Angel's Egg...
Not long ago, I had the opportunity to watch Angel's Egg aka Tenshi no Tamago...
Angel's Egg is beautiful to look at, but, not much actually happens during the course of the feature. There isn't much in the way of dialogue and there are no naughty bits or even fan service. Angel's Egg is essentially an art house feature and is a prime example of Mamoru Oshii's early work. Overall, the feature is a masterful example of animation as an art form and I would give Angel's Egg a 2 out of 5.
I had heard about this rather enigmatic title a while ago, but, not long ago, I decided to venture out into the depths of YouTube to track it down. According to the Anime Encyclopedia by Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy (page 14). ISBN# 1-880656-64-7...A mysterious young girl wanders a desolate, otherworldly landscape, carrying a large egg. The young girl is the sole protector of a very precious, large egg. Her lair is near a large, abandoned, decaying gothic city inhabited by restless shadows. A mysterious young man arrives one day, and eventually wins her trust.
Plotless and highly symbolic with hardly any dialogue, reputedly a stream-of-consciousness exercise by [Mamoru] Oshii, the film features his trademark Christian imagery and an inexplicable passage through the town of soldiers with motorized artillery. Surreal elements recall Oshii's work on URUSEI YATSURA, including spaceships full of silent people bearing other eggs and even shadows of fish that swim through the air in the city streets. ... Parts of the film were plundered for interstitial footage in Carl Colpaert's live-action film In the Aftermath (1988).YouTube came through for me, yet again. As near as I can tell, there was never an official U.S. release, but, Angel's Egg is still be available as an import item, at the time of this writing. The feature was released on Blu-ray and is, from what I understand, a decent transfer of the original print, albeit without subtitles and apparently a minimal digital restoration effort. If I were inclined to import the Blu-ray, the current pricing is a bit out of my comfort zone.
Angel's Egg is beautiful to look at, but, not much actually happens during the course of the feature. There isn't much in the way of dialogue and there are no naughty bits or even fan service. Angel's Egg is essentially an art house feature and is a prime example of Mamoru Oshii's early work. Overall, the feature is a masterful example of animation as an art form and I would give Angel's Egg a 2 out of 5.
