Today I watched the movie "The Shadow of the Black Iron Fish" from the Conan series in 2023. 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 focusing on 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 not enough. 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 and compare and track individuals in surveillance footage. This is also an important reason why the organization discovers that Ai is actually Sherry. From this perspective, the production team is not entirely focused on catering to Conan fans. With the current pace of AI development, this ability may be possible in the near future.
A new member of the organization, Bingo, is introduced in this movie. He is immediately attacked by Ran, haha. From the subsequent plot, it is clear that he is not a match for Gin and has a strong dislike for him. But as everyone knows, the fate of those who oppose Gin is not good, and they ultimately do not survive in this movie.
Next, I want to point out some criticisms. Parkour, skateboards, and handheld cannons blowing up submarines are already common in Conan's world, so I will only mention some confusing parts.
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Naomi's father, as a member of the European Parliament, knowingly exposes himself to a sniper outside the window, which ultimately leads to 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 Bingo 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 Mori 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 faction really can't accept such scenes happening, even if they happen.
In recent movies, it feels like they were made just for the sake of being movies, forcefully tying up stories that were not originally very logical. They lack the deduction of "The Phantom of Baker Street," the warmth of "Sunflowers of the Night Fire," the tension and excitement of "The Requiem of the Detectives," and the science and emotion of "The Silent 15 Minutes."
Perhaps it's because we have grown up and lost our innocence.