel like the proof of her realness is when K is down and she yells for him. After all what's the point of screams when there's no audience, right?
I think its when he says she should stay for her safety and she is stubbern, no, i will risk everything to support you, against your wishes. And its entirely possible that through him she became that charactr and got that personality, but the same time he go beyond that he quetions an goes ater his questions. Which is entirely posible that she developed that way by his personality, but the same time, arent humans getting influnced. An dont matter that she get her own unique stubbern personality beyond her programming that still is a partner supporting him, but also heis clarly hr own character with her own chopices, including, he is worried or hr safety, and he wants to "become mortal" and yeahshe still is his partner, but one with her clearly own will now. Thats why i think that when he wants to not endanger her her choosing to risk her life i think is mine.
So much to love here. I love your dive into villenuve, the behind the scenes stories, the thematic deep dive. I really like Villenuve, and you can very much see his growth from film to film. I was a dumb highschooler when I saw Sicario the first time and so I didn't see or willfully ignored the problematic elements, but it was also the first time I remember watching a scene and appreciating the craft on display (it was the bridge firefight, for the record, which manages to be one of the most intense firefights in any film with only like 9 shots fired). And I get why he can be divisive, but unlike some other divisive filmmakers there is deliberate though in the divisive elements, especially once he hits his "high concept Sci fi" phase. Also, apparently physicists love arrival for deliberately subverting "math is a universal language," which was a fun detail I wanted to share.
Well here I am at work listening to this, while doing paperwork and weeping at my desk. Well done and beautiful, I am so glad to have found your channel.
I knew full well when I see your name and the movie’s name that it will be a tear jerker. To say that I wasn’t wrong is a huge understatement. 😭 When I first watched the movie in the late night theater, I cried so hard that I had migraine the whole night and a whole day after. Hope it wouldn’t stay that long this time. This video is a great gift. Thank you!
Btw I don’t know where to ask this but have you ever watched the Netflix show The OA? I’m curious because you’re terrifyingly amazing at explaining what I like about things that I couldn’t find a way to explain to people. 😅 (In case you haven’t watched it, I need to warn you that it’s not an easy watch. It portrayed extreme dehumanization of characters, not in an overly graphic manner but it’s psychologically taxing.)
Near the end of this, I was feeling my feels yeah. Like always you leave me stunned after a video, but that last quote made me burst into tears. I don't know if I can thank you enough for giving me emotions in tough times and passing on inspiration to create.
the behind the scenes segment made me so happy. i cannot express how much i appreciate practical effects, tangible sets/models and creative techniques rather than straight to post CGI garbage. the former is true film-making
I recently took the time to re watch 2049 and wanted to see what people were saying. This was incredible and I've already subscribed! I can't wait to see what else you've delved into. :)
This movie is a masterpiece, my mid take is that Joy did evolve she aids a fugitive and says things that catch K off guard all the time. I feel like the implication is that she was in the process of becoming more than an AI.
BRAVO Ladyknightthebrave... BRAVO! That was the most definitive essay for Bladerunner 2049 I've yet seen, and I am one of those rare humans who was there to sit in the cinema the first time Ridley, Philip (and Vangelis's) world opened behind slowly parting screen curtains. TOP SHELF!!! with love from an old sci-fier in Melbourne, Australia.
I love this movie a lot. It reminds me of a poem. I don't think I quite get all it's nuance but its beautiful and it has stayed with me despite my having only seen it once. The "threesome" scene is so uncanny and yet touching. I love it. Thank you for making a video about it
Hi I have recently found this channel and I just wanted to say as a sci fi nerd this and the Cassian Andor video pretty much brought me to tears greetings from North Wales your channel is freekin amazing xx
I watched this pretty shortly after ripping through Cyberpunk Edge Runner in a single weekend and one weird parallel but contrasting arc really struck me: SPOILERS . . . . . in both, the main character is kind of fooled into thinking they're the special one, but at the end they realize the chosen one was actually somebody they had met, and they were in fact a step in the chosen one's path towards their ultimate achievement. I'm BR2049, K thinks he's the First-Born Replicant, but end up neck-deep in the plot to protect her / safely reveal her to the world In Cyberpunk, it's significantly darker. David thinks he's 'built different' and is immune to cyberpsychosis, but he ends up losing his mind using a piece of tech meant for Adam Smasher, the monster that was able to hold on to his already-psychotic personality after he went 'no-ganic full borg.'
This whole essay was compelling, but I've been perpetually in a dark place, and particularly in one lately. The way you closed the video, especially that specific quote "the day you were born was the day god decided the world couldnt exist without you" was beautiful in a way that made me openly ugly cry for about 10 minutes
I don't think you actually need to have Chinese people in Firefly for it to be believable that people code-switch. You only need strong soft and cultural power as a country to achieve that, the fact that I am writing this from Finland (with very few Americans or anglos) is an example of that very phenomenon. Finns, Swedes, Japanese, Iraqis, Russians and Mexicans, we all can code-switch to English to appear more cool or educated or just refer to a know anglophone meme like "it is what it is" or "here comes Johnny". In Germany and Finland lots of the texts are in English even though most of the people aren't fluent in it, it's just a lingua franca, the best guess to offer non-native-language-speakers, and in Finland lots of the technology would come in German and Finnish, only for it to be replaced later by English and Finnish, after the second world war. If China and Chinese speakers have lots of cultural power in the Firefly future then it is totally understandable that the people might try to mimic them even without actual contact in flesh with any Chinese people.
This was the first video I have seen by you and it was phenomenal. Immediate like and subscription. Your writing, editing, and storytelling skills are phenomenal. I can't wait to see more work that you have done and will do in the future.
I took Joi's desire for an emanator as a form of advertisement. She's been programmed to desire expensive upgrades. Her emotions are real to her, but totally fabricated by the Wallace Corporation, to serve the interests of the Wallace Corporation. The same is true of her love for K. It's real for her, but manufactured in every sense so she can better serve as a product for her Joes.
I take all human behaviour as, we have been programmed by evolution to desire and behave in ways that increase the probability of replication of our DNA. We are all replicatants serving the interests of Evolution. The same is true for every women that ever loved me.. It's real for her but manufactured in every sense so she can better serve as a product for her genes.
yea, thought the same, but when she chooses to be moved to de emanator she takes a let´s call it, non-company intrest desition. This I find enough to belive she has her own agenda and an "honest" relation with K.
nobody ever mentions this, perhaps because it’s crass and juvenile, you know that JOI means : Jerk Off Instructions. that’s why it’s called JOI not Joy. It’s really sad, someone said that it’s a criticism of the movie to the porn industry. Nevertheless it’s fascinating that we can’t tell if Joi was real or programmed to appear to be real.
I dont care if your opinion is wrong, or whatever. the way you presented it. like this simples scene: 7:02 make your video fells like a movie. too much very well edited. genius level, congratulations.
Not gonna lie, I teared up at the end, this was a beautiful video. You always have very interesting takes and such a skill to write impactful , emotionally resonant essays, I'm always exited to see that you updated!
So much good analysis here! Especially in chapters 8 and 9. Thank you for this in depth look at Blade Runner and especially the characters of K and Joi. I too can relate to the 'freeze' response you mention. I would describe it as just not seeing the point of responding though. Sometimes silence is the best response because no response does it justice. Not anger or sadness or retribution or anything. There simply isn't a response that does the situation justice because those that would witness your response would entirely misunderstand it. Just silently walking away is what happens in these life situations...
Wow! Seeing this vid on my home screen, I went over to hulu first, and rewatched the 2 BladeRunners before settling in to your pean to the genre... Thanx very much for your considerable effort!
I truly consider the ensemble cast for this (even the small parts) a perfect balance of the themes and symbolism of the movie. Each character's collective motivations and experiences all have something to say about the blurry line between being some form of unfeeling "automaton" and self actualising as a "real" human. Every character shows their capacity to thoughtlessly do as they are instructed/trained and also to passionately assert their desires as real people.
I gag whenever someone says if something is mostly White, it isn't multicultural. To be fair, the kind of people who think that _are_ all exactly the same, but in the real world we recognize there are practical reasons to have the majority of the actors and background actors in a movie made in a country where the majority of the people are White, be White. I presume these same people critique Chinese and Indian movies and complain with equally banal vitriol about the lack of Black and Caucasian characters when they're absent, or complain that the characters are stereotypes when they are present? No? Shocked. FFS we're rapidly approaching the point where every human character will be replaced with a cgi grey box that no one can be offended by just so the kind of people who demand other people choose pronouns and announce them will stop trying to ruin literally everything they didn't create, which is everything.
one of the most beautiful commentaries I've heard about consciousness and existentialism. Especially the quotes in the last few seconds from 2 different sources.
Personally, I think K's reaction in the scene near the end when he encounters the Joi billboard is actually because when he hears HOW she says those stock phrases to him, and the way she behaves, noticing JUST how different his own Joi was with him (at the very least by the time we encountered them together in this point in their relationship, that he really how very much she evolved, and that she genuinely DID love him, and that breaks his heart all over again because he's truly lost her. So I like to think at least PART of the reson that K is SO at peace when he's dying at the very end is that he's thinking about her, and hoping that, when he does go on to whatever might be waiting for him next, that maybe she'll be waiting for him.
There's a Blade Runner anime series on crunchyroll/HBO if you're interested! I hear the 3D animation is criticised but it's in Japanese and has an asian cast, writers staff, and characters. The Black Out 2022 short film, which is a 2D anime, was written by Shinichiro Watanabe, the creator of Cowboy Bebop. I think it was mentioned in the video.
This whole video was really interesting (I knew nothing about Blade Runner or 2049 except that they were scifi classics) but by god did that very last section make me burst into tears. "If I could say anything to them…or to any person who is a little bit too soft inside, anybody who thinks dying could make them more... You were brave. You were strong. You were good. You mattered.” I didn't realise how badly I needed to hear this today. Thank you so much.
Well done, excellent well supported ideas and clearly and thoughtfully explained, with some funny 4th wall breaks thrown in! And superb editing too. I am a vintage fan of both BR movies and learned a lot from your piece so really appreciate that, well done.
1:06 I took this to imply that he sort of WAS. If AI are people, if replicants are people, then his memories came from Deckerd's daughter and that makes him effectively Deckerd's son. It was a really lovely meditation on what makes us who we are.
Great video! Some comments for chapter 2 because I talked to people who were already alive when Bladerunner came out and I learned something that might be interesting for you, too: when I saw the film as a teenager, I was wondering why the style was so Asian and I was told by the older generations that this whole cyberpunk-style being full of neon-kanji and other Asian stuff was due to a strong economic boom in Japan during the late 70s and 80s. Electronics, cars, etc were exported in huge quantities into the US/European markets and fueled anxieties of being taken over/economically colonised (google "yellow peril"). This is why the idea that Asian influences would become dominant spread easily throughout western media. Also, as a non-native English speaker, the whole Chinese swearing was my favourite part of Firefly. After watching it, I consciously noticed how often people use English swear words in other languages and the idea that this phenomenon would be reversed in the future seems cool to me.
The fact that you are just explaining some scenes and I was just listening to this at work while feeling how I felt years later after I saw it for the first time just confirms how great this film was.
In a world of souless belated sequels, this film is so so much more than it needed to be. It's an absolute gem; both visually and thematically beautiful. Thanks for taking the time to tease out some of the sparks of life for us.
@@CSM100MK2 Apologies, I'm not sure what you're saying there. Feel free to reiterate - otherwise, best wishes.
I just dont understand why ppl dont love this movie as it deserves.... villeneuve is a master of the craft and in my honest opinion BL2049 is by far his best movie so far.... and is a hard claime to make because he made some really bangers movies (prisioners, sicario, arrivel, dune) and i even think is his masterpiece.... not sure if he can top it.... its a perfect movie... ppl talk alot about the pacing alot (in a bad way) and i just found it on point... i love the movie to death
@@vickdinvick5485 He's my favourite director working at the moment - such an eye for the human experience in the midst of crazily big and transcendent events: Everything looks gorgeous, and the characters' reactions are super relatable.
Oddly though it's so much more and at at the same time so much less.
I feel like it has an amazing build up for K's character only to just lose that completely the moment the film brings Deckard into the picture.
I mean, I get that it is the sequel to Blade Runner for sure, and that means you have to at least include Deckard - but that doesn't mean you have to hand the conclusion to Ford as a participation trophy when Gosling and others have done most of the heavy lifting with such amazing performances.
Excepting the emotional fake Rachel scene in Wallace's pyramid, to me Ford's performance (as most of his films of the last decade) feels very phoned in relative to his performance in the first film, which only increases the sense of wrongness in his being the last man standing at the end - almost like a random new participant was handed victory in a hard competition without ever earning it while those who busted their guts are left literally bleeding out in the snow.
Also leaving the so called 'future of replicants' in the hands of a decrepit Deckard at the end is the height of idiocy - no matter K's philosophical musings he is more than intelligent enough to realise this, as Deckard himself should be.
Who could possibly be better for the protection of this replicant messiah?
A clapped out old man who spent the last 2 to 3 decades in the desert doing nothing - or a honed, relentless killer that can literally be bashed through a wall and keep on going?
In my mind the perfect ending would have been a callback to climactic ending of the original film at JF Sebastian's home - except this time with Deckard saving the replicant K from death as Batty once did for him, only to die of his wounds against Luv.
This is easily my favorite movie in the last 10 years. It had serious atmosphere and emotion. Soulless works can't provide that.
I thought it interesting that there were a lot of shots of K's hands touching things. He couldnt walk past any piano without touching the keys (he likes music) and he touched the bees, and he touches the snow. K's sense of wonder at the world mirrors Joi's sense of wonder when she reaches out to touch the rain falling on her holographic hands. Touch is a big deal i nthis movie. Things are not real until an artificial being touches them: the snow, the little horse, the piano, the rain...
nice
Denis just do be loving his hand shots; Kate washing her hands.Louise pressing her hand against the glass wall. Paul grabbing a fistful of sand when he leaves the ornithopter. Adam and Anthony holding their hands up when they first meet. It's all in the hands!
😢so much like a real human child.
I'm gonna cry
One idea of several years ago in robotics and machine learning was the importance of hands not just as active output, but as sensory input. Hand shots could be just an aesthetic interest of Villeneuve's, but they fit the meanings of 2049 in a number of ways.
Another big moment for sense of touch is the love scene, in which JOI wants to share physical touch and can only do so through Mariette.
Bautista smokes that scene. It annoys me how good he is because now I realize other directors haven’t given him a proper chance
Treat yourself & watch the Blade Runner shorts that were released as online companions to BR 2049. The Bautista one is a damn gem. He is awesome.
It’s called Blade Runner 2049 - “2048: Nowhere To Run” Short
I think you may be reading too much into it.
It's good certainly, but in all fairness the scene doesn't require a whole lot from him acting wise, about as much as anything he did in GOTG1 at most.
Well he's in Deni's Dune. Pretty sure he'll kill it in the sequel.
2023 will be his come out year as a serious actor to directors we already knew he has acting chops from the prequel short film.
The reason K's fate was cathartic AS WELL AS sad to me was because it read to me as him taking the phrase "Dying for the right cause. It's the most human thing we can do" to heart. it seemed that being a martyr for deckard and his daughter was Ks last effort to give his own life meaning after the revelation with joi.
Yep. Despite being petitioned by the police (government interest), Wallace (corporate interest), and the underground resistance (rebellious interest), he rejects all of them and decides to help a father and daughter connect.
He had such thorough empathy for Ana's situation because he'd already "walked in her shoes." Hell, he imagined he WAS the miracle child at one point, and felt the memories first hand. Sacrificing himself for Ana/Deckard had to be the most obvious worthy pursuit. He knew how much reconnecting would mean to them, and the sacrifice allowed him to express gratitude for being lent a piece of Ana's soul. She contributed a little bit of warmth to an existence which had been otherwise designed for endless cold servitude and manipulation.
The Japanese aesthetic makes sense if you consider the national mood of the time in which the original Blade Runner was made. People thought the Japanese economy was set to overtake the American economy, because its exports were spreading around the world, and Japan was buying up assets in the United States. It's not just a choice for style, and certainly not for representation, it's a reflection of American anxiety about losing their hegemony over the rest of the world. I figured they would switch to a Chinese aesthetic for Blade Runner 2049 to reflect contemporary anxiety about China overtaking America, which it has already done economically. Maybe the creators chose to keep Japanese for the purpose of continuity, or maybe they just didn't want to risk their chance at getting a Chinese release by portraying China in a bad light.
agreed. The whole "there aren't asian people" bit is just hyperbole. We see the game Cyberpunk 2077 take this to the next level where the post-apocalypse world is essentially dominated by Japanese corporations. Night City is controlled by groups like the Arisaka corporation. As you said, this is a product of what seemed like imminent Japanese takeover of the world economy. Didn't pan out that way. But to its credit, 2049 actually has a ton of russian in it.
No dude it’s racism all fiction that critiques the real world and leaves out the critique of racism in it is inherently racist ALL of it no matter what
@@reygutierrez9412 I can’t tell if this is sarcasm or not..
You made the point better than I did. Well done.
Anecdote: in the early 80s the vakue of Tokyo real estate alone was more than the entire US. One company in Japan was worth more than the entire German stockmarket. THAT was the sirt of thing driving the thinking
if it was re made today it would have a Chinese and or Indian aesthetic
11:18 "This dude" was the grandpa of Everything Everywhere All At Once and won the Screen Actors Guild Award. His name is James Hong
I think the Asian aesthetic was a product of the view from the 1980's, when the first Blade Runner film was made, that Japanese culture would be more mainstream in the same way that American culture had become. This is thought to be the result of the rapidly growing economy of Japan at that time, a phenomenon that ended with the Asian economic Crisis in the 90s. I remember the 90s before that economic crisis, people in the western world were encouraging children to learn Japanese in anticipation to this new global cultural hegemony. It has very little to do with how multi ethnic or national western society, which would be more influenced by Japan, is. it's the equivalent to, let's say, American culture being a major cultural in a country like Australia despite this county barely having a community of Americans.
Exactly ! I came down in the comments to see if someone was going to point that out. Couldn't have said it better.
This is the answer.
In the 80’s the expectation was that the future would be taken over by an Asian economy and population boom.
In these sci-fi stories this would extend to an Asian expansion of culture and create a mixed language, a creole of English and Mandarin.
I always thought the reason we didn’t see many Asian actors in the “slums” of blade runner and other dystopian films was because Asia was a post Akira nuclear waste land. The past had been forgotten and only the mixed culture lived on in the surviving west.
Firefly captured this beautifully. Blade Runner established the idea and set the tone for an entire generation of films.
I really did a big sigh when she went the cultural appropiation and bigotry route
Yeah I’m Asian and grew up in a non-English speaking country of one, and can clearly see this
The effect of cultural hegemony extends beyond immediate presence of the ethnicities involved in “establishing” them. As an example, just look at how many people in South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, etc. all embraces English as a second language to a degree, because it’s the cultural capital necessary to gain gateway into higher echelons of the hegemony and related resources. Be it material or informational
There are whole demographics of younger generations who are more exposed to English speaking medium that they’re as adept in communicating with it, and in some cases are even more fluent in them than the nationally recognized language of the country. Though of course there’s correlated tie in with socioeconomic status as well, as the higher you & your family are, the more likely you have better means of affording that cultural capital (although the internet does offer a relatively democratized alternative to this too)
And as an opposite example, have we not seen an active movement within predominately white & English speaking societies somewhat adopting Chinese language and culture? Just look at John Cena for a prominent example. He’s the most recognized amongst plenty of others in this phenomenon of people making themselves more accessible to a potential new world power that has their own cultural hegemony structure. In the past, it has even happened to Australians learning Indonesian back when Indonesia’s economic trajectory & wellbeing was ahead of China’s, which China overtakes so the trend also changed
Honestly, I also appreciated the few representations of Asians in lower socioeconomic background, as it’s often a myth that Asian = affluent, when it’s not the case. The only thing that’s missing is to give face to the figurative “head of representatives” of this cultural hegemony, that being Asians in absurdly high positions of power. Maybe in the sense that, yes, Weylan’s the genius inventor & head of his corporation, but he’s only able to afford that space by conforming to his Asian benefactors
Something that I think Cyberpunk 2077 did well. The damn Arasakas are undeniably Asian in ethnic origin, and they’re one of the forces that run the whole town full of other ethnicities. Located a distance away from actual Japan. So idk why they used it as a bad example
Cyberpunk is paranoid and fearful of Asian influence coming to dominate the west. It was always white-American anxiety and it grew out of the Japanese miracle economy of the 70s and 80s. If you don't know or appreciate the history of Cyberpunk it's easy to dismiss this aspect of the stories as racist.
Racism is too simple and a reductionistic way to interpret the Asian aesthetic. It's actually a deeply fearful Xenophobia that is creatively informing these stories, and to dismiss that simply as racism completely misunderstands the kind of fears and worries that might give birth to a story in the first place. Stories are not always pretty, and that should be ok.
I was always of the belief that Joi ultimately wasn't sentient.
That the holograms are distinctly different from the replicants.
K wants Joi to have agency, so her program changes to fit that need.
It SEEMS like Joi has her own internal dialogue, own wants and needs, precisely *because* that is what K wants from her.
He wants someone "real" someone who isn't just doing what he wants.
The big holo-billboard just seems to confirm this.
Joi was 100% real and sentient and it "SEEMS" like she isn't to you because you are a lib therefore you hate normal & feminine & pretty women.
regardless of where you think she falls into a spectrum of intelligence and sentience, I loved how Joi's addition adds so much to the already complex and endlessly fascinating discussion about life, nature, intelligence/sentience, consciousness, and artificiality.
So she's a program that can do absolutely anything just like humans? Give me a break.
I know that this is open for interpretation but I just wanted to point out these parts of the official screenplay (where scenes are described in words), which kind of lead me to believe she also had emotions and maybe even conciousness:
#1
JOI
I’m done with you. You can go.
Mariette sets the horse back. Puts on her coat. Stares
right back. Refusing to see Joi as more. Mocking. Back on
her hard mode.
MARIETTE
“Quiet now.” I’ve been inside you. Not
so much there as you think.
And she’s out the door.
As we CLOSE IN ON JOI... a flinch... a feeling?...
#2
Joi looks out at the rain-streaked view of the lights below.
SUPERSTRUCTURE looming threateningly under the rain’s shadow.
The multi-tiered structure’s side BLAZES with the harshelectric light of AN AD SPIRE.
A GIANT AD PLAYS, for a tacky erotic version of JOI:
Whatever you want. Joi.
Joi looks away. Ashamed of it.
K
Don’t be.
She smiles her gratitude. They fly on...
#3
THE SPINNER CRASHES INTO A VALLEY OF TRASH!
POV FROM A MESA: The rain stops. The Spinner smokes.
K IS INSIDE. Unconscious. Unmoving. Forehead BLOODY.
INT. K’S SPINNER.
ON THE EMANATOR, fallen at K’s feet. Its LIGHT blinks ON.
JOI PROJECTS. Looks about her.
48.
CLOSE ON JOI: SEEING K. NOT BREATHING. MAYBE DEAD.
JOI’S CONFUSION TURNS TO WORRY. TO FEAR. JOI FLICKERS.
Scared, panicked. All she can do is repeat, with unnerving,
inhuman steadiness, her image cracking:
JOI
K... K... K... K... K... K...
Her voice and emotions rise even though K has not yet looked
to her to see it.
#4
K and Joi are both sitting, looking at the little wooden
horse, in awe. K’s mind reels with possibility. Joi looks
restrained. A sadness in her eyes. There is something
different about her.
55.
JOI
I always told you. You’re special. Born
not made. Hidden with care. A real boy
now.
K sees her unusual melancholy, despite the discovery.
K
What’s wrong?
She FLICKERS like before. Turns away, embarrassed.
JOI
I’m sorry. I saw you. Dead. The
thought of you. Gone. Hurt me.
She faces him. Eyes full of love. Utterly convincing.
#5
K enters, intensed, wild-eyed from the possibilities.
Joi waits for him, against the windows, already projected.
K
You were right. You were right bout
everything.
But Joi HAS OTHER PLANS at the moment. Moved. She walks
slowly toward him.
JOI
Shhhh, I know. I have something special
for you. You deserve more than me. I
can’t even touch you.
K
I feel you plenty.
K runs his hand over the outline of her face. CLOSE: The
ruffle of her static makes the tiny hairs on his hand quiver.
JOI
Silly trick. Haptic static. You’re
special, like I always knew. I want to
be real for you.
K
You’re more real to me than any of them.
She pulls away. Her voice changing. To something REAL, sad.
#6
K
They’ll be coming soon. You’re coming
with me.
JOI
No.
K halts. Joi just refused him. A first.
JOI (cont’d)
Not like this. If they come here looking
for you they’ll have access to all my
memories. You have to delete me from the
console.
K doesn’t understand.
JOI (cont’d)
My present. Put me there.
The emanator.
JOI (cont’d)
None of the rest can touch me. I can be
me with you. Only. Always.
K
I can’t. It’s just a weak processor.
JOI
A body.
K
If anything happened to it, that’s it...
you’d be gone.
Joi finally smiles.
JOI
Yes. Like a real girl.
K faces her.
JOI (cont'd)
Please. I want this. I can’t do it
myself.
#7 In the end, they of course leave it up to you:
K is on his back -- breath short -- then CUT OFF as LUV
STOMPS HIS CHEST. His insides rupture.
Luv steps close. Ready to end him when --
JOI (O.S.)
STOP!
JOI HAS PROJECTED
Enough of a distraction that Luv for the moment leaves K.
Steps over ahead of K to... The emanator.
Luv sees K reach and crawl for it. Trying to reach it before
she does.
Luv locks eyes with Joi. Raises a foot.
K shakes his head. Don’t.
Luv thrills at the chance to administer such a unique pain.
LUV
I do hope you’re satisfied with our
product.
K and Joi meet eyes. Breath held. She knows what’s coming.
Spends her last moment looking at K, loving him.
Joi reaches a hand toward his. Just enough time to say it.
JOI
I love y--
And Luv CRUSHES the emanator with her boot.
Joi dissipates. Is gone forever.
ON K. Destroyed. Whatever she was, digital fantasy or
evolved personality, he loved her as true.
Agreed. When she insists on being moved to the emminator that can also be interpreted as something K wants, but probably would not admit aloud. Both of them know that if he runs as he plans to, Wallace Co. will use her data to find him and learn a lot more about what he's seen thus far. All of her actions are selfless, which is a very human attribute, but when everything she does is for K and not herself, (ex: calling the replicant woman for him even though she obviously doesn't like it based on the conversation the morning after, sacrificing herself to save him) it falls into line with the JOI AI advertising of her being whatever the buyer wants.
Also one of the only times in the movie K raises his voice is when Joi suggests he takes the name Joe, and he tells her sternly to stop. I imagine it upset him because she was just feeding into his idea that he may be the born child, telling him what he wanted to hear, and he was believing it. Then when she suggests the name Joe for him (I'm sure he has seen her commercials before calling either himself or others Joe as they are everywhere) and he remembers that she is actually just programed to say that, just as she is programmed to say what he wants to hear about being the chosen one.
I don't think it matters one way or the other. I think whats more important is that the characters in the movie that are supposedly without a soul, or who arent truly able to have personal wants, desires, or really feel emotions are shown to hold more humanity in them than all of the actual humans portrayed throughout the movie.
There's a subtle touch which reveals the softness behind K in the first 5 minutes of the movie.
His choice to leave the gun on the table out of his reach when he stands up to confront Sapper Morton is heartbreaking in retrospect. It demonstrates how willing he is to sacrifice his own wellbeing in an effort to not cause undue harm. He'd rather get stabbed than hurt the wrong person or kill a replicant.
Once I considered that, it made the ending of the movie make a lot of sense. That heroic kindness was always there, it just wasn't always easy to see.
Something I don't hear talked about often about this movie is how Stelline says she's in the dome because of health issues and those might likely be because she's born from a replicant. It's a small detail, but bigger than I think most people give it credit for.
I was actually wondering if she really doesn't have health issues, and it was just planned for her to live isolated so that no one ever finds out her identity somehow? But If you're right, it means the replicants will never have a real chance to live independently even if they did discover the way to reproduce, which adds another layer of hopelessness.
How does a replicant acquire immune issues?
Is this more foreknowledge of certain experimental genetic therapy?
Artificial genetic reproduction causing immune system dysfunction.
@@hylianro
Deckard is the original Nexus 7.
Rachel was created for him, to see if they could reproduce "in the wild". But they were never in the wild, they were always under glass.
Isn't a child's immune-development acquired largely from the immune system of the mother? A child in the womb gets some measures of immunity from the mother's own immune system, with antibodies against diseases that the mother experienced, but survived through, and those remaining immune system remnants in the mother get passed, in some degree, to the child growing inside her?
If I'm not completely off-base, then wouldn't a theoretical child from a father, regardless of whether the Father is Human or Replicant, and a Replicant Mother be at a disadvantage, since the Replicant Mother didn't grow up for decades, from womb to woman to mother, and therefor didn't experience or get exposed to pathogens a Human Mother probably would've? Replicants don't have time to experience the breadth of pathogenic threats, have an immune system defeat them, and have the antibodies present to pass to her child?
Also, are we even sure that Human diseases, parasites, and the like affect Replicant physiology the same way, if at all? Maybe Ana Stelline is without immune protections, but in a society advanced enough to construct artificial Humans for decades *already*, shouldn't a scientific solution be available? Would pursuing a scientific treatment expose her DNA profile to the nefarious people who seem to lurk everywhere in the BR universe, especially in the world of genetics? Would Wallace have noticed & found her & dissected & studied her?
If so, that could explain dodging possible treatments, especially if the treatment is purely in the realm of genetic editing, and not just "take these pills every night with a glass of water" or "inject this into yourself twice daily" & if the condition may be genetically-treated by editing DNA, with Wallace sitting atop a throne as THE king of genomic f*ckery, post-Tyrell, he'd know, and probably quickly.
If the immune disease was both incredibly rare, and even remotely a potential effect of Repli-reproduction, I see Wallace's obsession with that ***sole topic*** as an indicator of the certainly he has led many, many studies, with creations of lists of probabilistic issues that *might* manifest in any offspring of a theoretical Replicant/Replicant or Replicant/Human Hybrid conceived & birthed child may face, given the very novel method of- and potential health & developmental issues of- that offspring.
But was Ana Stelline's backstory true, in any form? Is she sick at all? Is she being kept in a cage by the Replicants who wish her to be their Messiah? Before her business flourished, who funded her? The Replicant Underground? Who got her educated, post-orphanage, so that she could excel in such a creative, but technologically-demanding field? Does she even know if her backstory is real? Does she know if she's got the illness or if it's a fabrication to protect her from the "outsiders" or even to keep her immobile and "protected" by whomever wishes to leverage her, as in, her status as a Replicant-born being? Replicant freedom advocates would find her invaluable. Niander Wallace, were he to zero in on her & discover her lineage, would find her both priceless in helping him learn to make slaves who make more slaves themselves. Wallace may, conversely, fear that her existence will blur the slave/master, replicant/human line irrecoverably, and in addition to destabilizing the industry he virtually rules, incites massive class warfare in the most literal sense. The stratification that society is build upon would become, even if resisted, unfeasible within a few generations, with the appearance of freely-born replicants, who have no serial numbers, have a true childhood and life to learn empathy and emotional intelligence that Voight-Kampf Testing says is the only way to know, sans serial numbers, who is human, and who is MORE human than human...and even Rachael was a massive jump toward defeating Voight-Kampf, decades prior, with more advanced Nexus models following.
Going further into the likely progression in earth society, citing historical analogues, some I lived through personally, was too bleak for me, so I deleted all, of that, and decided to say this and go do something optimistic & calming: Any society, ours or BR's, that feeds itself directly on those of the least social/economic/medical/educational standing, those with no means with which to defend themselves from society itself, is doomed. That's not deep or profound. I wasn't trying to be. I don't know what "hope" could look like in the BR universe after 2049, not in any realistic way. Maybe, instead of finding hope in a society, the hope is in K getting Deckard to see Ana. It was enough for K, so I'm going to follow his lead.
To the point about the female death scenes in the original bladerunner, they were made that way in order for the audience to be shocked by the violence that deckard inflicts. It reinforces that these "non-people" are actually people. Deckard is disgusted with himself after gunning down Zora, and the audience is meant to feel that. It would not have the same impact (especially in the 80s) if these were male characters, where the audience percieves them as enemy combatants worthy of wrath.
Also the whole final scene is about a guy dying
Presentism is projecting the present on the past. We can all be sure these are different times from the rest of history. Where everyone gets butthurt over the littlest of things.
Lmao thanks for mansplaining this to us. Seems like somebody didn’t understand the perspective he just heard and the man-splain reflex activated. So alpha!
@@merder1414 seriously? Lmao.
@@ltcuddles685 no shit
It’s ironic that you describe Blade Runner as reveling in female death. The scene with the female replicant (Zhora) crashing through the glass as she runs from Deckard actually changed how I looked at violence forever. When I saw it as a 15-year-old, I had an internal shift where my childish ideas of heroes and villains sort of fell apart. That scene, seeing her body being ripped apart by Deckard’s gunshots, somehow made me recognize her humanity, and her very identifiable terror as she ran for her life, only to have her body so horribly and irreparably destroyed. I watched the rest of the film from that perspective, and came to the conclusion, heavily confirmed for me by Roy’s speech at the end, that Blade Runner is about how precious life is, and demonstrates our common humanity, that we are all in this together, that every death diminishes us all, and to recognize the stupid brutality and arbitrary nature of power.
Roy’s speech at the end is, of course, a timeless illustration of the ultimate human tragedy - that we all must face death, and everything we’ve ever cared about, everything we were, is lost forever. But why did Roy save Deckard in the first place? I believe it was precisely because, knowing he was in his final moments, all life became precious to him. He didn’t want his last act to be the death of another person - even the person who had just killed his last friend. And of course, he saved him because he was frightened, and he did not want to die alone.
All those elements, plus the gorgeous visuals and one of most beautiful and haunting sound tracks of any film, combined to make Blade Runner my favorite movie, and it’s still my favorite even 30 years later.
p.s. One very big additional clue that Deckard was a replicant was how he treated Rachel when he was sexually aroused. Such aggressive behavior might be expected from a person with little or no actual life experience who was struggling with powerful, unfamiliar emotions. This isn’t, of course, an excuse, it’s just an explanation…one that seems consistent with the film.
I have to roll my eyes are statements like that. All the men that are killed in glorified ways, then a few women are killed and now it's reveling in female death.
Don't take what she says super seriously - she has like one lens to see things through.
Decker's aggressive behavior towards Rachel didn't prove he was a Replicate. A vast majority of human males treat women like objects of possession. It highly prevalent in Japanese, European and North American culture. Former US President's Donald Trump and Bill Clinton were prime examples.
I always loved Ks deference to Joi. That softness just tore me up. I think its what makes K a hero. I've read reviews that claim Gosling's performance was cold and mechanical. I saw warmth. This essay really touched me, thank you!
you and me saw that warmth :´)
If you watch drive, that's Ryan playing a human who acts like a machine who interacts with the world as a machine , as K he plays a machine who's humanity peeks out whenever it can
Like with a lot of oppressed minorities, some find it easier to dehumanise them than accept we're mistreating humans. I think that's what we're seeing in K.
Those same kind of reviewers probably got nothing from the original Blade Runner, some people just don't get it.
@@Sinewmire I don't think that's it - I think some reviewers just cannot appreciate the subtleties in these kind of films and performances.
The entirety of BR2049 is like a critique on slavery as a match to the open question in the OG Blade Runner of what kind of treatment exactly drove those replicants to be so heartless and ruthless towards Chew and JF Sebastian who had done nothing to them.
We see that treatment throught the lens of K and how he is seen as little more than a disposable tool to the LAPD chief who can be discarded if he goes off track.
To me, that last shot, with the hand when he looks at it while dying, to me, he is realizing he is human. he is making the same decision that Joy made. Doing something for selfless love. He chose to be real, by making the most human decision, giving a child and father a moment to meet without the fear that separated them before.
I wish he had not died either, I think the people that didn’t think he died wanted him to live as much, but the movie events killed him, but before that, he was real, not because he was half human, but because he just simply made choices that showed he was. (Sorry, this movie gets to me too)
"The day you were born was the day G-d decided the universe could no longer exist without you"
The tear floodgates finally broke open upon hearing Rabbi Nachman of Breslov's words after an emotional final chapter of this video (about a movie that I love very much)
Beautifully written & put-together. Damn it, you got me crying again! lol
That quote punched me right in the gut too. Well said.
Why did you censor “God”?
@@alexman378 In some religious traditions - including that of the Rabbi being quoted - you don't pronounce God. It's a signifier of the ineffability of the divine, and can also be a gesture of respect.
@@wyndgrove9452 Right… OK, I haven’t heard this one before, but with the way I keep seeing normal words getting censored left and right in social media, I was like “we’re censoring God too now?”
Exactly my sentiment, immediately burst into tears.
so happy to finally hear someone else say joy & k/joe’s relationship was real enough for them and that characters don’t have to be martyrs to prove anything 😭
Great video! However I'm a little bit more optimistic about the ending than I think you are. When K sees the hologram of Joi at the beginning of act 3 he is reminded that Joi was a preprogramed AI, but I think it also gets him to start thinking about who he wants to be. By this point in the film K is at his lowest point. He has lost everything, including the belief that he was human and not just a robot. He's just a machine built to kill other machines and it is eating at him. Then he walks by an advertisement for the Joi hologram. It just serves as a reminder to him that HIS Joi is dead. She was a product. A fantasy. And its a fantasy he can't get back. he stares at her longingly. But then the hologram says "you look like a good Joe." I think that comment starts to make him reflect a bit. Sure, he believed a lie but where did believing that lie lead him? Didn't it make him more than he ever thought he could be? Hasn't he lived more than he ever thought it was possible for him to be? Why can't he be Joe? Why can't he choose to be Joe? Pinnochio becomes a "real boy' by realizing he was always a real boy, he just had to choose to believe he was one. Now he has two choices. He can choose between going back to murdering for his bosses at the LAPD, or he can start killing for the replicant resistance, beginning with Deckard. Instead, he chooses something different. He chooses to reunite a father with his child. The replicant leader says "dying for the right cause is the most human thing we can do" and Joe does this at the end of the film by choosing to give his life to protect love. JOE dies at peace because he has finally become the person that he wants to be.
I would go furthrthat a fantasy looking down on joi, like she choose her own mortality supporting joe, th danger, she became hr own person that choose that. An she was the one who made joe really question his humanity an asking questions. Encoraging him.
Even the ending scene was remiscent to one with her. And that seeing that she indeed as her own person that is gone, did likely inspire him as she well id sacrigice her safety.
I like to think it led to a !what would joi do" moment given how he felt the rain.
Or: look how little this advertisement and my Joi have in common, aside from a superficial resemblance. How little this holograph assuages my grief, bc its actual object really is well and truly gone (which, by her own logic, made her some kind of human). How I, too, can be different from what they made or imagined me to be - even if I’m not the center of this like I thought I was (as the universe doesn’t revolve around me, no matter what this ad says).
"Pinnochio becomes a "real boy' by realizing he was always a real boy" is a super cool idea
I do like this interpretation, because one thing I think LK neglected to mention is that while Joe has been following the decisions of others throughout the movie, saving Deckard is something he did all on his own, the most active decision he's made in the movie.
@@gorimbaud Yep :)
"The Day you were born is the day God decided that the world could not exist without you." Way to ROCK my whole world...I love that, Rabbi Nahman, this channel, the world, and Ladyknightthebrave. You are incredible, you are amazing, you are INFINITE. Thank you.
OMG, Decker doesn’t refuse to kill Rachel “because she’s pretty”. It’s because she’s the first replicant to be implanted with memories. She subsequently behaves human enough to appear on the other side of the uncanny valley for Deckard. The other nexus 6s don’t have implanted memories and don’t behave “normal”. They’re stuck in the uncanny valley and deckard is easily able to dispatch them because we have a gut instinct to loath things that look and pretend to be human, but clearly are not.
@@anhleroyshe watched it more than once tho. That wasn’t the only time
Yeah and also it's not like she's the only pretty replicate. Some of them were used as sex slaves essentially. Other replicants are attractive. Deckar was never attracted to them because he considered them machines. The whole reason that he can even romantically fall in love with Rachel is because he considered her sentient enough to be considered a person like he is.
Also, he outright says he owned her one for saving his life
@@MarkustempestIn the book, Rachel and Prim are the same model.
He tried to rape her the moment they were alone
this movie makes me think about how much invisible and silent subtext plays with my heart more than dramatic and explosive emotional scenes. it gives me shiver when i just think about the meaning of things and how a person feels as the character in the movie just stay silent and look away.
I watched this on nebula, and had to swing by to say I loved this movie so much it inspired me to write a 170k story about a robot learning to be human. (Mashed up with some iRobot and The Velveteen Rabbit)
That’s an excellent idea, using the velveteen rabbit. I’m also writing a transhuman AI story, thanks for the reference!
@@toasterbunnie295 That's awesome! I'm glad to provide a little more inspiration :D Mine was also a romance, so the Velveteen Rabbit allowed me to lean into different types of love for the different characters.
The Velveteen Rabbit.... 🥺
this sounds awesome! Where can I read your piece?
@@PhoenixWrites2309 are you cool with fanfiction? Specifically gay fanfiction about Supernatural characters Dean and Castiel? 😅
In cyberpunk the reason for the asian aesthetic is from the 80s when japan was an economic powerhouse. Just like in asia today you will see dual chinese/japanese/korean and english language things, culturally asia took over the west in the cyberpunk-verse, as it has in real life kind of, although not to the degree of having dual languages on everything- yet.
To be honest, I read that scene where K sees the giant ad Joi, not as him thinking that everything with her was fake, but that K is grieving for the loss of the one person that mattered to him, after his whole mission revealed he's really just a regular joe. I read that as K feels he has lost everything and maybe saving Deckard and bringing the old man to his daughter, is the one good thing he could do with his life.
In the end, i feel K died because he was emotionally rock bottom, and he wanted to spend what's left of himself doing a thing that was neither commanded by his LAPD superiors, nor what the replicant rebels told him to, but the one real choice he made for himself. not necessarily for the greater cause.
nonetheless, i really, really love your reading. this is one of my all time favourite films. and this is the best video essay i've ever watched about it.
thank you so, so much :)
Aside from the wonderfully insightful ending monologue about mattering, there is one big thing that I was delightfully surprised to take away from this.
You made a case for not liking the original Blade Runner without resorting to stating it as absolute fact that, "I don't like it, therefore you should not."
And as someone who does often feel soft and goey inside...thank you for reminding me that it's ok to be a Lindt Chocolate Truffle.
I interpreted the ending as K being called joe by the joi advert makes him decide he may not be special in the way he wanted, but he can do good and make his life mean something by saving dekard and get him to meet his daughter. So the film is saying that where or how we are born doesn’t make us human it’s what we do with our lives. Which I think is a very positive interpretation. Which also debunks class, race or anything compared to morale standards k is more human than love cause k choose to be good and sacrifice himself. Even though they said the daughter would be the new replicant symbol of freedom k despite being just another replicant was far more of a Jesus like figure in his actions. That are actions define us above all else.
Don’t want to defend the lack of asian representation but I’ve always felt (implicitly, without reviewing the logic) that the prominence of asian culture in cyberpunk media was akin to a geopolitical statement showing the likely promulgation of eastern technology and language as we move into the future. It’s like how Meji-era Japan adopted Western dress and ideas without an accompanying influx of westerners themselves.
you need re-education. You're guilty of thought crime.
@@jaimeruiz7837 doesn't realize most of the world isn't america :D
Yeah i find it really strange that video essayists want to chalk up any Asian references in cyberpunk as pure orientalism and racism, which is really so reductive, i mean yeah its the 80s but that was the age of Japan’s economic rise which was also an evident theme in many other movies at the time, and the awareness that geopolitics was changing, the rise of technological enterprises and developments from the East as well as major immigrant populations on the West coast and giant population booms in China. I mean jesus it becomes a little far-fetched that any depiction of Asia in Western media is orientalism, but vice versa is a-okay.
It's almost like you can appreciate different cultures and their styles without importing those of that culture into your home. What a concept hey
I didn’t expect to get so choked up at the end of a video essay on one of my favorite movies lmao
This was excellent, thank you for putting out such a great video!!
i am obsessed with how i am not a film nerd (it's extremely difficult for me to sit and watch one) but i could watch your discussions of absolutely any film because the work you put in is simply stunning and you almost always make me cry. this essay as it stands is just a wonderful form of response to media that i am sure i will rewatch a million times. thanks for the work you put into your videos, you're one of my favourite creators on youtube right now.
Agreed. I'm in a similar boat with this channel. While I am somewhat of a film nerd, I'm also a massive procrastinator with a short attention span, and there's so much I haven't seen. And I typically only watch video essays for content that I *have* seen, otherwise it makes no sense to me without context. But this channel is an exception, and I can listen to her talk about anything. I owe her so much for introducing me both to "The Book Thief" novel and the 2 "Happy Death Day" films, which all brought me so much joy this year (2022) that I now click on almost everything that she uploads.
Yes an interesting review of Bladerunner. Clearly a lot of work involved. It did start to get a little strange towards the middle though. Some personal bias and odd conclusions. The original was pretty much a love letter to asian culture from street vendors to Edward James Olmos's racially blended charater and language. The whole movie is very 'Manga'. The comments about gentiles were very weird, so not going to go there. As for the male deaths being short and sharp as opposed to the female ones, well, the death of Mr Tyrell was so graphic and drawn out that it was practically snuff porn, so I don't know what she's on about there.
The origami unicorn is telling Deckard that he's been there, had the opportunity to retire her and is letting them run.
The Tears in the Rain monologue is one of the most powerful moments I have ever identified with in a movie. I even cried from empathy for Roy. I saw this movie for the first time, in my mid 30s, after a major quality of life improvement that allowed me to feel emotions. Going decades without emotions and then suddenly feeling, gives you the psychological stability / emotional tolerance of a toddler, much like the replicants in the film. At the time, I was on the run from "family", who couldn't simply live and let live. I found out that I was the product of a rape. I didn't ask to be born, but since I was, I just wanted to enjoy the time I had left in peace.
I love this, i'm happy you're here
It was improvised by Rutger Hauer if I recall correctly; not in the original script.
"Going decades without emotions and then suddenly feeling gives you psychological stability and emotional tolerance of a toddler"
Thank you for spelling that one out. Helped me understand wtf is going on as well
Dam. That's deep. Thanks for sharing. No body asks to be born and we are all cogs in the divine machine of genetic replication.
@@rawnukles the concept 'we did not ask to be born' is interestingly much more a western outlook, with many other cultures, including much of the third world, ( I use that expression in the same ignorance as this videos subject suggests), having at their heart an awareness that a soul might actually return, and for a reason. This again proves how much western influence dominates such things as technology, where these ideas are being expressed, where as the very peoples who seem to be considered 'left out' of the Asian/ Eastern influenced cyberpunk genre also miss out getting to express their deeper cultural 'beauty' and philosophy in these films. This is, naturally, only my opinion, and not intended to be offensive.
K doesn't kill his own kind...his kind doesn't run.
I've been a fan of Villeneuve going back as far as Incendies. Blade Runner 2049 was one of my favourite movies of 2017. The film moved me deeply, and yet somehow there were even greater depths of feeling and meaning that were only revealed to me by your video. I sobbed repeatedly while watching it, and there are very few UA-cam videos about which I can say that. Thank you so much for this beautiful creation.
This is a brilliant video essay (if not the very best--I've seen so many) on Villeneuve's (and "team of dreamers") masterpiece, Blade Runner 2049. So much to commend. There is a lacunae in the essayist's commentary and that is on the character of Luv, who I think is as complex as Joi (Love and Joy right?!). I would "luv" to know what Ladythebraveknight thinks about Luv's agency and autonomy. She is clearly not simply Wallace's blindly obedient and submissive "angel." There seem to be more to her character (wonderfully and subtly portrayed by Sylvia Hoeks) than is ever discussed and I hope the author might apply her insight and intelligence to saying more about how Luv fits in this piece of genius filmmaking.
I’m happy there’s a video like this about Blade Runner 2049 because I couldn’t believe the lack of videos on this movie it’s baffling how underrated this movie really is 😭
Considering that the original Blade Runner was also underrated in it's day and only started to be reevaluated over time kind of makes 2049 a worthy successor in more ways than one. True Sf that actually has something to say has never been that popular with general audiences.
It probably won't be until around 2049 that it's appreciated 😂
I was very excited when BR2049 came out because I am a fan of the original but I didn't know it was going to be as amazing of a sequel as it actually is.
There's a Movies with Mikey episode on it that you should check out if you haven't already.
2049 will never be appreciated like the original blade runner is. It's just not that great of a movie, compared to Denis Villeneuve's other work, such as Dune, or Sicario. Is it pretty? Yes. Is it well acted (besides Jared Leto and Harrison Ford)? Yes. But the story and characters are just very hollow and undeveloped. It doesn't even remotely compare to the original's neo noir atmosphere, or the amazing character arcs of roy batty or deckard. God, you can't even compare the antagonists of 2049 to roy batty and his friends. What did jared leto and his sidekick even do besides be evil? There's nothing remotely approaching a "tears in rain" quote. Hell, I bet you can't even name a meaningful quote from this movie, because the dialogue is cheesy and forgettable. The original poised multiple dramatic questions that really made you think, about mortality, what it is to be human (roy batty being "more human than human" by the end) and so on. 2049 has basically nothing to say. It's a theme park ride, as opposed to the shakespeare play that the original was. And there's nothing wrong with a theme park ride, but by god don't try and pretend like it will be appreciated 50 years from now. Nobody will remember this movie
@@moonasha dude. You are kooking hard. Considering the trash we are fed with movies these days BR2049 is an amazing movie. PLUS it's a sequel. I can agree Leto is lame and blah is blah here and there.. but we're talking about a SEQUEL that actually stands up and delivers instead of just gaining finance off of a name. Plus, your whole "lack of character arc" argument is arbitrary. It is obvious that "K" is the main character we follow and he has a very meaningful, insightful, and troubling story arc within the world of Blade Runner which is what made it so satisfying. You got some pessimistic viewpoints you need to work through brother. Take a step back and enjoy life. Is someone paying you to be so critical? Chill bro. Try again. Enter experiences with an open mind. Best wishes to you 🤙
Thank you for this. This film has been very meaningful to me as it was the last time I went to the movies with my mom before she passed unexpectedly. I was pretty much shaken to my core seeing it in imax, being such a devotee to the sublime aesthetic of the first film. The emotional depth and thoughtfulness you shone such a bright light on, I'm in tears.
I personally like the first blade runner more than 2049, even though I think 2049 is just better in every way, but I think it's because I watched the first movie at exactly the right time in my life. it's a movie about depression to me. I was going through some stuff at the time in college which tanked my mental health. (I'm not trauma-dumping, I swear. This ties into the movie) I was not suicidal, but I was convinced I wasn't going to be able to live beyond a few more years at the time, and felt like I was alienated from other peers in college who had all these dreams of a future, while I got physically nauseous just thinking about that. And being in college, there were times where I felt like I was getting constantly reminded of the lack of future I was going to have. I didn't want to talk about my future, and when I did, I was just lying.
And watching the first blade runner in those conditions is a freaking trip. I related hard with both deckard and Roy. And J.F. Sebastian!
I read Deckard as someone who was completely alienated and cut off from other humans. He desperately craved human interactions but always seemed slightly out of sync. While nothing about Deckard suggested that he was suicidal, he reads as someone who was very depressed. Functional, but depressed and didn't see a lot of joy in existing. And I'm probably projecting, but he also read to me as the kind of person who had lived in that state so long that he could no longer interact with other people naturally without falling flat on his own face.
And Roy, of course, was someone who was forced to contemplate his impending death with every breath, not knowing how to process the grief of that, knowing he has so much more to offer and to experience.
And J.F. Sebastian was a reflection of both those characters, in his own way. He has accelerated death like Roy, and has completely isolated himself from other humans, like Deckard. He's also more sweet and less of an asshole than Deckard, so I personally like him the most, lol.
It's not hard to see why these specific characters would have been relatable to me in that moment of my ilfe.
But what I really enjoyed about that movie was that the visuals re-enforced an other-wise decent story about depression with an entire world that also expressed that feeling of alienization. it captured a certain mood about a specific mental health state that at least I personally, have experienced. And funnily enough, the lack of representation aside, the way the movie framed asian culture as both familiar and alien also worked for me, being a first-gen chinese immigrant.
It wasn't just the characters, but how the world around them, their stilted interactions with other people, all felt like a reflection of what being in that mental rut felt like in visual and auditory form. It feels like blade runner the movie, describes what a certain kind of depression feels like better than I ever could with words. During college, there has been times where I've intentionally walked out into the city in the middle of the night, walking around, so I didn't have to think about or even see other people, and ergo didn't have to think about my future or anything else. It was probably unsafe so I don't recommend it. While nothing about the city at night is ever like anything in blade runner visually, there's a mood that feels kind of similar. There's no one in the streets, but commercial buildings still have bright lights. They felt completely different at night though--the shadows were starker and without people, it's more haunting. It's the same feeling I think some people get out of watching people explore abandoned malls. That's how it felt, and that's how I felt watching the world and environment of the first Blade runner movie.
And personally at least for me, that helped me in the moment. The movie made me felt seen, reminded me in a visceral way that I wasn't alone, that a huge amount of people understands what I was going through in the moment felt like, and understood so well they were able to make an entire movie around it, where every element of the film from the stilted dialogue, the sound editing, visuals, music, characters, all contributed to an expression of that mood. And through that, the movie also grounded me, and prevented me from fully shoving my own head up my ass too much in self-pity and despair.
But basically, if people ever get a chance, I highly recommend giving the first movie another chance if you didn't like it, but try watching through the lens of seeing it as a movie about depression. Deckard was coasting through life, not enjoying or really going out of his way to experience it in any way. And his job involves killing replicants through 'retirement' because they're not human, while he himself is constantly made to feel like just a cog in the machine, barely human. But by the end, he is forced to truly fight for his life, and has a real moment of connection with Roy. Roy saves him because when deckard was facing his own death in the face, he spits at Roy in one last act of defiance. Which. For a man who was completely depressed the entire movie to that point, is honestly kind of inspiring. In a strange way it was probably also inspiring and commendable in Roy's eyes, since he was also moments from death.
And in turn, after hearing Roy Batt's monologue and processing his close brush with death and his whole experience the past few days, Deckard truly tries to give living an actual chance. That's what the end is about in that respect. The whole 'is he a replicant' thing is just truly boring and silly, like LKB says in the video.
It valid, it seems the movi has a speial plac for you and no one can take that away. Nor o you have to justoify it (besides its rally popular which, shows many do)
@@marocat4749
I agree completely. I wasn't trying to justify it as much as trying to provide a specific perspective or lens I think people can try to look through if they ever want to try watching the original again.
I didn't really know a graceful or succinct way to fully express this interpretation without going into a bit of personal experience, which is why I used my own personal history with it. I hope it didn't come across as too manipulative or personal since it deals with things like depression.
This is just the comment section of a yt video, but I think similar social dynamics still play out; when anyone taps into their own personal experiences and it deals with depression, it can be more difficult for other people to go against it, if they are kind. I tried to talk about my experiences more neutrally so it doesn't dissuade other people from feeling that as much, but the same downsides are still there, even if I've successfully toned down feelings of voyeuristic discomfort.
I like the OG Blade Runner more, even though I thought that most of BR2049 was better (excepting the score for which Vangelis has no equal, fight me 😂).
Where I go off the rails on BR2049 is where Deckard ending it as the last man standing felt remarkably unearned like the screenwriter had simply decided that was the outcome regardless - K's death in the snow feels like Hampton Fancher simply discarded him as the LAPD would have.
Watching Gosling's great performance that feels especially unfair considering how lackluster most of Ford's performance was, his faux Rachel response scene being the exception that does not redeem it, a few seconds of good performance vs a whole film in Gosling's case.
This is compounded further by the fact that Deckard isn't even introduced until 2/3 into the frickin film!
It's bad enough having seen Blade Runner to get this ending, but if you had not seen it first then the ending to BR2049 is like a new competitor enters an F1 race 2/3 into the laps without making any effort and someone else just blew out everyone elses tires so that the new competitor could sail across the finish line with no resistance.
Unearned and very disappointing - Deckard needed to be in the film for sure, but he certainly did not need to survive it in order for it to have a satisfying ending.
As a fan of video essays, and the things that you make video essays about, I'm not sure how the algorithm kept your channel buried until today. Excellent content, this is the fourth(?) of your videos I've watched today.
It was amazing to see the visual parallels pointed out between Ana Stelline and K, and also to hear about Pale Fire featuring the idea of this ghost trying to tell her own story through someone else. I think that by giving K her own lived memories, Ana is programming him in her own way. When you said that K's aggression feels like a secondary response, and that his first instinct is to shy away from violence, I thought that it was Waller that programmed in the killer instinct, but that Ana put in his kindness with her memories. And the happy memories he got to make as a result of that side of his programming were part of what made him want to pay that chance at happiness back to Ana in the end.
The idea that even though K is built for violence, his soft demeanor emerges from the memories he has from Ana is one of those things that's so obvious now that someone has said it, I can't believe I didn't immediately figure it out on my own!
I don't know that the memory of the horse in the orphanage (the only one we're given access to of K's memories) seems like a particularly "happy" memory, given that he gets the crap beaten out of him ... in fact, if I wanted to give someone good memories to look back upon, that one seems pretty horrifying. And in fact Ana says "someone lived this" in regards to the memory in question, which K misinterprets to mean that "HE" had lived it, but which I think means that SHE had lived it (which makes sense when you find out she is the child of Deckard and Rachael, and was likely in that same orphanage at some point in her childhood). It's implied in the film that she utilizes her own memories as the basis for some of them, so it's possible.
"I thought that it was Waller that programmed in the killer instinct"
There was no killer instinct - he explains this clearly in the scene with Sapper that his kind don't run.
It's quite simple, they do what they are told and stay stabtle or they get ended.
K is under no illusion in that regard.
When I first watched this film, I came out with a very cold and intellectual reading of it. I really enjoyed watching your charged, emotional and poignant take on the film - I feel like I fell in love with it all over again. Seriously, this work is beautiful!
IVE BEEN WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO END A DEPRESSING YET ULTIMATELY UPLIFTING VIDEO ESSAY W THAT QUOTE
I always love any essay on blade runner 2049 hearing people gush and love on it just makes me so happy. And just brings back up my deep love for the movie, it’s truly one of my most favorite movies of all time.
I loved this movie. He keeps Rachel alive in the first movie because she’s wildly different from the other replicants - she’s the first one to have artificial memories. And yeah he falls in love with her. Confirmed in the second movie as HE STILL LOVES HER.
Thank you again for making this wonderful video. I loved watching it come together, and I love it even more now that it exists. I have so many feelings about this film and you discussed them so well. Thanks for letting me be a little part of an excellent work💜
😘
@@Ladyknightthebrave 🥰😘
Im tired of discussions of cool stuff going like this:
Piece of media (in this case Blade Runner): shows bad thing (objectifying women) done by the antagonists.
Random people and some critics: You show (insert bad thing) in your movie? how dare you endorse (bad thing)? You are a (insert insult)!
The thing I love about Joi is that, despite being the "least" human of all the characters, she seems to have the most humanity. It makes it all the more tragic when Joe realises that she named him Joe as part of her regular AI programming -- that it was all an imitation.
That's what he thought, briefly, but decided it wasn't true. She's confirmed to be sentient and to have loved Joe.
Wow. Insanely good analysis of an insanely good film. I saw 2049 for the first time a month ago and have been OBSESSED with it since. I’ve been scouring UA-cam for the best breakdown vids of this movie and this is hands down the best one I’ve found. I loved how you explained how the entire concept of Blade Runner/the cyberpunk genre came to be, and ngl Chapter 9 got me pretty good. Bravo! 🙌🏼
I'm old enough to remember when Bladerunner came out on VHS and I loved that movie, despite it's flaws. When 2049 came along I saw it in the cinema three times and cried every time when K passed.
Thank you for your beautiful analysis of one of my favourite movies.
I never thought that I'd watch a video essay about Blade Runner and end in tears. This was a truly remarkable video from beginning to end, I hope you feel proud of this
Omg a premiere I can actually see live in Europe, thnx girl you're the best! I love your essays 🤩😍
Your last words really moved me. They echoed what a lot of Ryan Gosling's roles portray, a side character in their own story. I think that's why he resonates with people a lot. But I liked how you put an uplifting spin on it, saying that it is enough to be exactly that, unlike many (men) that get bitter about it and feel as though they are robbed of being "the strong protagonist". It's okay to be soft, it's okay to freeze in the face of danger, it's okay to just be. Great video! And the third of you I binged. Keep up the great work!
Plenty of countries have a huge English language/Latin character presence without many anglo-celts being physically around, why couldn't it be the same in a world where 80s Japan continued on to become the dominant economic and cultural power? Dumb nitpick, I'm out.
I'm not religious, but I love the quote from the Rabbi at the end. I think it's beautiful. Your videos are always so thoughtful and kind, thank you :D
OOOH this couldn't have come at a more opportune time!!! I just recently remembered this movie and rewatched it on a whim a few days ago and have not stopped thinking about it since, so the fact that you are releasing this now is seriously like fate. Amazing analysis as always, thank you for making my cry in the best ways.
I think you misunderstood the scene with Joi advertisement. Looking at it overflood by sorrow, he realises they're nothing but expendable products, slaves.
It makes me so happy to see someone finally share the take that JOI had become a fully realized being within her story arc. I struggle to recall anyone who didn't think that she was just fake in the end. She was one of my favourite parts of the movie because it's building on the idea that artificial intelligence can evolve just like the replicants. Amazing video essay as usual 🤌
I man it also adding to joes arc lot an thir relationship. She even inspires him, an becomes a full individual thats mortal in a way.
I love how his thoughts in th end, go to her, and she reminds him with another version of her, to think fo himael what he wants to do.
I thought K can never know if she is real or not.
I like how the movie never definitively says anything about Joi. The movie never says if she has agency or not, and it never really assigns any specific value to their relationship. In the end, I was left with the feeling that whether their love was real or not, it felt real and meaningful to me. So what's the difference? Maybe there is no difference? And those are cool feelings to be left with.
@Alan emmanuel Sayago but does that even matter?
"I struggle to recall anyone who didn't think that she was just fake in the end"
I don't see why, Luv is completely taken by surprise when Joi tells K to disconnect her eminator modem and destroy it.
This alone shows that a representative of the company which makes Joi did not expect this behavior.
Joi is a fascinating character and reminds me of another digital girl Monika from ddlc. Both are programmed to be a doomed character yet both rebel against it. How does one defy their nature? The very codes that make up their thoughts? Monika knows she is to be a guide character, leading the player to many love interests and she rebels against that. Joi is a product made to be whatever the user wants yet there's this fire inside her.
Monika can only visualize, think within the scope of small world of ddlc and deicides chasing after the player is defiance. Because how else would she know anything other than that when the reality she can witness ends at the player? Joi feels similar this way as she too is tied to K, lives in proxy to K and can only see as far as K can go. Perhaps her choosing to be in eminator is the same mistake Monika falls into. Believing their choice is solid when it was formed on incomplete shaky worldview. Geniune isn't formed when one pushes a button that's says to form a geniuneness but through persistent actions.
I guess i feel like the proof of her realness is when K is down and she yells for him. After all what's the point of screams when there's no audience, right?
I think its when he says she should stay for her safety and she is stubbern, no, i will risk everything to support you, against your wishes.
And its entirely possible that through him she became that charactr and got that personality, but the same time he go beyond that he quetions an goes ater his questions. Which is entirely posible that she developed that way by his personality, but the same time, arent humans getting influnced.
An dont matter that she get her own unique stubbern personality beyond her programming that still is a partner supporting him, but also heis clarly hr own character with her own chopices, including, he is worried or hr safety, and he wants to "become mortal" and yeahshe still is his partner, but one with her clearly own will now.
Thats why i think that when he wants to not endanger her her choosing to risk her life i think is mine.
Were you reading my mind when you posted this? Because I too thought of Monika and DDLC!
Found this channel through the algorithm. Watched the Andor analysis and I was hooked. Now seeing this? Excellent essay. Subscribed.
So much to love here. I love your dive into villenuve, the behind the scenes stories, the thematic deep dive.
I really like Villenuve, and you can very much see his growth from film to film. I was a dumb highschooler when I saw Sicario the first time and so I didn't see or willfully ignored the problematic elements, but it was also the first time I remember watching a scene and appreciating the craft on display (it was the bridge firefight, for the record, which manages to be one of the most intense firefights in any film with only like 9 shots fired). And I get why he can be divisive, but unlike some other divisive filmmakers there is deliberate though in the divisive elements, especially once he hits his "high concept Sci fi" phase.
Also, apparently physicists love arrival for deliberately subverting "math is a universal language," which was a fun detail I wanted to share.
Well here I am at work listening to this, while doing paperwork and weeping at my desk. Well done and beautiful, I am so glad to have found your channel.
I knew full well when I see your name and the movie’s name that it will be a tear jerker. To say that I wasn’t wrong is a huge understatement. 😭 When I first watched the movie in the late night theater, I cried so hard that I had migraine the whole night and a whole day after. Hope it wouldn’t stay that long this time. This video is a great gift. Thank you!
Btw I don’t know where to ask this but have you ever watched the Netflix show The OA? I’m curious because you’re terrifyingly amazing at explaining what I like about things that I couldn’t find a way to explain to people. 😅 (In case you haven’t watched it, I need to warn you that it’s not an easy watch. It portrayed extreme dehumanization of characters, not in an overly graphic manner but it’s psychologically taxing.)
Near the end of this, I was feeling my feels yeah. Like always you leave me stunned after a video, but that last quote made me burst into tears. I don't know if I can thank you enough for giving me emotions in tough times and passing on inspiration to create.
the behind the scenes segment made me so happy. i cannot express how much i appreciate practical effects, tangible sets/models and creative techniques rather than straight to post CGI garbage. the former is true film-making
Thank you. You made me cry at the end there. I really needed that.
I recently took the time to re watch 2049 and wanted to see what people were saying. This was incredible and I've already subscribed! I can't wait to see what else you've delved into. :)
Ahhhh yesssss, something to drink scotch and cry about. You have excellent timing!
i'm late to this video, but i need you to know that you brought me to tears with your final speech. thank you so much
This movie is a masterpiece, my mid take is that Joy did evolve she aids a fugitive and says things that catch K off guard all the time. I feel like the implication is that she was in the process of becoming more than an AI.
BRAVO Ladyknightthebrave... BRAVO!
That was the most definitive essay for Bladerunner 2049 I've yet seen, and I am one of those rare humans who was there to sit in the cinema the first time Ridley, Philip (and Vangelis's) world opened behind slowly parting screen curtains.
TOP SHELF!!! with love from an old sci-fier in Melbourne, Australia.
i love watching ms lktb talk about her strange blorbos & skrunkly movie franchises not knowing a thing about it; this is another win for the boys!
I love this movie a lot. It reminds me of a poem. I don't think I quite get all it's nuance but its beautiful and it has stayed with me despite my having only seen it once. The "threesome" scene is so uncanny and yet touching. I love it. Thank you for making a video about it
within cells interlinked is one of my favorite pieces of dialogue ever
Hi I have recently found this channel and I just wanted to say as a sci fi nerd this and the Cassian Andor video pretty much brought me to tears greetings from North Wales your channel is freekin amazing xx
The Elimist is an unappreciated sci fi masterpeice. Thank you for reminding me to reread it.
Really beatiful video. Blade runner is like a fine wine, it keeps getting better with time.
I watched this pretty shortly after ripping through Cyberpunk Edge Runner in a single weekend and one weird parallel but contrasting arc really struck me: SPOILERS
.
.
.
.
.
in both, the main character is kind of fooled into thinking they're the special one, but at the end they realize the chosen one was actually somebody they had met, and they were in fact a step in the chosen one's path towards their ultimate achievement.
I'm BR2049, K thinks he's the First-Born Replicant, but end up neck-deep in the plot to protect her / safely reveal her to the world
In Cyberpunk, it's significantly darker. David thinks he's 'built different' and is immune to cyberpsychosis, but he ends up losing his mind using a piece of tech meant for Adam Smasher, the monster that was able to hold on to his already-psychotic personality after he went 'no-ganic full borg.'
This whole essay was compelling, but I've been perpetually in a dark place, and particularly in one lately.
The way you closed the video, especially that specific quote "the day you were born was the day god decided the world couldnt exist without you" was beautiful in a way that made me openly ugly cry for about 10 minutes
this was an incredibly well done and thoughtful retrospective. thanks for making it
This was really good. Thank you for this beautiful analysis.
That ending made me cry, I really needed to hear it. Thank you :)
I don't think you actually need to have Chinese people in Firefly for it to be believable that people code-switch. You only need strong soft and cultural power as a country to achieve that, the fact that I am writing this from Finland (with very few Americans or anglos) is an example of that very phenomenon. Finns, Swedes, Japanese, Iraqis, Russians and Mexicans, we all can code-switch to English to appear more cool or educated or just refer to a know anglophone meme like "it is what it is" or "here comes Johnny". In Germany and Finland lots of the texts are in English even though most of the people aren't fluent in it, it's just a lingua franca, the best guess to offer non-native-language-speakers, and in Finland lots of the technology would come in German and Finnish, only for it to be replaced later by English and Finnish, after the second world war. If China and Chinese speakers have lots of cultural power in the Firefly future then it is totally understandable that the people might try to mimic them even without actual contact in flesh with any Chinese people.
This video deserves so much more attention than it’s getting oml your beautiful phrasing throughout this clearly structured essay is amazing
Hey! I really got a lot out of this. Thank you to all for the hard work you put into it. :)
This was the first video I have seen by you and it was phenomenal. Immediate like and subscription. Your writing, editing, and storytelling skills are phenomenal. I can't wait to see more work that you have done and will do in the future.
I took Joi's desire for an emanator as a form of advertisement. She's been programmed to desire expensive upgrades. Her emotions are real to her, but totally fabricated by the Wallace Corporation, to serve the interests of the Wallace Corporation. The same is true of her love for K. It's real for her, but manufactured in every sense so she can better serve as a product for her Joes.
I take all human behaviour as, we have been programmed by evolution to desire and behave in ways that increase the probability of replication of our DNA. We are all replicatants serving the interests of Evolution. The same is true for every women that ever loved me.. It's real for her but manufactured in every sense so she can better serve as a product for her genes.
Yup.
The holograms are not sentient like the replicants are.
Joi is a product, a smart AI. But not sentient.
yea, thought the same, but when she chooses to be moved to de emanator she takes a let´s call it, non-company intrest desition. This I find enough to belive she has her own agenda and an "honest" relation with K.
nobody ever mentions this, perhaps because it’s crass and juvenile, you know that JOI means : Jerk Off Instructions. that’s why it’s called JOI not Joy. It’s really sad, someone said that it’s a criticism of the movie to the porn industry. Nevertheless it’s fascinating that we can’t tell if Joi was real or programmed to appear to be real.
I dont care if your opinion is wrong, or whatever.
the way you presented it. like this simples scene: 7:02 make your video fells like a movie. too much very well edited.
genius level, congratulations.
Not gonna lie, I teared up at the end, this was a beautiful video. You always have very interesting takes and such a skill to write impactful , emotionally resonant essays, I'm always exited to see that you updated!
You just broke me a little bit at the end of the video 😢 it was so sad and poetic. Thank you for the video.
So much good analysis here! Especially in chapters 8 and 9. Thank you for this in depth look at Blade Runner and especially the characters of K and Joi. I too can relate to the 'freeze' response you mention. I would describe it as just not seeing the point of responding though. Sometimes silence is the best response because no response does it justice. Not anger or sadness or retribution or anything. There simply isn't a response that does the situation justice because those that would witness your response would entirely misunderstand it. Just silently walking away is what happens in these life situations...
Wow! Seeing this vid on my home screen, I went over to hulu first, and rewatched the 2 BladeRunners before settling in to your pean to the genre... Thanx very much for your considerable effort!
I truly consider the ensemble cast for this (even the small parts) a perfect balance of the themes and symbolism of the movie. Each character's collective motivations and experiences all have something to say about the blurry line between being some form of unfeeling "automaton" and self actualising as a "real" human. Every character shows their capacity to thoughtlessly do as they are instructed/trained and also to passionately assert their desires as real people.
Thank you so much for this. It not only enriched my understanding of the movie, it deepened my understanding and acceptance of my self. Brava!
I gag whenever someone says if something is mostly White, it isn't multicultural.
To be fair, the kind of people who think that _are_ all exactly the same, but in the real world we recognize there are practical reasons to have the majority of the actors and background actors in a movie made in a country where the majority of the people are White, be White.
I presume these same people critique Chinese and Indian movies and complain with equally banal vitriol about the lack of Black and Caucasian characters when they're absent, or complain that the characters are stereotypes when they are present? No? Shocked.
FFS we're rapidly approaching the point where every human character will be replaced with a cgi grey box that no one can be offended by just so the kind of people who demand other people choose pronouns and announce them will stop trying to ruin literally everything they didn't create, which is everything.
one of the most beautiful commentaries I've heard about consciousness and existentialism. Especially the quotes in the last few seconds from 2 different sources.
Personally, I think K's reaction in the scene near the end when he encounters the Joi billboard is actually because when he hears HOW she says those stock phrases to him, and the way she behaves, noticing JUST how different his own Joi was with him (at the very least by the time we encountered them together in this point in their relationship, that he really how very much she evolved, and that she genuinely DID love him, and that breaks his heart all over again because he's truly lost her. So I like to think at least PART of the reson that K is SO at peace when he's dying at the very end is that he's thinking about her, and hoping that, when he does go on to whatever might be waiting for him next, that maybe she'll be waiting for him.
Thanks for recognizing us Asians... Who love cyberpunk and would kinda like to be a part of it.
There's a Blade Runner anime series on crunchyroll/HBO if you're interested! I hear the 3D animation is criticised but it's in Japanese and has an asian cast, writers staff, and characters.
The Black Out 2022 short film, which is a 2D anime, was written by Shinichiro Watanabe, the creator of Cowboy Bebop. I think it was mentioned in the video.
This whole video was really interesting (I knew nothing about Blade Runner or 2049 except that they were scifi classics) but by god did that very last section make me burst into tears.
"If I could say anything to them…or to any person who is a little bit too soft inside, anybody who thinks dying could make them more... You were brave. You were strong. You were good. You mattered.”
I didn't realise how badly I needed to hear this today. Thank you so much.
Well done, excellent well supported ideas and clearly and thoughtfully explained, with some funny 4th wall breaks thrown in! And superb editing too. I am a vintage fan of both BR movies and learned a lot from your piece so really appreciate that, well done.
1:06 I took this to imply that he sort of WAS. If AI are people, if replicants are people, then his memories came from Deckerd's daughter and that makes him effectively Deckerd's son. It was a really lovely meditation on what makes us who we are.
Great video! Some comments for chapter 2 because I talked to people who were already alive when Bladerunner came out and I learned something that might be interesting for you, too: when I saw the film as a teenager, I was wondering why the style was so Asian and I was told by the older generations that this whole cyberpunk-style being full of neon-kanji and other Asian stuff was due to a strong economic boom in Japan during the late 70s and 80s. Electronics, cars, etc were exported in huge quantities into the US/European markets and fueled anxieties of being taken over/economically colonised (google "yellow peril"). This is why the idea that Asian influences would become dominant spread easily throughout western media.
Also, as a non-native English speaker, the whole Chinese swearing was my favourite part of Firefly. After watching it, I consciously noticed how often people use English swear words in other languages and the idea that this phenomenon would be reversed in the future seems cool to me.
Thank you for that comment. You were able to summarize it like I could not.
The fact that you are just explaining some scenes and I was just listening to this at work while feeling how I felt years later after I saw it for the first time just confirms how great this film was.