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Share your noir inspiration for this jam

A topic by Capsule Arcade created Jan 20, 2019 Views: 317 Replies: 8
Viewing posts 1 to 4

love Murakami's Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World. Which is probably why I love the idea of this jam! I'm curious about what noir works people here are going to draw inspiration from.

For me it's going to be Inherent Vice. There's just something about that film.  "Inherent Vice is a postcard of the sun going down on California." Someone, somewhere, once said that and the image just stuck with me.

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For me it's Twin Peaks, Read Only Memories,  a few scenes of Johnny Mnemonic (never finished watching it) and Hard Boiled Wonderland ofc. However,  despite Hard-Boiled being my first Murakami,  my top fave is Kafka on the Shore. What really got me into the mystery genre in a video games sense was the Zero Escape series.  I also played a sort of trash game when I was a kid called, Lux-Pain. It was a localization failure and the game mechanic wasn't amazing, I was going to replay it because I got a game over ending, but haven't had the chance to.  

Kafka on the shore was the first Murakami I ever read. Such an amazing book made even weirder by the fact that I had just moved to Taiwan at that time. Made the whole experience even more surreal. I worship Twine Peaks and pretty much anything Lynch has ever done. But wow. Lux -Pain. I remember that game! Really need to revisit that. 

Something I really want to pilfer from for this jam is Southern Gothic. That made the first True Detective for me. Could go very well with a bit of Angel Heart. 

Host

I have to watch Mulholland Drive one of these days, since that's another noir work by him outside Twin Peaks.  Yeah Lux-Pain has become an object of nostalgia these days to a point where ppl are calling it one of the best DS games. and i was like... it's a cool concept but localization killed it and it was executed a little awkward.... so that's a tiny bit of a stretch but it's still a decent game.  

i never watched True Detective but would love to esp with Mahershala Ali being in it. Southern Gothic is a total aesthetic to me and I've had some twine games that tried to imitate it... badly lol.

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If you like Southern Gothic then you neeeeeeeeeeeed to watch True Detective season 1. It was fantastic. The pessimistic philosophy stuff was also incredibly intriguing. though I didn't know it was called that at the time. I'm so excited for season 2 because they've gone back to what made it great in the first place and I can't wait to see how Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff act this out. (not that I can remember seeing Dorff in anything since Blade :/ )

I don't remember much about Lux-Pain to be honest, except that it didn't grab me. But that's not important. Stop reading this. Right now. Drop everything. Ignore everyone you pass. Go home. Watch Mulholland Drive!

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The main inspirations for my project Giallo are: 

  • noir classics (with all the ambiguity and the oneiric) such as Laura by Otto Preminger (Twin Peaks takes a lot from it), The Big Combo, Kiss me deadly, Touch of Evil, The Lady of ShangaiOut of the Past, Detour, Murder, my sweet, D.O.A., and others. 
  • the sub-genre of neon noir, with colors used in an expressionist way and more explicit moral and sexual ambiguity such as Blade runner, Blue velvet, The Big Bang, Muerte en Buenos Aires.

Very interesting things you're drawing inspiration from. I'm hoping a little bit of weirdness creeps in from the Lynch side of things!

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Actually there's some dream-like unreality (not exactly surreality), but yeah, it will be weird enough.

Rad! Can't wait to play it.