UK anime fans have a rare chance to watch Mamoru Oshii’s unreleased 1985 movie Angel’s Egg. It’s part of a UK-wide season calls Film Feels Curious taking place in June and July 2022. Angel’s Egg is showing at The Place, Bedford on July 27, 2022.
Mamouru Oshii is best known for Ghost in the Shell (1995), and its sequels released in 2004 and 2008. Some of his other films include Moroko, Patlabor 2, Avalon, Kirazu, and he contributed to Halo Legends. Angel’s Egg is one of his earlier works, and was never actually released in the UK or the US. Therefore, seeing a cinema screening of it pop up is a unique opportunity.
Angel’s Egg is about a mysterious young girl who wanders a desolate, otherworldly landscape, carrying an ominous large egg. It features very little spoken dialogue and its sparse plot and visual style have led to it being described as “animated art rather than a story.” It fits the philosophical themes of the ‘Curious’ film season, as it’s been described as symbolic, surreal, zen-like, haunting, poetic and “the viewer may get one of multiple meanings” from it.
One of the producers of Angel’s Egg – Toshio Suzuki – later founded the internationally-renowned Studio Ghibli with Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata.
Ghost in the Shell is probably the second-best known anime film (outside Japan) after 1988’s Akira. Its influence can be felt in The Matrix and on the work of James Cameron. It famously caused controversy in 2017, when Scarlett Johansson was cast as the lead in a live-action version. Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell 2 is the only anime film to have been selected to compete for the Palm d’Or at Cannes.
If you’re a fan of all things anime, check out our guide to the best anime series.