Movies - Metropolis

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	Movies - Metropolis

Metropolis, also known as Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis or Robotic Angel (in Germany) is a manga by Osamu Tezuka and an anime movie based on the manga.

Despite some similarities, the manga was only indirectly influenced by Fritz Lang's pre-World War II epic Metropolis
. In fact, Osamu Tezuka claimed not to have seen the film at the time he was working on this story, but rather that he was inspired by the poster of the 1927 film. For example, the strong theme of class struggle present in the film version is not present in the manga, which rather tells a fairly straightfoward story aimed at younger readers. However, his creation of the character Mitchi was based on the only still picture of the movie that he had seen, which depicted the birth of a female robot. Because he considered it to be one of his earlier, lesser works, Tezuka did not want his manga to be made into a feature film and if he was still alive, the anime movie version probably would not have been produced.

However, this cinematic adaptation of Tezuka's story integrates far more elements from the original Fritz Lang film. In addition to adapting the landmark set designs of the original film (a style that inspired such other important sci-fi films as Blade Runner
), this version reintroduces a strong and pervasive theme of class struggle in a dystopian plutocratic society and expands it to examine the relationship of robots with their human masters. The film adaptation also removes many of the more fanciful elements out of Tezuka's manga. These changes make the 2001 film adaptation more complex and aims at more mature audiences than Tezuka's version.

The manga is published in English by Dark Horse Comics.

The anime movie, released in June 2001 in Japan and on January 25, 2002 in the U.S. (rated PG-13 by the MPAA), was directed by Rintaro, and written by Katsuhiro Otomo.

The movie also has the honour of being the first anime movie since the mid 90's to be aired on Channel 4 in the UK (It aired in the early hours of Sunday 30th October and was aired both uncut and in Japanese with english Subtitles).

A song by Ray Charles, "I Can't Stop Loving You" was played near the end of the movie.

Quote (opening credits of the movie): "Every epoch dreams its successor." - Jules Michelet

Plot

The movie opens with the celebration of the completion of the Ziggurat when a robot, who is outside its zone, tries to crash the party, but is shot down by Rock, the adopted son of Duke Red, the most powerful man in Metropolis.

A Japanese private detective, Shunsaku Ban and his nephew, Kenichi, have arrived in the grand city-state of Metropolis. Metropolis itself lies in an unmentioned republic and it can best be described as a plutocracy where a man named Duke Red is the most influential citizen, overshadowing President Boon and Mayor Ryon, the heads of state and government of Metropolis. In Metropolis' heavily industrialised futuristic world, artificial intelligence has advanced a great deal and robots are seen everywhere performing many different tasks. Despite their intelligence robots do not have any of the rights that are granted to human beings. In order not to infringe upon human rights they are not allowed to have human names nor to travel between the four Zones which Metropolis is divided in without a special permission. Thus they live under Apartheid-like conditions.

In order to protect humans from mischievous-minded robots, the Marduk patrol the streets of Metropolis. Heavily armed men dressed in red destroy robots as they please. The Marduk is a vigilante group who has formed a political party. It's a public secret that their founder is Duke Red, and that his adopted son, Rock, is a leading figure in the organization.

The private detective and his nephew, along with an assigned robot detective named Pero are looking for a person named Dr. Laughton who is among other things suspected by human rights organizations of human rights violations and the trading of human organs. Little do they know that Duke Red has hired Dr. Laughton to manufacture an extremely intelligent robot in the shape of Duke Red's deceased daughter. The robot is to sit on her customised throne, a supercomputer at the top of the newly built Ziggurat; a mountainous, towering government palace that Duke Red has constructed for military purposes of reaching the stars and establishing dominion over the entire Earth. Duke Red, without consulting military leaders has tested the Ziggurat's revolutionary solar superweapon of mass destruction that compromised national security. President Boon and other government and military leaders, discuss about the current situation and plan to arrest Duke Red for treason once enough resentment builds up against him.

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Movies - Metropolis

Plot

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