Steamboy

Saw this at the Toronto International Film Festival, and I swooned with the massive audience in sheer awe at the absolutely astounding masterpiece that Otomo-san has created. 10 years in the making, the visual feast pays off with an incredible bang.

Although not as violent and complex as the powerhouse Akira, Steamboy is a straight-forward sci-fi-action-adventure story set in Victorian London, England that even strangers of the anime genre can follow with ease. I can see this film being another landmark hit in North America that will hopefully draw more people to appreciate anime. When this comes out in 2005, don't miss it for the world!

I haven't marked this as a spoiler, but I do mention a couple of things that occur in the film. I don't think they'll spoil it though...

I wanted to like this film SO much. I love the Steampunk genre and knowing how good the animation on Akira was I thought this would be a lush Steampunk adventure akin to Ghibli's Castle in the Sky.

However, where that film had heart, this one had cogs and steam. Yes, it was beautifully animate and had some lovely ideas in it. The central concept of a power source that never was, and yet is so powerful it corrupts all manner of men and turns family upon itself is fascinating. It's something that I would expect to see in a futuristic sci-fi with some kind of newly discovered power. Setting it in a steam age where the power source is a new way of harnessing steam is, for me, the single best thing about this film. It's a nice twist. My main problem with it is bland characters with nothing to make you feel the ties between them. The film tries to get us to sympathise with James' plight when he makes revelations about both his father and grandfather, without EVER having shown us any kind of previous relationship between himself and them. We are asked to assume that there is an emotional tie between a boy and a father and grandfather who have been absent for an undivulged amount of time. The film asks us to feel betrayal from both the father and the grandfather towards the other, without ever having shown us that they ever did anything but hate each other. It is hard to empathise with this betrayal from two people who we have only seen mistrust each other from the outset. The film asks us to feel James' angst when Scarlett is in peril, without ever having shown us he has any kind of emotional tie to her (and quite rightly so in my opinion for she is rude, abrasive and irritating throughout the whole movie. Why the film then expects us to want James to save her is beyond me!)

This film is actually quite cold and mean-spirited. Rarely do we see any character in it act out of anything other than their own interests. Rarely does anyone help anyone else. The characters are selfish and single-minded. I'm normally not so cynical, but maybe this is truer to life than most films. Maybe in such extraordinary circumstances, people would be so selfish. But as a piece of cinematic entertainment, it leaves me cold.

What I DID enjoy was that the film didn't clearly outline who was "good" and who was "evil". There was a point, round about where James first meets his grandfather in the castle and stops trying to hinder him, that I almost kicked myself. It was about there that I had a revelation that the film wasn't going to tell me who to root for and I was disappointed in myself for being annoyed with the film up to that point for not making it clear who were the "goodies". Such is how used to being force fed emotion and morals by films. At that point, I was pleased that the film left it up to both James, and the viewer to decide who was "right". Yes, James makes his choice, and as the viewer we are then more likely to side with him, but at the point I described in the film it was very much up in the air and I liked that.

Unfortunately I watched the dubbed version. Though, being set in England with English characters, maybe, for one, this was more authentic. I bought my DVD, put it in the player, went to find the language options only to discover it was an English only DVD. Yes - some of the accents were ropey to say the least, but not to the point of distraction. I'm a Midlander but I know what a broad Mancunian accent sounds like. With Patrick Stewart being from Huddersfield, not far from Manchester, I though he might've gotten the accent closest, but he seemed a little too generic northern pushing towards Lancaster. Though that is a minor quibble. And hey - maybe the granddad moved to Manchester from Yorkshire?

Lastly - my final major quibble with the film is that by the end of it, I was left with a "so what?" feeling. Has this experience changed James in any way? Or the balance of international power? From the closing credits, I think James went on to develop a super steam train and maybe become a superhero who fought in something like WWI, brought forward maybe due to the steamball? I don't know. The film didn't focus at all on how this monumental experience of being kidnapped and, whilst aboard a pioneering and potentially world-altering piece of technology being actively and aerially embroiled in an explosive international battle for power on which two of his close family members are very active on opposite sides has affected young Master Steam and as such, I find the film again rings hollow.

I don't just come on IMDb just to knock films. I come on to comment when something about a film is notable enough to me to comment on, good or bad. And the hype surrounding this film coupled with a certain amount of disappointment was one thing. Also, it is rare that whilst watching a film, I notice a lack of emotional connection at the time of watching. If that lack is there, it's normally afterwards that I notice so I thought this was notable.

Technically, a very proficient film. Emotionally, lacking.

Where this film's heart should have been, there's just cogs and steam.

The latest film from the director of Akira, Katsuhiro Ôtomo, is a pacy thriller anime set in an alternate 1850s London, in the middle of the industrial age. Rai Steam is the third in a line of engineer inventors who dreams of going to the first ever Great Exhibition – when his grandfather unexpectedly returns from the United States with an new invention, the steamball. About the size of a bowling ball, the steamball is a source of immense, self-renewing power and the people who funded the invention want it back at any price. Rai escapes on his steam-powered unicycle, and the race is on. On the way, he encounters a steam-powered cyborg, a giant steam-powered "Death Star" and a feisty, economic rationalist sidekick, the Gone With The Wind-inspired Miss Scarlett (Manami Konishi).

While the plot is nothing new – and very much in the Hollywood thriller style, the inventiveness of the world Steamboy is set in is exhilarating. Imagine steam-powered individual submarines, flying machines and more, all drawn in painstaking detail – with thousands of cogs and wheels all impacting on each other. Although some CGI is used, most of the film's made in the traditional anime style – around 180 000 individual pictures were used to make Steamboy, and it shows.

Steamboy's a rip-roaring 'steampunk' piece of entertainment, complete with an insane despot who plans to take over the world. Although it's strange to see a film set in London where all the (Anglo) characters are speaking Japanese, it's best not to take Steamboy too seriously. Comic relief is provided by Miss Scarlett and Rai's grandfather, Loyd Steam (Katsuo Nakamura). Loyd Steam also speaks for the natural order, something that's often found in Japanese anime and was inspired by both the animist former national religion, Shinto, and the WWII atomic bombings. Unlike Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, however, it's barely touched on here. Steamboy succeeds because of the fantastic imagination behind the animation, not for its philosophy. ***½/***** stars.

In the year 2004, Katsuhiro Ôtomo, writer and director of the enormously influential anime, "Akira" (1988), returned to film-making after almost 10 years since his last directorial effort ("Memorîzu" or "Memories"), with another epic story of action and science-fiction named "Suchîmubôi", literally "Steamboy". In this film, Ôtomo dives into the sci-fi sub-genre commonly known as "Steampunk", stories often set in the 19th century where highly advanced steam machines are the fantastic technology of the time creating alternative history and settings. The Steampunk sub-genre shares many similarities with cyberpunk fiction, so it's probably not a surprise that the maker of "Akira", one of the most celebrated works of cyberpunk fiction, would decide to make a story for this very similar sub-genre. Ôtomo's background and the similarities between the sub-genres force an inevitable comparison to "Akira", but while "Steamboy" is far from the masterpiece that "Akira" was, it's one of the best feature length animated films of the decade.

Set in Victorian Britain, "Steamboy" is the story of Ray Steam (Anne Suzuki), a young kid from Manchester who spends his free time working at a factory and inventing steam machines following the example of his father Dr. Edward Steam (Masane Tsukayama) and his grandfather Dr. Lloyd Steam (Katsuo Nakamura), both renowned inventors working in America. One day, he receives a box from his grandfather containing a small spheric steam machine, with explicit orders of not giving it to anyone except to famed inventor Robert Stephenson (Kiyoshi Kodama). Soon he receives the visit of agents from O'Hara, the company where his grandfather works, violently demanding the spheric machine. Ray's grandfather appears too, and helps Ray to escape with the sphere, making Ray to realize that the small machine contains a power beyond his imagination.

"Steamboy" is definitely a classic example of Steampunk fiction as it takes a historical setting and gives it a spin by adding the element of fantastic super science. Written by Katsuhiro Ôtomo and Sadayuki Murai, "Steamboy" uses the sub-genre's setting and elements to tell a story about science, its possibilities and specially its consequences if handled in a bad way. Ôtomo uses the characters of the Steam family to describe what he sees as the two possible uses of science, and makes a sharp (although heavy handed) criticism to our modern capitalist society. In this way, it shares some of "Akira"'s themes, but "Steamboy" offers a more optimist tone, as it's essentially a story about the birth of modern science (in an exaggerated fantasy way of course) where mankind is still on time to learn the enormous responsibility of using science. Overall it's a pretty straight forward story of action and adventure, but the use of this themes through the movie makes the story really captivating.

As expected, the animation of the film is flawless, with a great (and often unnoticeable) combination of both traditional 2-D and 3-D animation that bring the incredible Steampunk machines to life. The movie has an exiting look, mix of real Victorian designs and Ôtomo's very own sci-fi style, paying honest tribute to the pulp adventures and Victorian literature that form the basis of the Steampunk sub-genre. Director Katsuhiro Ôtomo's eye for visuals is still there, and the epic finale is one of the best staged scenes in an animated film of the last years. The movie moves at a fast pace, probably too fast for its own good, but the plot still unfolds nicely. It's certainly not a landmark like "Akira", but Katsuhiro Ôtomo has delivered another great animated story.

I've seen the original Japanese track, so sadly I can't comment on the English dubbing. In the original audio, Anne Suzuki makes an outstanding job as Ray, not only because the character is male (and she is female), but because the character is old enough to his voice be "manly". Suzuki makes Ray very convincing, as the young kid discovering the benefits (and dangers) of science. Masane Tsukayama plays Ray's father, giving a certain dignity and power to the character and avoiding most of the clichés this kind of character tend to have. On the same tone is Katsuo Nakamura, who in turn plays Ray's grandfather. Nakamura's eccentric character is effectively portrayed by the experienced actor, and is one of the highlights of the film. Finally, Manami Konishi plays Scarlett O'Hara, the young heir of the O'Hara company, making this spoiled little brat (obviously inspired by "Gone with the wind") annoying enough for the character without going too over the top.

Probably the film's biggest flaw is that simply is not "Akira", what I mean is that given that Katsuhiro Ôtomo's 1988 movie was such a landmark in anime, the expectations for "Steamboy" were probably impossible to live up to. However, this doesn't mean that "Steamboy" is a bad movie, simply that it can be disappointing if one is expecting another "Akira". "Steamboy" is a simple, but remarkable epic adventure with the only ambition of being entertaining. It's upbeat tone may look typical of anime at first sight, but despite this optimism, "Steamboy" offers the same dark subject that "Akira": Man must learn to use the science before it's too late. In this aspect it could be seen as a prequel (set several centuries before) to the world of "Akira", as the science in "Steamboy" seems to be getting advanced at a very fast pace. In the end, the only real flaw of the movie is that despite having a runtime of 2 hours, the film feels rushed, and leaves one wanting for more.

Director Katsuhiro Ôtomo spend almost 10 years conceiving and developing "Steamboy", and the effort certainly payed off. Sci-fi fans will find an excellent adventure in "Steamboy", specially if they are fans of the Steampunk sub-genre. With its excellent animation and captivating story, "Steamboy" is an excellent introduction to Katsuhiro Ôtomo's work. It's not going to change anime again, but Ôtomo's movie is still definitely one of the best. 8/10

Steamboy has such a rare quality of production values that it almost merits a viewing for the aesthetics alone. But there is a story to the film; and although the hardcore fans of Otomo may have been expecting something a little deeper, and although the pacing and characterization is notably flawed, it still stands as an extremely fun yarn with no shortage of what you'd expect from a classic action/adventure flick. The film, in many respects, is comparable to works like Sky Captain and the Indiana Jones films; a classic storytelling style somewhat augmented for a modern audience.

Numerous characters such as Scarlett and the henchmen are essentially devoid of anything resembling development. Scarlett in particular seems to have had her personal developments skipped or accelerated just to give a comic or emotional foil to Ray and the others, and it sticks out noticeably. She's given the typical "redeeming moment" at the end of the film that has no real grounding or weight considering her screen presence; it comes and goes without making a single ripple in an audience.

Essentially, Steamboy crams too many action set pieces and grand ideas into a story too lightweight to fully support them, and the plot suffers because of it. But it's far from lacking meaning or emotion, so as long as you can detach yourself from expectations you're assured quite a ride.

As a final note, if anyone finds the explicit diatribes concerning science a little distracting, try to keep in mind that they all come from your stereotypical mad scientists types. It becomes somewhat more plausible!