The tone of the film at the beginning reflects a distinctive style, old and even dark. This tone is matched with steam machinery, but it is seamless, and the background of the industrial revolution at the beginning of the last century is slowly presented in front of us like bronze. The delicate painting style of fine brushwork delicately reflects the operation of even a single screw. It is full of meticulous and ingenious mechanical beauty without losing the roughness. In such a context, the collision of the three generations of grandparents is as rhythmic and natural as the gears in a machine.
Some people say that the characters in this film are unattractive and unlikable. I just feel that every character is very individual, the young technologist who has not yet opened his door, the father and father who have different scientific attitudes, and the heroine who is stubborn and willful but hides a good-hearted eye. They are all interesting and unexpected. As for being unpleasant, I think it's because the film doesn't have a well-defined villain. Most of the audience likes the kind of characters with a strong sense of substitution and a clear distinction between good and evil: the heroine is fresh, the hero is hero, and the villain who can be hated. in order to make their preferences have a definite target. And such a film that is entangled in three generations of grandparents and has no clear line of good and evil, of course, will make many people unable to exert their strength and cannot find the G-spot. However, it is precisely this setting that makes the story of this film more engaging and stylish.
Just like the description of science in the film, there is no absolute good and evil, only relative differences. We are usually taught the idea that what we call good must be opposite to evil. Either one or the other. But just like grandfather and father's attitude towards science, each of their ideas has contributed to social progress and technological development. Even if my father's values are more like a war madman, it is war that makes technology leap forward, and all the materials we enjoy today are the legacy of war in history. Therefore, in this film, the debate is not about right and wrong, but about people's analysis and orientation of values. There are even many black ones that jump out like sarcastic symbols.
In a few scenes, when the steam soldiers go to war, a man on an overpass is indifferent to the scene and seems to be ignorant; and a dead steam soldier's body is actually a living human being; the two empires regard the World's Fair as a The battlefield - our arrogant heroine said after a moment of shock: I can't lose to them. These almost absurd and unreasonable scenarios, I think, do not need a "reasonable" explanation. It's just the director's personal will and putting it into action. They don't necessarily have a certain meaning, but they seem to be alluding to something. As a commercial cartoon, these symbols only need to impress the viewer, then the motives for identification and orientation are already formed. Even if it doesn't make an impression, it won't affect the viewing of the video in any way. I think this may be the ingenuity of the director.
When I saw the Steam Castle rising from the ground, I couldn't help but think of Hayao Miyazaki's "Castle". Both castles are the type I like, but Otomo Keyang's castle looks more rigorous and meticulous, which will convince you that there is really that kind of steam power that drives the entire castle. Howl's Moving Castle, like most of Hayao Miyazaki's works, has a "magic heart", and things that cannot be driven are always explained by magic. Hayao Miyazaki advocates the harmony between nature and people, and his works are more imaginative, but at least in terms of machinery, magic still seems to be lagging behind technology, even steam technology. But what I love about both directors is that their films rarely have that kind of Japanese preaching. Japanese-style sentences such as "I will risk my life for XXXX" or "A real man will not know XXXX" has always been a superficial panacea for Japanese directors. If the father or father of this film were to preach that kind of lecture to the male protagonist, I think the ending of the film must be different.
View more about Steamboy reviews
