THE VALERIAN AND THE CITIES OF THOUSAND PLANETS ---- Yap Jia Cherng 1001642857

THE CITY OF THOUSAND PLANETS

TYPE OF WORLD

The story happens in a future fantasy world, which is in the universe, way far from earth. The main space, Alpha, is created by the joining of different spacecraft together, and eventually come out with a union place which unites variety of species in the universe, living together, which is called the city of thousand planets. Alpha is not an organic planet, but is created hands together by a community from different planets, and contains a portion o element from the particular planet that the community live in.

CLIMATE

The city of thousand planets does not have any nature climate, but to survive away from the planet one born in, the species have to create their own suitable living zone/environment or the replica of their planet in the city. In fact, when some species are living outdoor, they have to be in a special spacesuit. But for human, in the movie, they can move around the city freely, except water, liquid etc. This happens because the city is originated by humans, when they receive other species from the universe, they are accepted in an identity of residence in the city. In a nutshell, humans are the government of the city, and others are the residence, or guests in the city. In this situation, there are dangers that conflict will happens between species, alike different races in earth, there will be different lifestyle and cultures, and this situation goes beyond a single species, which is more risky. The movie does not show any significant illness but there are possible to have new kind of illness that will only occur in this world. This is because the city is an assemble of different planets, that have a high possibility of creating new elements that will harm any of the species, or some element from one planet is harmful in nature to the species from another planet.

LANDSCAPE

There are few main landscape showed in this movie, which is in Alpha, planet Kirian and Planet Mul. Alpha is a combination of artificial landscape and natural landscape, which shows the advanced in technology, and also the beauty of nature. For instance, the connected spacecraft and the digital and electronic field controlled by species Omelite shows the artificial landscape, while the butterfly cave in the red zone shows the beauty of nature, in Alpha. For planet Kirian, the big market showcases the advance dimension transferring technique, which creates a total different landscape experience for the customers with a concept of overlapping two different dimensions together, which shows the artificial landscape. Outside the border wall of the Big Market, the deserted area and the sky shows the beauty of natural landscape of the planet. Planet Mul fully shows the beauty of nature, with the beach like landscape of their planet. The inhabitants are aware of their own landscape, especially The Pearls. There are also animals, or smaller creatures in the world, the relation between animals to animals and animals to dominant creatures are alike to the relation of humans and animals in Earth, either prey or predator, or host and pets.

         








SOCIETY 

The society in the city are also similar to earth, some live as groups, some live as couples or independently. The social connection between species are related just like different races and nations in Earth, but also some of it will be isolated in deep sea or restricted area like Boulan Bathor in red zone. Most of the species living in Alpha is in peace, but in the universe there are war between different species. They farm and hunt and stores food, in agriculture way and also hunt and prey. The supply is fairly enough every single one in the city. The dominant crowd have their own home, either is built by hands or in nature. The minor crowd forced to share someone’s shelter, or live in nature.

ECONOMY     

Species make living by contributing their experts in exchange of valuables. They earn currency, or earn a chance to spare their lives. Some of the species with lower intelligent living just like animals, with the law of nature. Some live with intention like to expand the city or to explore the universe, some work for their host in order to survive. There is difference of power in terms of richness in the city like the community we are living in present. They travels by their own, or with transportation, in the speed they needed or can afford. In the movie the traveling is organised, but it became chaotic when there is a pursuit. This can be seen from the chase of Valerian and The Pearls in Alex and the starfish like spaceship.

POWER

The power in this world is distributed according to the nature advantage of each particular species. Azin Mo handle the medical field because of its natural ability to produce new cells and cellular materialization abilities, and they also the creation of any kinds of cells, Omelites conquers the electronic and IT field because of its born talent in the specific field, they keep Alpha in the cutting edge of technology and security. The information and knowledge is shared and worked together in order to get advantage of each other. They do have power and rights over their own lives, but unfortunately still some of it is controlled by its host in certain reason. They can decide what they want to do in their daily life. But the portion that is controlled by their overlord have to follow instructions in order survive. Some of it ssloved their job and land they are currently in. They study and work independently, or are employed by companies or government. In these pattern of power distribution, the members in certain organisation also divide themselves according by ranking, power, age, experience etc. They have spare time and do have wealth and power over weaker societies.

RITUALS

There is also some unique rituals happens in the movie. In Planet Mul, the Pearls return the elements as much as they take from the planet in order to live in harmony with the nature. They fish the pearl like element and they gather the harvest to their king, the king will then chose a more enchanted pearl and pass to the princess with the Mul’s converter to replicate the enchanted pearl and return them to the nature. Other than that, in the habitat of Boulan Bathor, they hunt for prey along the Butterfly Cave and make them into different dishes to serve their king in order to show their respect and loyalty to their lord.

ETHICS

When there is a community there must be laws, regulations and guides in order to protect justice, moral values and enhance the living in harmony. Valerian and Laureline work for the government and are agents to inspect and eliminate suspects or any danger that may harm the community. In the beginning of the movie they head to the Big Market to return the Mul’s converter that is stolen and may be sold by the Igon Siruss who runs a black market. The commander of Alpha had destroy a whole planet in a war although he clearly understands that the planet have innocents. He then killed all the members with the understanding of the lies behind the scene and covered it with a new truth. He also eliminated all the survivors of the species in the planet, which is The Pearls. His series of action had frequently touched the holding line of the ethics of humanity and moral. In the end, the commander in finally arrested and will receive judgement that he deserved. On the other hand, legal and illegal also shows why Bubble has no identity and only can be a slave because it has no rights in Alpha, just as statelessness people. The acknowledge of the boundaries of what is right and what is wrong is officially governed by laws in black and white, but every species and individual still have their own ruler for the boundaries, which is shown by the Boulan Bathor is out of the government control and see Laureline as a food for their lord, The Pearls chose to forgive the mistake made by human, and Laureline strongly recommend that moral should override rules in certain situation, when Valerian refuse to return the converter to The Pearls.

SPIRITUAL LIFE

Spiritual life or religion seems not the major concern in this world compared to the technology and realistic life. Especially in Alpha, there is no significant sign of religion activities happening around. In planet Mul, instead, The Pearls are the exceptions that have strong beliefs in nature. They chose to sacrifice the speed of development of technology in order to not harm the nature in their planet to live harmonically in their land. This can be observed in their significant contrast of weapons, infrastructure, and surrounding environment compared to Alpha when their planet is not yet destroyed. In this situation, inner spirit may play more important role as they have to belief in themselves, relatives or their teammates in order to stay strong in a mental perception.

EMOTIONS

People or species do have normal emotions like what happens to human. They do talk and sing about love, hate which is mostly expressed by Valerian and Laureline, a guy who fall in love to his partner, and try to get her confidence of he is able to make promises, and trustable to each other. Bubble also read a poem to Valerian to get his attention in its performance. The way of expressing emotions are open and freely and as a way to communicate with one another. The world is as lively as Earth and there is no need to be over controlled and be unemotional at all time.

ARTS

Creative and performing arts are considered secondary to the world in general way and to the characters in the movie. The main trend in the world seems to be technology and trading. Creativity and performing arts serves to support the innovation of technology and the way of trading. This can be observed in the Big Market, which needs the technology comes in the first place in order to let the level of creation to reach a higher end, creativity has more wider boundaries to play in and came out with a market with thousands of shopping levels, with amazing design. Performing arts also plays a rule in entertainment, which happens to be the job of Bubble. But there are exceptions that the district of Boulan Bathor shows the gastronomic arts they perform when they serve their dishes to their lord, which may means art might be more important than technology for them. Species in Alpha entertained each other or themselves mostly outdoors, going entertaining places etc. But there is also some that need digital vacation location because of the long distance or the lack of time. This is showed in the beginning of movie, where Valerian and Laureline are at a digital beach. There is also leisure time for the inhabitants for a shopping in Big Market which is shown in the first assignment in the movie.

CONTENT

People are not satisfied with this world because this is not where they born from, the most essential elements are all at the origin planet, but Alpha has only replication of them. This is why The Pearls are very willing to replicate their planet again but not live in Alpha, and Laureline is very desire to go to a real beach. But after all Alpha has the union of many species across the universe, in short it has advantages and disadvantages, if people change it, they will miss it in other way.

ARCHITECTURE

Architecture also play an important role in the movie, spaces represents different functions, different level of privacy, safety and more. When the characters move, the architecture behind them literally shows what space they are in, and this help the audience to get into the scene more directly. For example, the fantastic and spacecraft like design buildings in Alpha brings out the timeline and the location of the story. In the market, the defensive walls surrounding the market tells that there is kind of restricted area, or can access only if authorized. Then the scene moves into the Big Market, the colour, complexity and type of buildings shows that the area is kind of hot spot where people gathers, and is attractive and interesting area. When Valerian comes into a narrow street before he gets into and get back the converter, the surrounding architecture again tells u that this space is more unfriendly and private, and have possible of having danger. The buildings in Alpha blends well with the timeline, while the buildings in Planet Mul shows how the species are using natural resources as their shelter, which have a hint to tell these species are very nature friendly. Other than telling what is the function of the space, architecture in the movie also generate a new perception of buildings that may be done in future. These buildings are essential for the characters as they will tell the location, level of technology and activities may occur, in that particular space. The characters need the architecture to compliment their activity happening. This two elements work well together and make the fantasy story more true in our eyes. The style of the architecture is a combination from different concepts as they need to suit the function and the nature of the species. For example, Boulan Bathor's architecture is more towards older style because of the hunting lifestyle and more traditional culture of the species, human's architecture looks more advanced because of the technology and modern lifestyle. These styles make the story more happening and more make sense. The material used in human architecture is mostly metals, aluminium like metals or spacecraft materials. For The Pearls they seems like using the organic elements to build in their planet. These material also tells different types of technology in architecture in the story. These different types of architecture also helps to classified different levels of society. For instance, the government most likely appear in the spacecraft like buildings, the red zone and entertaining area have more fancy buildings, and the more primitive society, Pearls have very organic building.