DARK CITY

[maikuu]

[Hasumi]

Film561
Hasumi Ikeda
This movie is mysteries. Some of part in this movie seems like STAR WARS. The strangers can stop time. While time stop, they change human memories and shape of city. One day, John who is also changed his memory by the strangers become killer when he wakes up. He escapes from police. While he escapes from them, he realizes he can use special power which the strangers also can use. The strangers have believed that they are only persons who can use that power; therefore, they chase him and try to kill him. While he escapes from them, he notices there is no sun light and he can’t go out of the city.

My favorite moment is that John brakes the wall which besiege a city. I thought that he finds ocean after he brakes the wall; however, the other side of wall is space. It makes me surprised. At first, I confused complicated story of this movie but I like this movie now.

[Maisaalmedlej]

Film 561
Maisa Almedlej

Dark City is a sci-fi fantasy movie. John woke up in a hotel room where he found out that he lost his memory and was accused of crimes he didn't commit. He found his apartment keys in his pocket which lead him to his wife Emma whom he doesn't remember. His loss of memory was because of the strangers who where controlling the city. They were dying and they needed to find a cure through making experiments on humans. Such as, controlling and erasing their memories, and pausing the time through The Tuning process. At the end of the movie, John figured the puzzle out and used his super powers to defeat the strangers and finally the sun shined on the city!

[Hikaru]

Film 561
Koichi Yamazaki

Part of this movie reminds me of a movie called INCEPTION, whose story is about a dream world, because characters in that film can construct cities in their dream. The strangers can change form of the city and the citizens’ memories in the meantime they are making time freeze in order that they will find out what it is that made us human. However, they fail because they go looking in the wrong place as John says.

Besides, this movie made me remember that I used to wonder what would happen if someone lost their memories and retrieved them. I wonder if someone who loses memories once but gets them back is still the same as what they were. Since I have no experience of memory loss, I can only imagine it. Although I was confused when they started to fight in the last part of the film, this movie was interesting to me.

[demi0206]

Film 561
Hidemi

This movie, DARK CITY, describes the fake world created by “Strangers”. Strangers came from another galaxy to the earth in order to study a heart of human. They share their heart with each other, so they do not have a mind or feeling that human have. “Strangers” need to know how people act when they lose their memories for retrieving strangers` civilization.

I think what DARK CITY suggests us about human memories is everyone can hold memories which are important for him or her, unless they lose their heart. Actually, in the movie, Emma tells Murdoch she remembers the scene, which she met him, even though the truth is there is no relationship between them.

I thought it was a science fiction movie like Star Wars at first. However, after watching the movie, I realized it had a deep message regarding potential power which human initially has. It was a really good movie!

[e1635236]

Film561
Kimiko
In my view, the strangers wanted to know how human was and what made human be “human.” They seemed not to feel anything such as sadness because when one of the strangers died, they didn’t be hesitated about his death. On the other hand, human seemed to feel fear, anger and love. They had “heart.” I guess, the film might influence other films because it was a SF movie. In my opinion, we can have more fan on SF story with watching film because we can easily imagine and enjoy different images from our ones. Moreover, the last scene that outside of the wall was galaxy beyond my imagination.

I think DARK CITY suggests that human memories are very important but they are not so important than we think because we have heart to feel. The film may make us realize that feeling is more valuable than memorizing. Moreover, the film may tell us that feeling is one of our special and wonderful natures of human. I thought I could think about what are amazing things about being human.

[Murshed]

Dark City is a sci-fi thriller but also fits in categories such as action, drama, and mystery. John Murdoch the main character wakes up in a hotel room with fractions of his memory left. He struggles to find what happened to him. Meanwhile the strangers ( aliens that control ever aspect of this world) are hunting him down. I believe that Star Wars heavily influenced Dark City.

In my opinion tuneing the ability that the strangers and John use resembles the force. Both of the abilities can influence minds and have the ability to lift inanimate objects. Dark City suggests that the memories are what make humans themselves. So they try to understand how humans interact. What shocked me the most was that the city is actually not on earth but rather roaming the galaxy. I enjoyed the thrilling scenes.

[e1635107]

Film 561
Yuka Sato

This movie is like science fiction movie. The Strangers who wear the black cap, can stop the time at midnight every day and sleep everyone this time. Also, they change people’s clothes and characteristics with using power. The main character is John Murdoch. One day when he got up, he lost his memory. After that, Dr. Schreber called him and ordered to escape from Strangers. He couldn’t understand everything but he escaped from them. While he was escaping, he met to them and then he used a power such as they also use.

At that time, they were surprised because he can also use this power. Therefore, they tried to kill him. He remembered one place which is Shell Beach. He searched all over while he was escaping from them. Finally, he beat them and found out the location. There are some grotesque scene, so I was surprised. However, I could the feeling of being at a live performance, I enjoyed this movie.

[Naomi Matsumoto]

Film 561
Naomi Matsumoto

This movie was the strangest and the most mysterious for me. There were a lot of strangers, who dislike[d] water. At first, I did not realize that the world doesn’t have the sun. However, I thought the world is in night all the time through watching this film. The main character, who has a special power and forgot everything were chased by the strangers and police. Strangers changed the situation of the city every day and tried to analyze the man. I didn’t recognize why the strangers tried to change the city everyday.

Therefore, our discussion group asked our teacher and he said they change it to research how people live and think. It was very interesting and extraordinal. At the end of the story, the man changed the world like getting the sun and making “Shell Beach”.

After the class, I researched about this film, and one article said that the man finally became the god of the world at the end. I am not sure if the article is right or not, but I also think he became new such a god. I am quite excited when I image the after story of this movie.

[Lusiqi]

Film 561
Lusiqi Liu

Though I am not a fan of sci-fi film, this film, Dark City, is appealing to me. The story in this movie is quite original. It begins like a suspense movie, then turn to sci-fi and gothic style. When the main character wakes up in the bathtub, the scenery is so dark and all the evidences make me curious about what is happening.

The puzzles are a little bit complicated and attract audiences to follow the plot. Besides torturous plot and compact rhythm, the implication of this movie is meaningful. Though the "strangers" can steal human's memory and change it, they still can not go beyond the essence and shape [of] the soul. Eventually they could only lost themselves. Thus, the movie tells us a truth that the essence of human being is prior to existence.

This movie might be influenced by Metropolis, which is made in 1927. Additionally, this movie influence a famous sci-fi movie called The Matrix.

Teacher's note: I have heard others mention Metropolis as well, perhaps because of the futuristic Gothic style of the urban landscape. But was the actual story similar too? I don't remember. Thanks for an insightful post.

--mike http://www.moviesgrowenglish.com