I was recently on a plane from Chicago to Seattle and Guy Ritchie‘s “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” (2011) was playing. I didn’t watch it (to paraphrase “Night Moves“: “I saw a Guy Ritchie movie once…”) but every time I looked up at the screens, the same thing would happen: The action would speed up and slow down within individual shots. In the days of film, you might call it overcranking and undercranking, but this was digital. You remember “The Matrix.” It was all very 1999.

Shortly thereafter I saw this video (and many others) by Genki Sudo / World Order. I find their movements, accomplished with their bodies in real time and not with camera tricks, mesmerizing (robot moves aside, reminiscent of David Byrne’s “Once in a Lifetime”) and somehow quite moving. They’re getting at something profound about the rhythms of technology and biology and modern rituals. And, as a side effect, they make Guy Ritchie’s directorial career look all the more insignificant.

L to R: Takashi Jonishi, Yusuke Morisawa, Ryo Noguchi (chief choreographer), Genki Sudo (vocal, producer & director, retired Ultimate Fighter), Masato Ochiai, Akihiro Takahashi, Hayato Uchiyama.

Jim Emerson

Jim Emerson is the founding editor of RogerEbert.com and has written lots of things in lots of places over lots of years. Mostly involving movies.

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