Tuesday, March 29, 2:00pm
Student Union Movie Theater, UNC Charlotte Main Campus
Summer Wars
Director Mamoru Hosoda
Japan, 2009, 114 min
In English
Sponsor: UNC Charlotte Nihon Club
An adolescent math wiz unintentionally plunges the virtual world into chaos by solving a numerological riddle that makes the global network vulnerable to attack in this animated sci-fi adventure comedy. When Natsuki asks Kenji to pose as her boyfriend at her grandmother’s upcoming birthday party, the smitten young numbers man jumps at the opportunity. But his summer of romance takes an unexpected turn when Kenji receives a complex math riddle on his cell phone, and solves it without a second thought. In the process, however, Kenji breaches the security of Oz, an extensive virtual realm containing everything from online shopping records to sensitive government documents and even the codes to launch nuclear weapons. Later, when a malicious AI program dubbed Love Machine begins gathering all of this data and threatens to bring the entire information infrastructure to its knees, Kenji, Natsuki, and her family must figure out a way to clear up the mess before it plunges the planet into chaos. Author: Jason Buchanan.
Reviews
“A charming allegory for man – or woman – against machine, Summer Wars is an eye-popping symphony of colour and imagination that leaps from the screen to blow the viewer’s mind.” – Diva Velez, TheDivaReview.com
“There’s a lovely, unhurried quality to Mr. Hosoda’s storytelling, which nicely matches the clean, classically composed images of his outer story.” – Rachel Saltz, New York Times
“Far from resorting to easy, reactionary technophobia, Hosoda shows Japan’s age-old traditions being upheld throughout different generations, with the beautifully realised digital community of OZ proving as much the solution as the problem.” – Anton Bitel, Little White Lies
Social Media Links: Summer Wars Trailer
