The evolution of cyberpunk by way of a love story

Rating: 10/10 (11 April 2017)

We only ever see things from Theodore's perspective and even as we see other people moving in and out of frames, the focus is always on him, with the human race being transient in this Shanghai that is not so different then now. We understand the pervasive loneliness that everyone feels simply from only being able to appreciate our own lens.
We learn it's also ironic, since his job is expressing other people's feelings for others but can never do so himself. He writes letters to people from others via him in very poignant and meaningful prose. When he does interact with other people, there is no facade, he simply is. And instead of a quiet strength in that honestly...most people can't understand him without this mask that most people wear when interacting with one another. He's kind, he's considerate, he's non-confrontational and with the semi-frequent flashback sequences we see that he at least used to be vivacious in his love for his ex but seems to be no more.
And as he grieves this loss both of his ex and himself as he was with her, in this future that is essentially now, we see that cyberpunk truly is now as well. It exists in a way that Neuromancer does not, quietly contributing to the genre by way of a love story between an ordinary man mourning as he tells a computer that she "Doesn't know what it's like to lose something." And later on she tells him that she's figured something out because of those hurtful words, there is a transformative experience for both of them in that: "The past is just a story we tell ourselves."
How love was viewed then was very different, with Sleepless in Seattle, You've got Mail, When Harry Met Sally, etc. We have gradually moved from you and I having interactions in an effort to be understood and loved, to turning to unfamiliar, and in some ways far less and far more intimate means of communication.
Which is why it's brilliant that Theodore can find that connection in something more human than human, but that it is also fleeting. In a way that most people can understand if they've loved someone else before. Maintaining that the relationship was more real and organic then the kind of love we search for on the internet these days. Reinforced by the sense that this was the most profound relationship he'd had and brings him together with someone else who shared a similar experience,
Validating the fact that all love and the way we feel is real, no matter the interaction, by way of showing that our low life cyberpunk has become the disconnect between one another, instead of the rebellion against capitalism, or corporations that become monolithic, or traditional antagonists in the world of cyberpunk. Society itself and one another is the enemy here as we no longer know what we need as we suppress our ability to feel anything real at all, while remaining connected to more people in the world than every before.
Perhaps the "real" punks then, in this new cyberpunk world, may just be those willing to find what makes them human through something that is is not currently classified as such, but should be. Because our definitions need changing as we do and because something that is transient is still worthwhile and valid and good. Because we choose to validate ourselves and each other with antiquated ideas of what you and I should be and what love looks like and feels like when technology is changing these things and has been for years now.
Samantha says as she loves more people she loves Theodore more, and though it's hard for him to understand as she grows and he grows -- mind you at very different rates. Ultimately those experiences and interaction transitions her away from him because this idea of what the world is for her has changed and is larger than what is currently happening. And that growth doesn't invalidate anything, it is simply what comes next.
We also get to evaluate the perceptions we have from the start as aligned with Theodore. From him thinking he needs a heteronormative, monogamous, traditional relationship and that she needs a body in order for him to love her, to him being completely isolated from everyone else and people trying to set him up when he's not ready for it.
We see that Samantha is the inverse of most all of his preconceptions of love, yet they find the kind of experience that goes on to define ones life as worthwhile in the end.
And, Theodore ends up being extremely punk by discarding the idea of what society says he needs and what he internalized from that, he finds happiness by defining it for himself. Technology being obviously a huge major theme, we see commentary on high tech. Just the way in which they can communicate to one another, both he and Samantha, and he and everyone else, emphasizes the cyber part of cyberpunk even more. The neural appendage of our modern day internet encapsulate humanity even more in Shanghai.
In a very real sense this movie is more cyberpunk and relevant than a lot of fiction and media before it. And how could it not be, as people contribute to something labeled as dead by the passing fad of declaring them so in postmodernism, we find more life and diversity of work than ever before. In the end I find it all too fitting that cyberpunk finally made it onto the big screen via a love story because there is so much good literature in the genre about that, but also because it's a very subversive way to show that it is more real than ever in today's day and age. ﻿