Can hardly wait for The Sky Crawlers
I hope you’re looking forward to The Sky Crawlers, the latest movie from Mamoru Oshii.
An extended trailer for the film has been released online (video above) and I have to say, the more teasing glimpses I get, the more I’m desperate to get a hold of the whole thing. Also, Kenji Kawai’s soundtrack is shaping up beautifully well.
In addition to this, Japanese blogger bangin recently posted an explanation of the film’s keyword ‘kirudore’. Essentially, it’s defined as “children who stopped growing up at the puberty and have an (almost) eternal life”. This isn’t Peter Pan though, The Sky Crawlers is a movie about forever-young aircraft pilots fighting an eternal war for entertainment. Comparisons to Battle Royale seem apt, though I’m sure director Oshii won’t shy away from his trademark use of philosophy, even if I hope it’s not quite as dense as Innocence. Anyway, I don’t think it will be, as it seems Oshii is trying to capture a more romantic direction this time around. He said the following at a press conference for The Sky Crawlers in 2007:
“All I want to say is that simply living life has worth to it. In reality, I think we get few choices as to how we live our lives. Life is tough, but if we prepare for the unhappy moments, that preparation becomes our reason for living. I think experiencing hardships is one of the points of life and living.“
The film is out in Japan in August. It’s the anime I’m most anticipating in 2008.
3 comments
As a cinematic piece with a visual ‘wow’ factor that gets box office attention, I think this is going to be hard to beat (ditto for the music). Unfortunately Oshii has this cold and somewhat detached approach which leaves me sceptical of how it’ll fare from the characterisation side of things. He’s never shown the warmth of Shinkai or dry humour of Kon, which has sadly kept his name off my list of all-time favourite directors.
Providing it concentrates on characters and story rather than merely forming a vehicle for Oshii’s chin-scratching I think this will indeed be fantastic.
Oh, that trailer gave me chills. The dogfights look amazing, the music matches. I’m sorta psyched about this, too. Your anticipation really rubs off on me.
I’ve never really seen Ghost in the Shell and I’m not familiar with Oshii’s work, but the visual ‘wow’ as Martin put it has me hooked.
I’m definitely missing the stock character design Oshii often uses in his films (by Hiroyuki Okiura, I think) but the less mature style suits the focus on children well. I agree about the music, too - Kawai’s score for the first GitS film was the best things about it for me.
Martin explains my relationship with Oshii as a director pretty well, but I will say that the man has a mastery over atmosphere that is unparalleled in the industry. It’s not as wholesome or likeable as some of his peers’ achievements, yet it makes everything he produces compulsive viewing. This new film looks like no exception.
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