January 31, 2011
Technotise: Edit I Ja (Edit & I)
Movie Review By: Mr. Roboto
Year: 2009
Directed by: Aleksa Gajic, Nebojsa Andric, Stevan Djordjevic
Written by: Aleksa Gajic
Degree of Cyberpunk Visuals: High
Correlation to Cyberpunk Themes: High
Key Cast Members:
Overview: Not often that a good cyberpunk movie comes down the wires. Lately, the better ones have been coming out of Japan’s anime studios. Technotise could be the latest-and-greatest to come from the land of the rising sun… only it came from Serbia, not Japan, although the anime influence can be seen. While not enough to make those famed anime studios nervous… yet… it already has a live-action remake under development.
A sequel based on the comic (readable here, if you understand Serbian), Technotise looks into a bit of the the life of a college girl as she faces a struggle in Belgrade 2074 that could kill her.
The Story: Edit Stefanović is a psychology major in a Belgrade college. Like most students, Edit has had her successes and failures but mostly failures. Now her professor has given her an ultimatum:
After burying her robotic pet, and a fight with her mother, Edit decides to get a memory chip implant to help her pass the exam. She is also an intern at TDR, a research company that’s been working on a formula that connects all the energies in the world, aka “A direct line to God.” This “formula” can be used to predict the future, but any computer that calculates it becomes sentient before it shuts down. Abel Mustafov discovered the formula before becoming autistic, and when Edit sees a “graph” of the formula, her chip becomes alive and starts wiring itself into her body, making her act weird (like eating large amounts of iron). Now TDR wants Edit and the chip for their future-telling computers, while Edit wants what the chip did to her undone.
Algorithm Absurd. This phrase is used a couple of times to describe what happens to the computers that calculates the formula. Algorithm - like a computer program; A series of finite steps to generate an output from input. Absurd, the ludicrous, insane, irrational. The phrase is simply another way of saying: “That does not compute.” Apparently the computers see the formula like a digital existential crisis, one that says machines are not alive. But Edit’s chip doesn’t suffer the same fate, probably because of their connection to each other, or maybe because of Edit’s study of psychology she was able to “understand” the graph in a way that computers couldn’t so she acted as a “buffer” and the chip was able to process her output.
The next GITS? Like GITS, Technotise uses a variety of animation styles to produce some high quality movie fare. 2D, 3D, vector, and realistic static drawings come together for some of the best eye-candy. But without a good storyline, all you can get from eye-candy is diabetes. Fortunately, Technotise has the storyline to back up the visuals. About the only problem is the language is entirely Serbian with English subtitles so you might miss out on some of the vids.
Conclusion: With the themes of the search for “God” via science and our continued interconnection of human and machine, we have some excellent cyberpunk fare to even anime fans happy for the next decade or so. This is one animated movie that can go byte-by-byte with GITS. Just get the DVD and see what I mean…
Comments
January 31, 2011
SSJKamui said:
Sounds interesting. The screenshots you posted look more like a fantasy story than a sci fi story.
February 1, 2011
PedroM said:
Thanks for the review.
Am watching it right now and loving it!
Count-Zero said:
Only watched the first minutes by now, but Edits Robopet is called “Otomo”. That makes one extra star
Roy said:
Napokon da se i na Balkanu nešto napravi. Svaka vam čast ljudi!
MegaTech said:
Yes…it means that ANY “list” or rating system relating to Animation, Sci-fi or indeed Cyberpunk MUST at all times have Akira among the VERY best.
I still can’t believe it has 8/10 stars here and that the dude who reviewed it dared to mention Dragonball in the same breath.
Talk about out of depth.
February 2, 2011
vcfest said:
The films is even more interesting when one has seen Belgrade as it is now ;). Tumbs up!
Sean said:
This one is best described as “motherfucking awesome”. A successful attempt at adding tons of humor to cyberpunk and not ruining the thing.
February 3, 2011
kabukiman said:
Just saw the movie. Not as good as as GIS, but still one of the best I saw.
0m1kr0n said:
Nice to see something new from anime. Anime has something live-action doesn’t. I can’t explain it, just in the art style commonly used.
February 7, 2011
Anonymous said:
Not near as good as GITS, but it’s surprisingly well done. It isn’t very convincing and the animation looks like a flash game, but i just can’t get myself to say it isn’t good. With a bigger budget and some more research it could have been something really memorable. - 7/10 -
February 12, 2011
Robin said:
First of. I like your review and I like your site alot. Im a total sucker for everything that´s cyberpunk (and as you might have guessed all ready, yes, im a geek/computer freak).
And If It´s out of any Interest to you. Perhaps we could do a link switch/or banner swap?
Any how, keep up the good work!. Have a nice day, cheers!
February 13, 2011
QtM said:
Awesome! Great one - story+animation+ideas+music+everything!
February 17, 2011
Nell Kusanagi said:
Great review, thanks for posting this up. Saw it and loved it it, would pause it occasionally to enjoy the details in vehicle and architectural design. Looking forward to more from this studio. Ive realised for a while now that im kind of a ‘post’-cyberpunk fanatic. Of the Nano-everything, security-crazy, digital-connectivity, quantum-AI, flavour… no more wires
February 24, 2011
Misko said:
Great, just great
February 27, 2011
Caleb said:
Excellent
February 28, 2011
paulPot said:
Computers getting sentient after touching the essence of truth - and then burning out…doesn’t that remind you somehow of Darren Aronofsky’s Pi?
What you wrote about the sory sounds like they continue where Max’s computer stopped and develop the idea further.
This one may be really interesting..
May 2, 2011
Nathan said:
Great recommendation! Just saw the thing and it’s really good. Thanks
I still have a problem with the use of 3D in animes though.
June 14, 2011
Rick Dangerous said:
*vcfest said:
The films is even more interesting when one has seen Belgrade as it is now ;). Tumbs up!*
Exactly, visit Belgrade and you will see that it’s the same city like in the movie, but “futurized”.
It’s great to look at it that way:)
July 2, 2011
Graitor said:
Just watched it, definitely loved it, animation wasn’t quite my style but the movie itself was amazing.
July 20, 2011
magenticka said:
Ok, thanks for the review,it’s a good film, BUT, 10 star? Seriously? This is up there with GITS and Bladerunner? The anime art is ok at best, nowhere near up to Japanese standard. Thanks for exposing it, it deserves exposure, doesn’t deserve to be up there with the greatest of the greats though.
September 14, 2011
Shody said:
Just a link: Trailer http://www.cinemagia.ro/trailer/technotise-edit-i-ja-5285/
January 19, 2012
Hunter said:
Studio allowed the full movie in 1080p with lots of subs on youtube.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DFcGTUaG930U%26fb_source%3Dmessage&h=EAQEYhxgt
Hunter said:
Studio allowed the full movie in 1080p with lots of subs on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcGTUaG930U
May 3, 2012
wintermute said:
nice..
May 4, 2012
SSJKamui said:
cool.
May 24, 2012
marcopanichi said:
amazing movie! i saw it many times. it’s really well done, despite of the naive first impression.