METROPOLIS
SYNOPSIS:
Metropolis is a grand city state sometime in the future, where
humans and robots live in a segmented society. Anti robot
factions are stirring. Japanese detective Shunsaku Ben and his
assistant Kenichi (Kei Kobayashi) are searching for rebel
scientist Dr Laughton (Junpei Takeguchi), to stop him and his
latest creation, Tima (Yuka Imoto), a beautiful young girl on the
outside, but robot inside. But Laughton is protected by a
powerful man and the fate of Metropolis is in the balance.
Review by Andrew L. Urban:
This extraordinary film is an epic of anime, a fable about the
failures of technology, the weaknesses and powers of human nature
and the ever present danger from ego, greed and selfishness. But
what is really remarkable is the power of the images through
which the slightly clumsy moral messages are sent, and the fusion
of animation styles - plus a totally unexpected soundtrack, which
at times is really jolting. The dialogue is its weakspot (this is
the subtitled version, not the dubbed) but even so, Metropolis is
a profoundly exciting movie experience. The opening scene is
reminiscent of the 1927 film of the same name, and in fact that
classic film's shadow hangs over the whole work - but only as a
shadow. True, this Metropolis is derivative on some levels, and
there are animation styles that remind us of the faces from Tin
Tin, Belgium's favourite comic-to-animation character, for
example. There are also wild fluctuations in tone, from the dark
images of a fatalist, noir film to the exuberance of saturated
colours in the sleazier parts of the city. The street and
billboard signs are in English, and the whole setting is somehow
Manhattenised, although it's not as precise as that. All the
frames are complex and full, and some of the CGI work is awe
inspiring. The period is sometime in the future, but the ambiance
is also somewhere in the past; the big orchestral score is only
part of the soundtrack, which lurches into trad jazz immediately
after the apocalyptic opening statement by a mystic figure atop a
skyscraper. At one point, Ray Charles pipes in with I Can't Stop
Loving You - and it's the least expected juxtaposition.
Elsewhere, that great blues classic, St James Infirmary, gets an
airing. If your palate is jaded with Hollywood or depleted by
European fare, Metropolis will refresh it with vigour.
Review by Richard Kuipers:
Wow. Japanese animation reaches new heights (if that's possible
considering what we've already seen) with this superb adaptation
of Osamu Tezuka's 1949 manga (comic book). With a nod to Fritz
Lang's 1926 masterpiece for some basic elements, Osamu's vision
of a world gone wild is majestically realised by director Rintaro
(Osuma's apprentice on the Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion
series) and screenwriter Katsuhiro Otomo, who directed the first
manga breakthrough film, Akira, in 1988. The imagery of
Metropolis is stunning; the detail extraordinary. The only
live-action reference point for the design
is perhaps Dark City; a similar place where the grimy feel of 40s
diners rubbed up against awesome, architecturally imposing
products of scientific advancement. But no comparison does
justice to a film that inspires wonder at its depiction of a
fascist superstate and asks moral and scientific questions
similar to those in Spielberg's A.I., only with much more flair
and feeling. The de-humanising effects of technology and the
potential of machines to feel and express love are given a
dynamic workout in a film that wants us to stop and think about
whether Metropolis is the kind of place we'd ever want to live.
If anything the plot is a little too complex and convoluted to
begin with but once you work out who everyone is and what they
want, Metropolis really takes off. Punctuated by an inspired
choice of dixie jazz on the soundtrack and presented in its
original Japanese language with English subtitles (hooray, no
awful American voice track), Metropolis also boasts the most
audacious and blindingly brilliant use of Ray Charles' sappy 1958
ballad I Can't Stop Loving You that you'll ever see. Japanime
still isn't as widely accepted on the Australian big screen as it
deserves to be. Metropolis is worthy of being the film to help
change that.
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 CRITICAL COUNT Favourable: 2 Unfavourable: 0 Mixed: 0 METROPOLIS (M) (Jap) VOICES: Yuka Imoto, Kei Kobayashi, Kouki Okada, Jamieson Price, Junpei Takeguchi PRODUCER: Metropolis Committee DIRECTOR: Rintaro SCRIPT: Katsuhiro Otomo (based on the comic by Osamu Tezuka) CINEMATOGRAPHER: not credited EDITOR: not credited MUSIC: Toshiyuki Honda PRODUCTION DESIGN: not credited OTHER: CHARACTER DESIGN: Katsuhiro Otomo
ART DIRECTOR: Shuichi Hirata RUNNING TIME: 107 minutes AUSTRALIAN DISTRIBUTOR: Columbia TriStar AUSTRALIAN RELEASE: Sydney - June 27, 2002; Melbourne - March 31, 2002; other states to follow
VIDEO DISTRIBUTOR: Col TriStar Home Entertainment VIDEO RELEASE: October 16, 2002
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