Metropolis (2001 film)
Metropolis | |
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Directed by | Rintaro |
Screenplay by | Katsuhiro Otomo |
Based on | Metropolis by Osamu Tezuka |
Produced by |
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Starring |
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Cinematography | Hitoshi Yamaguchi |
Music by | Madhouse |
Distributed by | Toho |
Release date |
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Running time | 113 minutes |
Country | Japan |
Language | Japanese |
Budget | ¥1.5 billion |
Box office | ¥100 million (Japan) $4 million (worldwide) |
Metropolis (メトロポリス, Metoroporisu) is a 2001 Japanese
Plot
Humans and robots coexist in the multi-layered city of Metropolis, although robots are discriminated against and segregated to the lowest levels of the city. Most humans in Metropolis are unemployed and impoverished, with many blaming robots for taking their jobs.
Duke Red, Metropolis's unofficial ruler and wealthiest citizen, has recently completed construction of The Ziggurat, a massive skyscraper which he claims will allow mankind to extend its power across the planet. A wayward robot disrupts the Ziggurat's opening ceremony, prompting Duke Red's adopted son Rock, the leader of an anti-robot paramilitary organization known as the Marduks, to shoot it down. Meanwhile, private detective Shunsaku Ban and his young nephew/assistant Kenichi Shikishima have traveled from Japan to Metropolis to apprehend rogue scientist Dr. Laughton, wanted for
Discovering the burning laboratory, Shunsaku locates the dying Laughton, who directs Shunsaku to a notebook containing his research. Meanwhile, Kenichi stumbles upon the newly activated Tima. The two fall into the sewers and are separated from Shunsaku. While Shunsaku searches for his nephew, Kenichi and Tima search for a way back up to the street level. They grow close as Kenichi teaches Tima how to speak, both unaware that she is a robot. Learning that Tima survived the lab's destruction, Rock and his subordinates hunt them relentlessly. The pair encounter a group of unemployed human laborers who stage an armed revolution against Metropolis's leaders and robot workers.
Unhappy with the Duke's popularity and influence, the president and the mayor of Metropolis try to use the revolution to overthrow Red and regain control of Metropolis. However, the president's top military commander, General Kusai Skunk is revealed to be one of Red's subordinates and assassinates them both. Red then imposes martial law and violently suppresses the revolution. In the aftermath, Kenichi reunites with Shunsaku, but Rock, who exposes Tima as a robot, wounds him. Red disowns Rock and removes him from command of the Marduks for attempting to kill Tima before taking her and Kenichi away to the Ziggurat.
Still determined to eliminate her and regain his father's affection, Rock kidnaps and deactivates Tima, who is now confused about her identity. Having tracked Rock, Shunsaku recovers Tima, and following instructions from Laughton's notebook, reactivates her. The two discover Kenichi is being held in the Ziggurat, but Duke Red and the Marduks capture them while the pair are en route. They are brought to the top of the Ziggurat, where Tima confronts Duke Red about whether she is a human or a robot. Duke Red tells her she is "superhuman" and destined to rule the world from her 'throne', the control system for the Ziggurat's superweapon. Disguised as one of the Ziggurat's maids, Rock shoots Tima in the shoulder, exposing her internal circuitry, before being shot by Red's men.
Horrified by her true identity, Tima goes insane, causing her implanted military protocols to take control. She proceeds to physically integrate with the throne and orders a biological and nuclear attack on humanity as punishment for abusing and discriminating against robots. While the others flee, Kenichi tries to reason with Tima. Robots all across Metropolis, drawn by Tima's command, assault the Ziggurat and attack Duke Red and his forces. Not wanting robots to kill his father, Rock triggers an overload in the superweapon, killing himself and Red in a massive explosion. As the Ziggurat starts to collapse around them, Kenichi finally reaches Tima and separates her from the throne. Still in a confused state, Tima tries to kill Kenichi, but falls off the tower in the struggle. Out of love for her, Kenichi tries to save Tima and pull her up using one of the cables still grafted to her arm. As the cable begins to fray, Tima remembers the time Kenichi taught her language and asks Kenichi, "Who am I?", before the cable snaps and she falls. The Ziggurat collapses, destroying a large part of Metropolis.
Afterwards, Kenichi searches the ruins and discovers a group of robots have salvaged some of Tima's parts in an effort to rebuild her. While Shunsaku and many other human survivors are evacuated, Kenichi chooses to remain behind to help the survivors rebuild. A photograph shown during the end credits reveals Kenichi opened a robot workshop, named after him and Tima.
Divergence between manga and anime
Tezuka's original manga centers around the artificial humanoid Mitchi, who is able to fly and change sex and who is pursued by Duke Red and his Red Party who intend to use Mitchi for destructive purposes. Shunsaku Ban and his nephew Kenichi find Mitchi after her creator, Dr. Charles Laughton, is killed and they protect her as they search for her parents. Unlike Tima's desire to be human, the cause for Mitchi's destructive rampage in the manga's climax is the revelation that, as a robot, she has no parents.
The 2001 film incorporates more elements from the
Duke Red is shown to be both a cruel and evil leader and father; it is repeatedly shown that he does not care about Rock or even consider Rock his son despite adopting him; the character Rock also deviates from the manga.[4] He only sees Tima as a weapon to destroy humanity and even considers Tima and Rock inferior to him and anyone who is loyal to him. While his real daughter (also named Tima) died, he only rebuilt her humanoid self just to use her and has no regard or affection for what she needs. He also ignores Tima's questions about her being human or not, showing that he does not care if Tima feels emotions or not.
Rock wasn't in the original manga, and according to the writer of the film, he was added to pay homage to Tezuka's science fiction adventure style of storytelling, while also adding depth to the story's background and the world around it. Rock is meant to represent humanity's dark side, and the negative emotions associated with those aspects.[5] He also echoes Tima's story and can be considered another side of it, as they are both neglected children engineered by their father to be tools of war. In Rock's case however, he was cast aside and unwanted by Duke Red. Their stories ultimately converge, coming full circle when they both lead to their father's downfall, with his legacy quite literally collapsing to the ground.
The film's Ziggurat combines the New Tower of Babel from Lang's original film and the manga's Cathedral.[6]
Themes
Portrayal of robots
The
Cast
Character name | Japanese voice actor | English dubbing actor |
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Tima (ティマ) | Yuka Imoto | Rebecca Forstadt[7] |
Kenichi Shikishima (敷島 ケンイチ, Shikishima Kenichi) | Kei Kobayashi | Brianne Siddall[7][self-published source] |
Rock (ロック) | Hiroaki Okada | Michael Reisz[7] |
Duke Red (レッド公) | Tarô Ishida |
Jamieson Price[7] |
Shinsaku Ban (伴俊作, Ban Shinsaku) | Kōsei Tomita | Tony Pope |
Pero (ペロ) | Norio Wakamoto | Dave Mallow |
Doctor Laughton (ロートン博士) | Junpei Takiguchi | Simon Prescott[7] |
Doctor Ponkotsu (ポンコッツ博士) | Takeshi Aono | Doug Stone |
President Boone (ブーン大統領) | Masaru Ikeda | Richard Plantagenet[7] |
Supt. Notarlin (ノタアリン) | Shun Yashiro | William Frederick Knight |
Kusai Skunk (スカンク) | Toshio Furukawa | Dan Woren |
Acetylene Lamp (アセチレン・ランプ) | Shigeru Chiba | Steven Blum
|
Ham Egg (ハムエッグ) | Masashi Ebara | Robert Axelrod |
Mayor Lyon (リヨン) | Takaya Hashi | Peter Spellos |
Atlas (アトラス) | Norihiro Inoue | Scott Weinger |
Fifi (フィフィ) | Rikako Aikawa | |
Emmy (エンミィ) | Mami Koyama | Barbara Goodson |
Production
Osamu Tezuka had originally derived inspiration from Fritz Lang's 1927 German silent science fiction film of the same name, despite not actually having seen it. The manga and Lang's film do not share plot elements. The 2001 film borrowed from Lang's film more directly and incorporated plot elements from it.
During the days of
The film took five years to create.[5] It had a production budget of ¥1.5 billion,[8] then equivalent to roughly 9 million dollars. This made it the most expensive anime film up until then, surpassing Otomo's Akira (1988). In turn, its budget record was later surpassed by Otomo's Steamboy (2004).[8]
Soundtrack
Metropolis – Original Soundtrack | |
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Soundtrack album by | |
Released | May 23, 2001 |
Genre | Film score |
Length | 59:10 |
Label | King Records |
Producer | Toshiyuki Honda |
The Metropolis soundtrack consists mainly of
During the film's climactic scene, the song "I Can't Stop Loving You" performed by Ray Charles was used as most of the audio when the Ziggurat was destroyed, with sound effects only audible later on in the scene. Likely due to licensing reasons, the song was not included on the soundtrack album.
Release
The film was first released in Japan on May 26, 2001. When it was released in the US and other foreign countries by
Metropolis was first released on VHS, and is now available in North America as both a 2-disc DVD, with the second disc being a MiniDVD (called a "Pocket DVD"), and a Blu-ray.
In both the United Kingdom and Ireland,
Toho-Towa Distribution, the foreign film distribution division of the film's original Japanese distributor, Toho, also handled the Japanese distribution of the 1927 version of Metropolis.[11]
As the license of the German Metropolis is held by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation, the film was released under the title Robotic Angel.[12]
Reception
Metropolis received highly positive reviews: based on 67 reviews from Rotten Tomatoes, Metropolis received an overall 87% approval rating, with an average rating of 7.30/10. The site's critical consensus states that "A remarkable technical achievement, Metropolis' eye-popping visuals more than compensate for its relatively routine story."[13][14][15] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 75 out of 100, based on 16 critics.[16]
Film critic Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, gave Metropolis four out of four, calling it "one of the best animated films I have ever seen".[17]
See also
References
- ^ A. O. Scott (January 25, 2002). "FILM REVIEW; Dark Doings Proliferate In a World of Vivid Colors". New York Times. Retrieved September 1, 2012.
- ^ Explanation section on the Metropolis manga section of TezukaOsamu@World Accessed on June 5, 2007. Archived March 12, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- JSTOR 40158943.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7656-1601-2.
- ^ a b c Animax Special- The Making of Metropolis (DVD bonus feature). 2002.
- JSTOR 41510907.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4628-9319-5.
- ^ ISBN 978-4-7980-5038-6.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (link - ^ "Metropolis (2002)". Box Office Mojo. August 28, 2002. Retrieved May 25, 2013.
- ^ "Eureka Entertainment Acquires British & Irish Distribution Rights to Rintaro's Metropolis". Fandom Post. Retrieved August 22, 2016.
- ^ "Profile". Toho-towa.
- ^ "Robotic Angel". schnittberichte.com (in German).
- ^ "Metropolis (Metoroporisu)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved September 1, 2012.
- ^ "Metropolis: DVD Talk Review of the DVD Video". Dvdtalk.com. Retrieved September 1, 2012.
- ^ A. O. Scott (January 25, 2002). "Movie Review - Metropolis - FILM REVIEW; Dark Doings Proliferate In a World of Vivid Colors - NYTimes.com". Movies.nytimes.com. Retrieved September 1, 2012.
- ^ "Metropolis". Metacritic.
- ^ Ebert, Roger. "Metropolis Movie Review & Film Summary". RogerEbert.com.
External links
- Official website (English)
- Metropolis at IMDb
- "メトロポリス (Metoroporisu)" (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database.
- Metropolis at AllMovie
- Metropolis at Rotten Tomatoes
- Metropolis at Metacritic
- Metropolis (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia