This Cyberpunk science-fiction for adults that will blow your brains out
Shu Lea Cheang’s film from 2000, I.K.U., is an original example of combining both futuristic themes and contemporary pornography. Here, in the postapocalyptic Tokyo (called the metropolis of New Tokyo), the director presents a world taken by the GENOM Corporation. And their goal? To achieve an ideal sexual experience with other human beings.
Words by Jan Tracz
That is why they send their personalized robots to collect the data from many, many orgasms. Although the whole plot is just a pretext to depict picturesque sex, some alluring themes can be found in Cheang’s film. For instance, their robots make the resemblance to Blade Runner’s Replicants. Both versions of the cyborgs are some sort of socially segregated products that are close to being called human beings. Furthermore, the neon world with quirky costumes and funny-looking technology is connoted by Cyberpunk’s aesthetics. Cheang is drawing from various futuristic visions to visually enhance her picture. However, robots in I.K.U. are integral to the erotic microcosm of New Tokyo. They are not pursued by the police, but rather by human desires. And that aspect raises another question: is sex with the robot can still be considered sex?
In her essay (page 29), Eve Oishi writes another point for my discussion. She states:
“By drawing connections between watching a pornographic video and surfing the Web, Cheang suggests that acquiring sexual pleasure within twenty-first-century technoscapes has become shaped by and therefore inseparable from new forms of consumerism offered by the internet.”
If we link Oishi’s thoughts with Cheang’s approach, I.K.U. is a comment on today's consumerism (which is, more or less, inevitably associated with the pornography industry). What is crucial is how Cheang plays with her world. She depicts sex as a pathway to freedom, an empowering experience with no unpleasant connotations. Every sex sequence is sensually narrated. The director conforms to our modern reality and empowers sex. Internet is treated as a dangerous place but in I.K.U. it is a source of pleasure and feelings.
The scenes presented to the viewer can, paradoxically, be interpreted conversely. Using a futuristic world drawing from such universes as Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (and Ridley’s Scott Blade Runner) or Cyberpunk world, Shu Lea Cheang creates a vision that can be felt as both repulsive and distasteful. This outtake is much different from the one calling this film “sensual”. One can feel that I.K.U. was a horrendous experience, a contrast to the pornography industry, which becomes more and more powerful every day (thanks to the mentioned Internet). By following this interpretation, it is no wonder that nearly 50% of the audience left during the screening during the main premiere.
It challenges the viewer with his previous notion of pornography. Who knows, maybe what I.K.U. tries to show is the fact, that even the finest technologies won’t replace the real physicality and sexual desire.
