Korea: The Future as Imagined in Blade Runner

this is also true of Japan and to a lesser extent Taiwan and Hong Kong.

There is this image in the world that Asia is ultra-modern, at least northeast Asia. Bullet trains, neon lights and robots. The thing is that it is all true. Imagine Harrison Ford in Blade Runner in 1982. Trains moving 300kph, cars that talk to you and take you where you want to go automatically (not totally dissimilar from talking  GPS), neon lights everywhere, men with crazy fashion that often look more like women then men, miles of huge skyscrapers, strange electronic music blasting everywhere. Thing is is that is Korea, or at least Seoul.

But then there's the stuff that reminds you that it was made in 1982. Harrison Ford has a wristwatch, he needs to get a fax from his boss cause apparently email was discarded, using computers is difficult and ultimately an inconvenience, people use nothing but cash, computer games look ten years old rather than futuristic. I'll add the fact that most Koreans still use Internet Explorer and you have Korea as well.

Notice I made it through without a single clone joke.