Today I watched the 2023 movie "The Shadow of the Black Iron Fish" from the Conan series. After watching the whole film, I felt no emotional fluctuations, just like the usual Conan fantasy.
The story revolves around a Pacific buoy located near Hachijo Island, which uses the latest technology of the International Criminal Police Organization to access the surveillance systems of Japan and Europe and track criminals.
After many years, the main content of the movie returns to the main storyline by featuring a mysterious organization. The organization's mission is to tamper with the "age recognition system" and remove the organization's tasks from the system's character matching. Although everyone has their own hidden agenda, the organization's intelligence is obviously insufficient. With the support of the protagonist's aura, there are various coincidences and leniency towards subordinates. For a plot that forcefully aligns with the main storyline, it is not particularly impressive.
The movie also introduces the recent popular concept of AI. Engineer Naomi creates an age recognition system that can create facial CG based on images from any age group. By combining this with surveillance footage, characters can be compared and tracked. This is also an important reason why the organization discovers that Ai is actually Shiho Miyano. From this perspective, the production team is not entirely focused on Conan. With the current pace of AI development, this ability may be possible in the near future.
A new member of the organization, "Binga," is introduced in this movie. She is immediately attacked by Ran, haha. From the subsequent plot, it is clear that she is not a match for Gin, and she also despises him. But as we all know, those who oppose Gin never end well in the end, and they don't survive in this movie either.
Now let's talk about some criticisms. Parkour, skateboards, and handheld cannons blowing up submarines are all common occurrences in Conan's world. Let's focus on some confusing points.
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Naomi's father, as a member of the European Parliament, still sticks his head out the window knowing there is a sniper outside, resulting in his death and Naomi's self-blame.
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With so many computer experts in the base, no one can tell that the surveillance videos have been tampered with. Is Binga really a genius?
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The base is about to be blown up, but not a single member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force comes to help... Is the efficiency of the Japanese police really that poor?
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Kogoro Mouri is just coasting along the whole time, with no presence at all. How can he treat Uncle Mouri like this~
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There's no need to wait until Conan is almost dying every time before someone comes to save him... It's really frustrating.
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Finally, the "ShinRan" fans can't accept such a scene happening, even if it's returned.
In recent movies, it feels like they are made just for the sake of being movies, forcefully tying up stories that were not originally so reasonable. They lack the deduction of "The Lost Ship in the Sky," the warmth of "Sunflowers of Inferno," the tension and excitement of "The Darkest Nightmare," and the science and sensibility of "The Quarter of Silence."
Perhaps it's because we have grown up and lost our innocence.