"First cold. Then pain. The pain of birth. Then I realized my energy cell was running out unusually fast. So fast there was only time for my short life to flash before my eyes. "
Technotise Edit I Ja (Technotise: Edit & I) is a 2009 Serbian cyberpunk dramedy animated film which serves as a sequel to Aleksa Gajić's graphic novel Technotise.
The year is 2074. Belgrade is filled with hovercars and robot pets. Edit Stefanović is a psychology student who takes care of an autistic math genius named Abel. After failing a certain exam six times, she visits a dealer at the black market in order to install a memory chip that will record everything she sees, helping her pass the exams. However, after seeing Abel's formula, which connects all forces in the world, the chip becomes sentient and develops a personality of its own.
The animation is decidedly animesque and is taken on in four styles - rotoscoping, classic 2D, 3D and vector animation. Rumors of another novel being adapted to yet another sequel exist. There are also plans for a live-action remake
. It is currently streaming on Amazon Prime and TubiTV.
Tropes related to the movie:
- Aerith and Bob: Edit, Vu, Herb, Broni and Bojan.
- Anti-Villain: The professor is Type IV. He works for Sergej, but is a rather nice guy, and even seems to be honestly sad when Edit dies. Sergej himself is Type III. He believes using Edi to solve Abel's equation would bring prosperity to the world, even though Edi isn't keen on "becoming someone's calculator" and, more importantly, knowing Edi's extraction would be lethal for Edit.
- Art Shift: Edit's grandpa's flashback is animated in black and white.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Edi.
- Ask a Stupid Question...: Edi seems confused when Edit asks him for help while pressed up against the windshield of a car going at 250 mph.Edit: Get me out of here!Edi: Get you...?Edit: No, my grandma.
- Bald of Evil: Sergej.
- Bittersweet Ending: Though, it leans on sweet slightly more.
- Bouncer: Edit and Vu are allowed to enter a nightclub after listening to his giftedly bad poem.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick:Sanja: Edit, first you ate a double salad, a kilo of liver, then a fistful of iron pills, then your phone...
- Back from the Dead: Edit
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Every single fight Edit gets into.
- Cursed with Awesome: Edi's existence gives Edit nearly superhuman abilities, but his growth will finaly lead to her death.
- Cyberpunk
- Cyberpunk Is Techno: Mostly played straight.
- Deadpan Snarker: Edi, Bojan, to a lesser extent Herb.
- Disability Superpower: Abel is severely autistic, but has the ability to see the future.
- Do Androids Dream?: Apparently, not really, unless they enter a symbiotic relationship with a human host, and achieve sentience via exposure to Abel's formula.
- Dumb Blonde: Played straight with Sanja, averted with Edit.
- Dumb Muscle: The three thugs who try to kidnap Edit can barely speak, to the point their lines are subtitled.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Sergej. He keeps a photo of his family, and he has a pet dog.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Abel. After discovering the theory of everything as a child prodigy, he becomes severely autistic and non-responsive to anyone around him, preferring to spend time alone on a meadow.
- Hover Board: The main characters use them.
- Just Think of the Potential!: Why The Government wants to extract Edi, at the cost of Edit's life.
- Karma Houdini: Edi, also Edit. They kind of kill Sergej and his dog, but at the end we learn that apparently no charges were pressed.
- Logic Bomb: Supercomputers become sentient and shut down permanently after solving Abel's equation. Except if they're already wired to a person's brain, in which case they can take the form of their subconscious.
- Ms. Fanservice: Edit. She's buck naked in both her dream sequence, while taking a shower and in the final scene. She also briefly has graphic sex with Edi.
- Necktie Leash: Edit uses this to seduce her college professor, which she records and plans on using for blackmail.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed:
The authors said Edit's character design was based on Jessica Alba and Serbian singer Nataša Bekvalac. - Not Quite Dead: Edit "dies" in a pile of garbage when Edi's growth takes its toll on her body. In their last moments, he instead puts her into a kind of stasis that appears clinically dead, and then restarts her body and removes his wire form to prevent further damage.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Abel, either this or at least genuinely broken by the knowledge.
- Older Than They Look: Edit's grandpa. Judging by his flashback, he should be in his mid-90s at least; he looks like he's around 60.
- The Quiet One: Abel. See the entry for Go Mad from the Revelation above.
- Ridiculous Exchange Rates: The Serbian dinar sure seems to have strengthened.
- Pet the Dog: Sergej is shown in a soothing environment with his dog, looking at a family photo of him carrying his son on his shoulders only to be killed by electrocution a minute later.
- Playing Doctor: The reason behind Edi's physical appearance.
- Power Perversion Potential: Edi can control Edit's nervous system. While demonstrating what he can do, he gives her an orgasm.
- Product Placement
- Puppeteer Parasite:
- It's implied in Edit's grandpa's flashback scene that Slobodan Milošević was being controlled by an eight-legged parasite.
Or her grandpa made the story up. - To a lesser degree, Edi. He can control Edit's body at will, but he doesn't do it all the time, and she is fully aware of his presence.
- It's implied in Edit's grandpa's flashback scene that Slobodan Milošević was being controlled by an eight-legged parasite.
- R-Rated Opening: The first scene features Bojan and Vu discussing robotic prostitutes.
- Scenery Porn
- Sharing a Body: Edit and Edi.
- Shout-Out: The professor claims that Abel's formula has brought us closer to understanding "life, the Universe and everything".
- Soap Within a Show: The futuristic parody version.
- Super-Reflexes: Edit, while being controlled by Edi.
- Technology Porn: Everywhere, from anti gravity bars, to hoverboards, and especially Edi's true form as an entire metal wire replica of a human nervous system inside Edit's body.
- Thanks for the Mammary: Abel gropes Edit twice. Could either be playing dumb or really rather innocent due to his obvious lack of social interaction for most of his life.
- Those Two Guys: Meda and Zeka.
- Token Minority: The Croatian college professor.
- Trailers Always Lie: The trailer focused on drama and action scenes and failed to mention that the film was also a comedy.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Sergej. He is ready to kill Edit in order to achieve his goals which will, he believes, help humanity.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: TDR doesn't press charges against Edit, allowing her to resume her normal life again with Bojan. Her friends end up creating their own Love Dodecahedron, she finds the kid from kindergarten that she unconsciously based Edi's appearance on and tells him her story, Abel gets to live in soothing privacy, and she imagines that Edi is happy in some digital afterlife with her late robo pet Otomo.
- Your Mom:Bojan: You slut.Edit: Your daddy's a slut.
