Repo! The Genetic Opera
I watched Repo! The Genetic Opera this week, and found it very enjoyable in a dark and laughably gory and earwormish way.
Here is a video with an introduction to the tale.
I love those cartoon style narrations and backstory fill-ins. There are a few throughout the show.
Based on the startling premise that in the future, there is an epidemic of organ failure which gives rise to a massive need for organ transplantation and, as a consequence, a huge company which finances loans so that people can afford organ transplants. There is an expansion of this into a cultural normalisation of having "vanity" surgery on a whim.
The really exciting part about this finance-to-buy-organs thing, though, is that if people miss too many payments on their loans, their organs get repossessed. Brutally and fatally, with absurdly gory and implausible representations of surprise organ extraction set to some wild music. It's quite a thing.
Amid all this there is a seventeen year old girl, sequestered because of a lifelong illness, her overprotective father who is sheltering her from the cruel truth, and a wacky family of powerful sociopaths ruling over everything. Oh, and a sleazily attractive gravedigger, a spectacular opera singer and a cast of interestingly attired and scarred people to fill the chorus roles.
I had my usual problem suspending disbelief regarding the plot, the patchiness of which seems to have been exacerbated by the chunks of story which were cut out due to time constraints. But the effort required to shush my inner critic was well worth it. I was reminded strongly of Sweeney Todd and, of course, the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
I have been re-watching bits and pieces of Repo! on youtube, and singing it around the house in that frustrating "know it well enough to start but not well enough to finish" kind of way, and I do think I will need to see it right through a couple more times, at least (oh no!), to really get a handle on the narrative.
This entry crossposted from http://tangent-woman.dreamwidth.org/545578.html with
comments. Please comment there if you feel inclined. You too can have a Dreamwidth blog. Ask me how!
Here is a video with an introduction to the tale.
I love those cartoon style narrations and backstory fill-ins. There are a few throughout the show.
Based on the startling premise that in the future, there is an epidemic of organ failure which gives rise to a massive need for organ transplantation and, as a consequence, a huge company which finances loans so that people can afford organ transplants. There is an expansion of this into a cultural normalisation of having "vanity" surgery on a whim.
The really exciting part about this finance-to-buy-organs thing, though, is that if people miss too many payments on their loans, their organs get repossessed. Brutally and fatally, with absurdly gory and implausible representations of surprise organ extraction set to some wild music. It's quite a thing.
Amid all this there is a seventeen year old girl, sequestered because of a lifelong illness, her overprotective father who is sheltering her from the cruel truth, and a wacky family of powerful sociopaths ruling over everything. Oh, and a sleazily attractive gravedigger, a spectacular opera singer and a cast of interestingly attired and scarred people to fill the chorus roles.
I had my usual problem suspending disbelief regarding the plot, the patchiness of which seems to have been exacerbated by the chunks of story which were cut out due to time constraints. But the effort required to shush my inner critic was well worth it. I was reminded strongly of Sweeney Todd and, of course, the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
I have been re-watching bits and pieces of Repo! on youtube, and singing it around the house in that frustrating "know it well enough to start but not well enough to finish" kind of way, and I do think I will need to see it right through a couple more times, at least (oh no!), to really get a handle on the narrative.
This entry crossposted from http://tangent-woman.dreamwidth.org/545578.html with
comments. Please comment there if you feel inclined. You too can have a Dreamwidth blog. Ask me how!