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EP202304.01 - Three Movies that Made me

#RoboCop below is my prompt for generating the cover image using #DallE A 1990s Shanghai family scene with 4 male kids gathered around a television, dressed in tank tops during a sweltering summer. An old-fashioned electric fan is blowing, and they're enjoying soda while watching the American movie "Robocop" on a VHS tape. The iconic image of Robocop Sign is on the screen, and the entire scene has a retro, colorful photograph aesthetic. I've been watching Netflix's ”The Movies That Made Us” recently. Of course, not every film mentioned resonates deeply with me, but Robocop indeed brings back memories of my earliest exposure to American film culture. In the early 1990s on Chongming Island in Shanghai, one of my neighbors living in the same building as my family (named Gu Yufan[1]) had the first VHS player. At that time, American films and TV shows hadn't yet massively and officially entered mainland China. Those VHS tapes were probably our earliest medium to access Western movie culture. I remember the subtitles were in traditional Chinese characters, so it's likely that those tapes were from Hong Kong or Taiwan. Vaguely, I recall watching Star Wars, Terminator,
-T2 gives death the thumbs up
and Robocop (translated as "Mechanical Police Officer") at this neighbor's home. As a side note, Robocop was rated R, but we children watched it anyway. I don't think it had any negative impact on me physically or mentally. The most unforgettable scene[2] in Robocop is when the robotic cop calculates the exact location of the criminal's crotch and delivers a lethal blow without harming the hostage. I'm grateful for this experience, as it gives me shared memories with my American peers of the same age. It also allows me, in the years after 2020, to resonate with American culture while watching these documentaries. By the way, I want to mention that the documentary reveals that Robocop's design was inspired by Japanese designer Hajime Sorayama[3]. This makes me think about the comparative cultural ecology between Japan and the United States. As a large market, many classic Japanese design elements and inspirations can be magnified in the American market and radiate to the rest of the world. It seems I really need to learn Japanese. Finally, thank you, Robocop. The film was produced and released in 1987, and I was fortunate enough to encounter these movies in the 1990s.