Cine Móvil presents the anti-carceral cyberpunk anime Cyber City Oedo 808. Using a newly remastered copy of the cult-classic actioner, originally released in 1991 as a three-part OVA, we've re-edited the piece into a singular cinematic experience well-suited to the environs of our favorite indie arcade-venue Wonderville.

Cyber City Oedo follows a group of prison inmates forced into hunting down wanted criminals in order to reduce their own hefty prison sentences. In a dramaturgical conceit reminiscent of Battle Royale, the neo-fascist corporate state handlers affix explosive collars to our protagonists' necks which also track their movements and listen in on their conversations. If they drop off the grid or disobey orders, they'll lose their heads. Its an all-too-relatable circumstance in an age such as ours where technological advancement has only served to heighten mass-surveillance and mass-incarceration. This makes it all the more satisfying to see our protagonists' push against the bounds and desires of their incarcerators.

The film's hard-edged futuristic dystopia is indeed strikingly similar to the hellpath which our capitalist overlords and their sycophantic lackeys are attempting to drag us down. The contemporary hyper-fetishization of cyberpunk's least appealing aesthetical affects (repersented by NFTs, cryptocurrency, and Elon Musk as a concept) is at once predictable and maddening. Any casual reader of William Gibson or Philip K. Dick with two brain cells to rub together knows that the central conceit of the cyberpunk genre is that the natural endgoal of capitalist extraction is a corporatized neo-feudalism marked by extreme societal disrepair, and the commodification of all things. A world of scarce digital artefacts is a necessary component of that disastrous outcome.

So let this screening be a space for open mockery of the crypto-bro grifter culture that is clogging up the airways of the contemporary art scene. Let it be a space to both reassert the fundamental truth that cyberpunk is a nightmare vision of a future we must avoid, and reaffirm that the ideas and aesthetics of cyberpunk within fictional works can be deeply enjoyable, so long as they remain in the realm of the imaginary.

Notes on accessibility:

-Seating will be provided.

-The venue is wheelchair accessible.

-This presentation is in English without subtitles. We normally make it a point to show foreign works in their original language, but we are making an exception here as the English dubbing for Cyber City Oedo is extraordinarily over-the-top in the most entertaining way, and we consider it to be the definitive version.

P.S. Everyone who attends this screening will receive a free one-of-a-kind, non-reproducible NFT (just instructions on how to right-click and save images online).