Metropolis Review
by Jason Enberg
New Anime or Remake?
In 1922, a German, Fritz Lang, created what many call the first Sci-Fi movie. It was a silent, black-and-white movie. The movie tells the story of a common Marxian nightmare with an ending that could have been written by the Teamsters. Rich industrialists rule society. They live in huge pristine skyscrapers, while the masses toil underground, performing the necessary but exhausting labor needed to keep the city running. The people are listless and shuffle exhaustedly from work to home and back to work again. That is, except for the rebellious ones who meet in secret meetings plotting for change.
Meanwhile the rich industrials plan ways to replace their rebellious labor force. They invent the robot to do the work with out complaint. Using the first robot they secretly replace the workers' beautiful blonde female leader. The robot encourages the humans to riot so the rich industrialists can exterminate them with just cause. But luckily our hero (the son of the head industrialist) uncovers the plot, and saves the mob from destroying their own children. The hero is appointed the Great Mediator who will work with both labor and management to create a harmonious environment for all. Hip! Hip! Hurray!
This summer an anime entitled Metropolis has come to the theaters. It starts with the same grandiose beauty of the 1922 film, showing an advanced society with massive skyscrapers and bustling people. The models of the 1922 film have been replaced with a gorgeous CGI city, and methods of transportation have been slightly modernized from the bi-planes of the original. But from this point on, the movie changes.
Robots are a part of everyday life. Simple robots can be seen everywhere do the most manual and undesirable jobs. It appears that at one time there may have been more humanoid robots with the ability to thing and act like people. But they appear to have been turned off and put in storage. The movie has several scenes showing how the workers fear and hate robots. Many poor robots are harassed or even batter to little metal bits.
Also present is some sort of secret rebellious group called Marduke. But in this case the Marduke either consists of robots fighting against discrimination or humans, who are sabotaging robots to run amok attack humans. These robots are ruthlessly destroyed by the right hand man (possibly son) of the ruler of the industrialists. Rampant robots are immediately put down.
One day the rich industrialist creates a beautiful blonde robot girl. The son in a fit of rage destroys the laboratory but the robot escapes with the aid of a boy and later his father and their detective robot. The right hand man of the industrial realizes the escape and spends the rest of the movie trying to destroy the robot. Meanwhile in the background is a story of human worker unhappiness and rebellion.
At the end of the movie, the rich industrialist realizes the error of his ways, disowns his right hand man (son?), and everyone lives happily ever after except for the characters that die in the gunfire or collapsing buildings.
The movie is beautifully animated. The computer CGI landscape is excellent. The characters themselves are drawn in a retro style. They look like they could be characters in a Popeye cartoon, the monopoly board game, or any comic book from a similar time period. That is, all except the female robot child. She looks much more realistic, setting her apart from the other characters of the movie.
This movie is visually interesting. But my limited Japanese prevents me from making a commentary about the quality of the story. Certainly it has become more complex and involved that the original story. In many ways it seems radically different. I suspect when I manage to see a translated version I will find a richer story than the original. But will the moral remain unchanged? I hope not. The original's simplistic ending is just a little to hard to swallow. The serious issues of human working and living conditions as well as robots' place in society are brushed aside with a simple, "Oh, the mediator will work it out."
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