15 Great Sci-Fi Movies (Nobody Ever Talks About)
2. The Red Spectacles
Owing a visual debt to Godard’s stylized Alphaville,
this 1987 effort from Japanese director Mamoru Oshii succeeds in criticizing both
the gradual loosening of social bonds due to increased technological dependence
and the militarisation of the police with its story of a futuristic Tokyo overrun
with sadistic amoral criminals. Lest you assume there are any heroes in this flick, the state decides to combat this issue by, of course,
developing a dangerously over-armed and under-policed Anti Crime division who
have free rein to terrorise the city’s inhabitants.
It's not quite Dredd in terms of good and bad, is all we'll say about the flick's worldview.
The flick follows one recruit turned fugitive as he attempts first to reinstate sanity in the city and then, failing that, to flee, and is a necessary watch both for its Robocop-style satire and its killer mind blower of an unexpected ending.