Jamshyd
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2003
- Messages
- 15,492
With my on-going exploration of Mamoru Oshii's work, I have ran across this beautiful piece of art.
I hope someone else here has seen it because I have yet to find someone who's seen it to talk to about.
It is a very difficult work to "review" or explain, really. You simply need to watch it. There are only 2 characters in the whole movie, and they say a total of no more than 20 lines for the duration of a bit over 1 hour. While very thought-provoking, what they say is really not that important.
The beauty of this film is generally in its experience as a work of art, both in terms of beautiful imagery (courtsey of Yoshitaka Amano's beautiful and distinctive style and Oshii's deep, philosophical direction). I do not know who the composer is, but the music is simply beautiful. Amano's art in motion is as wonderful as it is static. It is full of air and light - so much so, in fact, that the main character's hair always flows freely with the slightest current of wind, and she is entirely white, with a glowing aura.
The film seems to be about a girl who seems to be the only human in the world who owns a large egg and is overprotective of it. She also seems to have an obsessive habit of collecting water jugs. Later on, she meets a guy carryinying a cyber-punked cross on his back (literally) seen briefly in the intro. He seems to follow her around for no reason, and tells her that she needs to break the egg in order to know whats inside. We never know either of their names. They stay in an "ark" (as in, Noah's) full of fossilized creatures. Not far from the ark is a deserted 19th-century style city that is decidedly gothic. Its only inhabitants seem to be statue-like fishermen who come to live at the slightest hint of fish - which are not real, but simply shadows of fish, which they chase and try to hunt. I cannot say much more or I'll be running into the realm of spoilers.
There seems to be a very strongly Gnostic undrelying theme. The whole egg thing, the spherical... thing... that appears at the beginning and end (seems suggestive of the Pleroma), the fact that the girl and the guy seem to be the only man and woman in the world...etc. There is also a strong platonic suggestion, with the fisherment pursuing shadows of fish, the shades cast by the egg-grasping trees (don't ask if you haven't watched it
).
Very, very captivating, and simply beutiful to watch and listen to.
Extremely enigmatic, too. In a word: haunting.
If you haven't seen this, I strongly recommend it, even if you're not into anime (I am not that much into anime myself - I don't know much outside of Oshii's works).
I hope someone else here has seen it because I have yet to find someone who's seen it to talk to about.
It is a very difficult work to "review" or explain, really. You simply need to watch it. There are only 2 characters in the whole movie, and they say a total of no more than 20 lines for the duration of a bit over 1 hour. While very thought-provoking, what they say is really not that important.
The beauty of this film is generally in its experience as a work of art, both in terms of beautiful imagery (courtsey of Yoshitaka Amano's beautiful and distinctive style and Oshii's deep, philosophical direction). I do not know who the composer is, but the music is simply beautiful. Amano's art in motion is as wonderful as it is static. It is full of air and light - so much so, in fact, that the main character's hair always flows freely with the slightest current of wind, and she is entirely white, with a glowing aura.
The film seems to be about a girl who seems to be the only human in the world who owns a large egg and is overprotective of it. She also seems to have an obsessive habit of collecting water jugs. Later on, she meets a guy carryinying a cyber-punked cross on his back (literally) seen briefly in the intro. He seems to follow her around for no reason, and tells her that she needs to break the egg in order to know whats inside. We never know either of their names. They stay in an "ark" (as in, Noah's) full of fossilized creatures. Not far from the ark is a deserted 19th-century style city that is decidedly gothic. Its only inhabitants seem to be statue-like fishermen who come to live at the slightest hint of fish - which are not real, but simply shadows of fish, which they chase and try to hunt. I cannot say much more or I'll be running into the realm of spoilers.
There seems to be a very strongly Gnostic undrelying theme. The whole egg thing, the spherical... thing... that appears at the beginning and end (seems suggestive of the Pleroma), the fact that the girl and the guy seem to be the only man and woman in the world...etc. There is also a strong platonic suggestion, with the fisherment pursuing shadows of fish, the shades cast by the egg-grasping trees (don't ask if you haven't watched it
).Very, very captivating, and simply beutiful to watch and listen to.
Extremely enigmatic, too. In a word: haunting.
If you haven't seen this, I strongly recommend it, even if you're not into anime (I am not that much into anime myself - I don't know much outside of Oshii's works).
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