Blade Runner in 2019 – what did it get right about Hong Kong life today and how great was its influence on science fiction?
- Its grimy, rain-lashed, neon-lit street scenes inspired by Hong Kong, dystopian thriller Blade Runner, made in 1982, is set in November 2019 – our past now
- How much does the Hong Kong of today have in common with the future Ridley Scott’s film envisioned 37 years ago?
There are no flying cars, there’s only one space station and the killer humanoid robots are yet to show themselves. But a robot made in Hong Kong is being booked for professional speaking engagements, while in grimy, neon-lit streets its residents make video calls as they walk beneath some of the world’s biggest LED video billboards.
Hong Kong 2019 has a lot in common with a future envisioned almost 40 years ago.
The 1982 movie Blade Runner is considered a classic of science fiction. It is one of the most influential science fiction films of all time, and was set in November 2019. It now has the curious allure of being a film that is set in our past, causing many around the world to consider how accurately it predicted the future.
While social media has buzzed for months about the passing of the date that appears on screen in the first few frames of the movie, for residents of Hong Kong it is again cause to consider how deeply the city has influenced science fiction.
Directed by Ridley Scott, starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer and Daryl Hannah, Blade Runner is set in a dystopian Los Angeles in which a burned-out detective hunts bio-engineered robots that look exactly like humans, but exhibit superior strength and a murderous desire to survive.
The movie was based on the 1968 novella Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, but it is the visual feel of the film created by Scott and concept artist Syd Mead that has had lasting influence upon anime, film, computer games and fashion.