Cyberpunk Review » f8

January 22, 2006

f8

Movie Review By: SFAM

Year: 2001

Directed by: Jason Wen

Written by: Howard & Jason Wen

IMDB Reference

Length: 13 minutes

Degree of Cyberpunk Visuals: High

Correlation to Cyberpunk Themes: High

Rating: 7 out of 10

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Overview: f8 is a truly wonderful 13 minute film short that captures almost all the key elements of cyberpunk without using any dialogue! f8 was well received in many of the 2001 best animated film short awards (including the Hollywood Film Festival, the Jury Award, and others). The 3D graphics, while not as high quality as might be found in a large budget movie, are more than adequate. Wen’s selection of viewpoints, lighting decisions, movement and shadows are able to emphasize the best qualities of the 3D animation.

 

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f8 centers on a nameless lead character in a strange futuristic society who wants to gain individuality. He lives in an oppressive, metropolis-like controlling society, where your fate and role is predetermined. But an underground has developed where individuality appears to be the key for admission. The plot follows the plight of our protagonist who attempts to steal a “face,” and thus, will have the ability to express an individual personality.

 

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Unfortunately I cannot divulge too much more of the plot for fear of spoiling it. You can get this movie at Best Buy for about 10 bucks - even though its only 13 minutes, I think its worth it. You get 5 commentaries, and truly, the story is interesting enough that you’ll watch it more than a few times. But instead of a plot, here’s some more screen captures of it - these should give you an idea of f8’s visual splendor. Like many cyberpunk films, one color tends to dominate f8 - in this case, yellow is the predominate color.

 

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The faces are quite striking in f8 - more so even when you finally get to see their bodies!

 

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Talk about a  Noirish looking building! This has all sorts of high tech, ominous vibes…

 

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f8 has some fantastic visuals for a 13 minute film short.

 

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For some reason, this scene really reminds my of the scene in Nausicaä where she is walking through the field of gold tentacles.

 

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Comments

January 24, 2006

amberlita said:

Their faces are quite striking but they are also extremely familiar. Have people paid homage to this at some point in other films? I’m specifically thinking of Spielberg in “A.I.” with one of his characters at the Flesh Fair, as well as all the drones from “I, Robot”.

SFAM said:

Oh, interesting! No, I dunno if anyone has. I agree with you that there are some similarities with some AI characters, but both movies were made in 2001. This makes me doubt it. But the images are striking enough that you would think others might. My fear though is that f8 gets largely forgotten, assuming it hasn’t already happened. :(

July 1, 2007

PSY said:

Wow, I’m currently studying Computer Animation at University and I really need to see this!

July 15, 2008

Naum said:

I saw this way back when when G4 was tech TV and they had that midnight peepshow thing or whatever they called it where they used to show these animations and such… wonderfull thing


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