yagian

Somewhat belatedly, I managed to catch Spike Jonze's great contemporary science fiction film"Her".

Before seeing it, I had believed that science fiction as a genre was dead.

Although the great novels and films in the history of science fiction have always depicted a new vision of the future, nowadays science fiction novels and films seem to be nothing more than imitations of what has gone before.

For example, in the film "Transcendence," the consciousness of a scientific genius is transplanted into cyberspace. I read this idea in William Gibson's novel "Neuromancer" which was first published back in 1984.

n "Transcendence", the transplanted consciousness attacks human beings. Again, I first came across this idea (computers attacking human beings) in the 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey."

In contrast, the film, "Her", envisions a future L.A., which is both similar to, and slightly different from, today's actual L.A. Spike Jonze's attention to every detail is what makes the film's vision so convincing.

The main character and an AI fall in love with each other. They constantly communicate with each other via PC and smart phone. While I find it hard to believe that computers would attack human beings in the near future, to me the idea that a human being and an AI could fall in love sounds entirely plausible.

I believe this film indicates a new direction for science fiction.

Every actor did a really good job. Scarlett Johansson, who voiced the role of the AI, was especially good. Watching "Her", I was once again struck by her talent.

Recently, I read several books about Buddhism and wrote the entry "Exoteric Buddhism and Esoteric Buddhism: Buddha, Wittgenstein, and Me." In this entry, I summarized Buddha's teachings as follows.

========== Early Buddhism was exoteric. Buddha's original teaching was very simple. Our lives are full of pain and nobody can run away from it. There is nothing eternal and everything is changing in this world. He said that we should just accept this. In other words, it is the truth that there was no way to escape our painful lives, but we just had to accept such a cruel truth. It is too hard for ordinary people to accept it.

==========

I watched the film "Silver Linings Playbook" and found the way how main characters in this film overcame their problems was quite Buddhistic.

The main character, Pat, played by Bradley Cooper, obsessed his wife, who betrayed him. He believed that his wife still loved him, but people around him knew that she didn't love him any more. He suffered from bipolar disorder, and his obsession about his wife made him lose control.

The opposite character, Tiffany, played by Jennifer Lawrence, obsessed his husband, who was killed by a traffic accident. She couldn't accept the fact that her husband was dead. She also lost control by her obsession about him.

Buddha might say that both of them should accept the fact, even if it was cruel, and it was the only way to overcome their pain.

In this film, they started training dance in preparation for a competition. At first, Pat couldn't understand why he should dance, but he became deeply involved in dance and gradually got freed from his obsession. While he was dancing, he didn't think about anything. Dance itself wasn't important, but devotion to dance was important.

Buddha just meditated and realized the truth, and Pat just danced and was freed from his obsession.

I'll change the subject.

The character of Tiffany was typically "tsundere(ツンデレ)."

"Tsundere" is a type of heroines in Japanese anime. "Tsun tsun" means being sullen or arrogant, and "dere dere" means being sweet or charming. At first a "tsundere" heroin behaves toward the main character coldly, and sometimes they fight each other. He doesn't understand why she is so cold to him at all. After they find that they love each other, she dramatically turns to be sweet to him.

Tiffany in "Silver Linings Playbook" showed up on Pat as an eccentric and rude woman. In other words, she was completely "tsun tsun." In the last part of this film, she turned to be "dere dere."

Jennifer Lawrence perfectly played the role of "tsundere" heroin and was so cute. Her performance was worth the Oscar award.