How many people does it take before it becomes wrong?

           There are too many parts in this movie, such as The Federation Council, artificial form of life, immortality of life, and etc. The most impressing moment to me in this movie to me is when Captain Picard asking the question to Dougherty, "How many people does it take before it becomes wrong?" Of course, the message here is no one should be sacrificed to the interest of the majority. This is not a matter of how many people can be removed from their planet. It is the matter that on one should be removed from their homeland.
            Perhaps, this message is the reason that the movie is completely banned by the mainland Chinese government. There is neither dubbed version of this movie in Chinese nor Chinese subtitle available on the internet. Only a very short introduction is available, which general says this movie is one of the Star Trek series. I guess there is a reason behind this. During the past two decades, there were about one million people removed from the place they live when the Three Gorges Dam was under construction. The High-speed rail in China started at 1999, which relocated lots of people and their families. The urbanization progress also needs relocation. Well, of course this eastern super power has risen during the past two decades, from the contribution of the individuals' compromise, maybe even sufferings with tears. With the compromise from the minorities, the force and resources from every corner of that nation can be concentrated to do big things, but also maybe wrong things.
            This is a dilemma to me. I completely understand why Captain Picard stands up and fight for the bu'ka people against Son'a. This shining moment of humanity is, perhaps, a wishful thinking. Think it this way, what if it was beneficial take the regenerative radiation to save everyone in the universe, including Captain Picard himself? To the Son'a people in this movie, this regenerative radiation is the only hope to them. I asked myself, what if I were a Son'a people, what can I do? I cannot draw a conclusion even I think it over and over for hours. There is simply no neutral solution to make everyone happy. After all, the only thing that comes into my mind is the brutal principle, the survival of the fittest. This is just like a leopard killing a antelope for living. I guess sometimes, that is still a part of the reality of our civilizations.

Who should be responsible for the death of Mr. Buttle?

          Who should be responsible for the death of Mr. Buttle? This question bothers me since the beginning of this movie. However, I cannot find the any person who should be blamed for that. The police are just doing their job, which is arrest Mr. Buttle according to the form they received. They should not be blamed. The typist kills a fly, which falls into the printer and leads the mistake on the form. Yes, he made some mistake, but he should not be blamed because he is completely ignorant about this typo and the consequence of it. The government departments in this movie seem to be responsible for the death of Mr. Buttle. Although several people in these department realize the typo in the form, none of them point that out to save him. Saving him is not their obligation. On the other hand, everyone seems somehow related to Mr. Buttle's death. The typist trusts too much to the printer, and failed to check what happened when the fly fell into the printer. The police trust so much to the form that they even didn't do any investigation. They officers in the government trust too much to their system, so that they don't think there could be something wrong from system. Everyone just trusts too much to the cold machines, to the forms and to the regulations. They leave no room for mistake.
         In human history, we invited and developed a lot things, such as machines, politic systems and cultures. I believe most of them are brought up to serve people, so that they can live easier. However, in Brazil, it is the other way around. People serves forms, they record everything in the forms to keep everything in order. They label everything even themselves with letter and numbers. They try to eliminate the influence Mr. Buttle's death in order to make their system looks perfect. This fanaticism and insanity to the social system in this film is the reason of Mr. Buttle's death. It is just ridiculous.

         





　

We are Wall-Es

Wall-E is a forgotten robot.

His job is to collecting garbage everyday.

At this time, Earth is filled with garbage produced by human, and becomes a planet of  dumping ground.

Wall-e is doing this job according to the program inside him, compressing the garbage to convert it to building blocks. 

He worked in this abandoned alone for 700 years. 
He always has a small plastic box with him.

In side that box, there are warm and loving memories left by human from the garbage, such as a frisbee as his hat, a tableware can be both forks and spoon, lighters as shining boxes. 

He collects all of these, brings them to his home and lives with his pet, a lovely cockroach.

All these are the decorating of his home, and his lonely life. 

But he loves his life.

He needs someone to share his passion of his life.
Then, someday Ewa shows up. 
He wants to be with her. 　　
He brings her to his home, showing her all his treasures.

For this moment, he waited alone for 700 years.

700 years filled with his loneliness and love.

Then, he falls into love and Ewa falls in to her dormancy.

He wants to wake her up, so that he can hold her hands, just like what human did on the tape he found. 

Thus, he follows her to the out space.

He tries everything to save her and accomplish her mission and even makes his ultimate sacrifice to help her.

The human becomes less important in this movie.

Whether going back to earth is even not important to humans. 

Wall-e is just legendary. 

　　

There are lots of Wall-Es in our life.

They keep doing everything they ought to do, collecting knowledge and joy to decorate their life.

That is their passion of their pure, happy but lonely life. 

Sometimes, things get hard and they get frustrated.

They lost the purity and happiness.

Thus, life becomes lonely and frustrate. 

These cannot beat them down. 

Wall-E always keeps trying.

Wall-E always has his hope. 

Wall-E loves his life.

　　 
　　

Prophecy

Every science fiction is a refection to the reality in the society. It indicates the problems of the society with a future-science background. In metropolis, the contradiction between the different classes in society is the problem. In Metropolis, steam powered technology divide the whole society into two extremes.  The spectacular city in Metropolis is one extremes. The skyscrapers and viaducts stands for the achievement of that society.  On the other hand, the rotating gears powered by hot steams are the foundations of the city, which need a lot of backbreaking labor to maintain functioning. Thus the labors who keeps the city running is the other extreme. The labors in this movie are literally the components of the steam machines. With backbreaking labor, their movement becomes stiff and unified. The same clothing and compressed underground working environment give me an illusion of prison or Nazi concentration camp. I see no humanity, creativity and self awareness in them. Although, there is no color filming available when this movie is filmed, the black white images reinforce the impression of the compressed environment, which leads to huge comparison to the city landscape.

I looked up some history about the society when this movie is made. Germany lost the World War I in 1918. Several years later, Nazi party was found and quickly rase to power at about 1925. Then this film was published at 1927. Two years late, the Great Depression took place in 1929, spreading out America and Europe. There were also series of strikes took place worldwide after World War I. Few years later, the World War II was initialized by Nazi Germany at about 1939.

After connecting all these together, there is no doubt that this movie is a reflection of the Germany after World War I. This movie becomes a prophecy. As the very first Si-Fi, Metropolis is probably not a good movie in telling the future about science, but surly it addressed the problem and suffering in the society. As far as I am concerned, the problem is caused by the unbalance between the development of technology and the development of society. With developed technology, we can build the best houses and the best cities. But without an appropriate setup of the society, we cannot decide who should lives in these houses and cities. Caused by this unbalance, the society will certainly fall into chaos.