Angel's Egg

This masterpiece by Mamoru Oshii (Character designs by the great Yoshitaka Amano) is really one of a kind, thought provoking, artistic almost in a style of Dali and other great artists. The dark atmosphere and the inexplicable happenings bring Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey to my mind. There isn't much dialogue in the film, which is in my opinion a great decision. If you're into anime, especially the Mamoru Oshii stylish "slow and atmospheric" anime, this is a must see. I might even say this is one of the great classics in the history of anime although this title might be quite unknown to all. Really recommended!

Angel's Egg is a visual poetry. More like a nightmare in a very dark world. Visually elegant and it takes you to another world, a dream world. A must watch if you are hungry for a different kind of cinematic experience.

"Maybe you, I, and the fish only exist in the memory of a person who is long gone. Maybe no one really exists and it's only raining outside."

Beautiful, evocative visuals, but a slow, rather opaque story, one that's awash in Christian and apocalyptic symbolism. You can decide for yourself what it all means, or that it means nothing, and it's only raining outside.

My take: In this world of shadows, fossils, and death, the only hope for new life lies in the egg the girl carries around, similar to Noah's ark after the flood. In this telling of the tale, though, the Christ or God-like figure tells her that the doves don't return to the ark, and later crushes the egg. It seems rather dark and pessimistic - and yet, life seems to have a way of bubbling to the surface on its own, and when viewed from a distance, the world and all its troubles seem rather small.

Tenshi no tamago made me feel things, and that's all I care. I could go on theorizing about the meaning of the movie, what the fish symbolize and the film's religious imagery; but instead, I'm going to focus on how this movie made me feel. It made me feel lonely. It made me feel scared. It made me feel like a little girl running thorugh a desolate world, carrying a giant egg. The animations is stunning. The desolate landscapes are beautifully drawn and the characters (particuraly the little girl) are goergously animated. I may not have understood everything that was presented to me, but I did feel it.

This movie requires more work than most people are willing to put in, and ultimately is a useful tool to gauge one's own film expectations.

Where some complain of pace, I was content to listen to the glorious music (as even the characters on screen did) and allow it to tell me the story.

Only after I was forced to view a still image for an interminable amount of time, and feel the anger rise up in me as I imagined the creators of the film laughing at me, did I notice that it created the necessary tension for what was the climax of the film.

I enjoyed having to pay attention to the details of the film, such as how loud the running water was, and what happened when that volume changed; such as whose perspective was I looking from at a particular moment and why; such as why the image persisted but the sound did not, or vice versa; such as why the floor in the beginning looks like a chess board, and who seemed to win at the end.

The less you enjoy thinking about these things, the less you will enjoy this film about shattered innocence, life, death, birth, dreams, causality, and memory.