Back to the Future is airing for 3 consecutive weeks on Friday Road Show, so young people should definitely get hooked on Western sci-fi movies
The monumental sci-fi film Back to the Future series will be broadcast for three consecutive weeks starting February 7th on Friday Road Show! The second week will feature Back to the Future Part II, and the third week will feature Back to the Future Part III. They are old films for young people, but please be sure to watch them!
People say that Japanese people are moving away from Western films, but let's have our brains blown by Western films with the retro atmosphere of Back to the Future!!! Sci-fi is the best! After all, Japanese people should also bathe in sci-fi periodically, haha!!!
Back to the Future was released in the United States in 1985 and has become a super masterpiece passed down through generations to this day. The protagonist, a dull boy named Marty, uses a car-type time machine called the DeLorean developed by an eccentric scientist named Doc to travel 30 years into the past, before he was even born. And then, there...
Speaking of movies with themes of time travel or time slips, one year before Back to the Future, in 1984, that masterpiece The Terminator was released. The Terminator has become a series with sequels continuing to this day.
Although it is not a time travel story, Ridley Scott's Alien was released in 1979. In fact, this was the year that Mobile Suit Gundam began airing in Japan. In 1982, E.T., Blade Runner, The Thing, and Dune were released, and after that, hit Western sci-fi films like Aliens and Predator continued to be produced one after another.
I think American sci-fi films from the 80s onwards, in addition to classical sci-fi perspectives, started to have more catchy and iconic characters and items than before. I think E.T., the DeLorean, Terminators like the T-800, and the various Aliens are lively as icons with unique appearances. Of course, there was Star Wars (1977) before that, though.
You could say that the 80s was the era when sci-fi movies entered a new age. In Japan, the 1979 Gundam also had a huge influence on robot works from the 80s onwards. In terms of sci-fi, the 1988 film AKIRA ended up having a massive influence on creators both in Japan and abroad. The 80s was an amazing era where the fun of entertainment accelerated, wasn't it?
Speaking of 80s culture, the Stranger Things series, which is distributed on Netflix and is super popular worldwide, is created and directed by the Duffer Brothers, who absolutely love that era. This is evident from the numerous homages incorporated into the work. The fact that the Duffer Brothers, who are currently in their 40s, love the atmosphere of the 80s is probably the same feeling as me, in my 30s, loving the 90s.
In a conversation with producer Nobuyuki Sakuma, the Duffer Brothers mentioned that they were also influenced by the Japanese anime AKIRA and the 2000s series Elfen Lied. Considering the setting of the Stranger Things heroine, Eleven, it makes sense. Also, I suspect the image of Vecna was influenced by the Resident Evil series (90s onwards). However, the 80s color is very strong in the work.
Young people of Japan, let's watch Back to the Future and bathe in plenty of 80s essence!