The Ontological Breakdown of the Digital Age: A Hermeneutic Reading of “Simulacrum” and Loss of Value in the Film Inuyashiki
Chapter from the book: Yağbasan, M. (ed.) 2025. Meaning Struggles in the Digital Public Sphere: Myth, Space and Media.

Aydın Karabulut
Malatya Turgut Özal University

Synopsis

The film tells the story of Hiroshi Inuyashiki, an ordinary elderly man, and Hiro Shishigami, a high school student, who acquire mechanical bodies and superhuman powers following an extraterrestrial accident. As a result of this sudden transformation, values also take sides, joining a visual spectacle. While initially giving the impression of an effects-laden visual feast, the film also encompasses seepages within the different layers of existence. In this respect, the study aims to identify the ‘lost human’ and their image by lifting the veil presented by the film. In doing so, it employs the Hermeneutic method. By applying the Gadamerian hermeneutic method to the film, the study seeks to analyze the tensions between ‘mechanized bodies’ and ‘evaporating values,’ as well as the decline of values. The two protagonists in the film are also treated as a recurring archetype of duality (Inuyashiki and Shishigami). Furthermore, examined in the light of Baudrillard’s concept of simulation and Stiegler’s concept of proletarianization, the film is evaluated as a visual narrative of the digital nihilism of the age.

How to cite this book

Karabulut, A. (2025). The Ontological Breakdown of the Digital Age: A Hermeneutic Reading of “Simulacrum” and Loss of Value in the Film Inuyashiki. In: Yağbasan, M. (ed.), Meaning Struggles in the Digital Public Sphere: Myth, Space and Media. Özgür Publications. DOI: https://doi.org/10.58830/ozgur.pub990.c4050

License

Published

December 17, 2025

DOI