Metropolis (2001)

Recommended

Japan

Animated Feature Film

Original Title: メトロポリス

Director: Rintaro

Writers: Ōtomo Katsuhiro, Tezuka Osamu

Cinematographer: Yamaguchi Hitoshi

Composer: Yamaguchi Hitoshi

Cast: Yuka Imoto, Kei Kobayashi, Kouki Okada, Tarō Ishida, Kousei Tomita, Norio Wakamoto, Junpei Takiguchi

The nefarious leader of Metropolis hires a mad scientist to build a life-like robot to replace his dead daughter Tima, whom he wishes to help him with his plans to rule the world; but an arson attack on the laboratory in which she is being built leads to her meeting with a kindly Japanese boy instead, in this visually stunning and surprisingly moving animated film, which contains at least one sequence (of lyrical destruction, scored to an ironically mellifluous Ray Charles ditty) that will leave an indelible mark upon all those that see it. Iain.Stott