|
Same artist, different 'toon
"Steamboy," from the maker of "Akira," transports the anime concept to industrial-age London, with strange and intriguing results.
By FRANK EPISALE
Offoffoff.com
(Reviewed at the Hawaii International Film Festival in November 2004.)
Otomo Katsuhiro's "Akira" is widely credited with bringing the anime craze
to America. Its fans and detractors have equal passion (a Japanese
roommate of mine at NYU apologized to me when I said I had seen the
film) but there is little question that it figures large in any
discussion of this genre, the popularity of which seems to be increasing
continually and exponentially. Sixteen years later, Katsuhiro has
returned with "Steamboy," a film that makes explicit the degree to which
Japanese and American animation styles have influenced each other over
the past couple of decades. Given its East-meets-West focus, the Hawaii
International Film Festival was a fitting setting for "Steamboy" to make
its U.S. premiere.
|
| |
| STEAMBOY |
Directed by: Katsuhiro ïtomo.
Produced by: Shinji Komori, Hideyuki Tomioka, Shigeru Watanabe.
Written by: Sadayuki Murai, Katsuhiro ïtomo.
Cast: Kiyoshi Kodama, Manami Konishi, David S. Lee, Katsuo Nakamura, Ikki Sawamura, Anne Suzuki, Susumu Terajima, Masatane Tsukayama, Susan Turner-Cray.
Edited by: Takeshi Seyama.
Music by: Steve Jablonsky.
Art direction: Shinji Kimura.
Related links:
Official site
| Japanese site
|
| RELATED ARTICLES |
Hawaii Film Festival 2004
• Overview
• Official site
|
|
Set against the backdrop of the World Exposition in 1850s London,
"Steamboy" is the story of Ray Steam, the youngest in a family of
inventors who seek to transform Steam Power into a nearly limitless
source of energy. Not surprisingly, this technology becomes the focus of
a military and industrial struggle that divides even the once-unified
Steam family, and Ray is caught in the middle. Unsure whom to trust, Ray
leads the audience through a cast of characters and a set of struggles
that echoes those in other anime but is hung with a decidedly Western
patina.
There are no explicitly supernatural forces at play here, and no real
sense of mysticism. The industrial-military complex isn't trying to
harness the power of demons, and no one is having visions of London's
(standing in for Tokyo's) destruction, though the possibility of that
destruction still permeates the film's second half. Still, the elaborate
machines, the generational struggles, the wide-eyed reaction shots and
the behavior of the "comic" characters all mark this as anime.
|
There's more Western influence here than just character names and steam
power, though. The pacing of the action, the approach to montage and,
most obviously, the musical score all lend to the impression that
Katsuhiro has been studying American blockbusters and has set out to
make one of his own. It'll be interesting to see how the film plays
commercially in the U.S., but judging by the reaction of the sold-out
house at the festival, it will at least do well among its core audience.
Of course, some of the weaknesses common to much anime and American
action films are also present here. Character development is a little
wacky, with reversals of attitude and poorly explained relationships.
Spectacle trumps character and story, even when the film tries to hammer
home a somewhat didactic "message." None of this keeps "Steamboy" from
being thoroughly entertaining, though. Despite running a little too long
and glossing over some important moments in favor of blowing things up,
Katsuhiro has produced a significant achievement; "Steamboy," like "Akira,"
will have its detractors but, also like "Akira," it is unlikely to be
ignored.
|
NOVEMBER 9, 2004
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
Post a comment on "Steamboy"
|
|
|
