An otherworldly experience that frightened me for life

Rating: 10/10 (23 June 2014)

I still remember how was the first time I got to see the movie: saw how cool Kaneda looked on the VHS cover in a film rental store and asked for my aunt to rent it. Little did I know I would get scarred for life at 8 years old, and would have nightmares with the movie the same night as I watched it. I have to thank this moment, as it scarred me it also fascinated me, since nothing after that touched me so deep in an unconscious level, and that made me watch the movie a thousand times during my life.
The movie is unanimously regarded as an orgasmic visual and aural experience, and I agree with it. But it's also questioned a lot by it's confusing story and unexplained ending. What I have to say is that the film is a tragic story about how power, when wasted and misused, means nothing, and how qualities like friendship and loyalty, as forgotten as they may be inside the human spirit, will survive after all the hate, anger and madness have done it's job.
It's the soundtrack the true highlight of the movie - the tribal, powerful drums and dreamlike bells, all make it sound like there's something out of the physical realm orchestrating the inevitable fate of the characters. After so many years and so many times watching the movie I realized it was the soundtrack that traumatized me, as the genius combination of it with some of the imagery can give a profound impact even on an adult viewer... On a poor innocent 8 years old who only expected an action cartoon where the red jacket hero with the big laser gun would save the city, it's an impact he'd never forget.
10/10