Ghost In The Shell director Mamoru Oshii returns with a typically cerebral but nonetheless spellbinding gaze at an alternative future where eternally young fighter pilots clash in a seemingly endless and pointless war…

In an alternative near-future reality, specially bred soldiers named ‘Kildren’ fight an unspecified war, seemingly fabricated by rival conglomerate companies in order keep the mass population happy and obedient – a ploy that appears to have worked for years. Groups of fighter pilots engage in dogfights against the neighbouring nations forces high above the clouds, the only casualties of this conflict, they never age or grow up.

When a new pilot Yuichi Kannami (Ryo Kase)  joins one of these groups, he struggles unable to remember anything of his life before save his intensive flight training. The mystery deepens when his new female commander, Suito Kusanagi (Rinko Kikuchi), another ‘Kildren’ who has unusually crossed over from being a fighter pilot herself, refuses to discuss the fate of pilot Yuichi was brought in to replace, or why his plane is in such perfect condition.

Those unfamiliar with director Mamoru Oshii’s previous work may be surprised by how little The Sky Crawlers conforms to Anime clichés. Indeed, even though his best known work Ghost In The Shell (and Blood: The Last Vampire, on which he worked as supervising producer) are as close to being typical of the genre as he has ever gotten, yet like all his work hide more complex themes often little more than hinted at.

But perhaps that shouldn’t be a revelation at all. Oshii co-founded Studio Ghibli with Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, but left soon afterwards due to creative differences. Though Oshii’s work has always been more adult in content, the directors share a distain for simplistic, exploitative Anime that panders to an adolescent audience, and have done more to lift our preconceptions of the genre than any other filmmakers.

Sky Crawlers is itself no exception, taking author Hiroshi Mori’s first book of many on the ‘Kildren’ and dealing with it in a typically subverted fashion. The true nature of the ‘Kildren’ is only partly revealed in an after-title sequence, but even then there are no simple answers here, more hints and subtexts of themes. Like much of Oshii’s work, it bears comparison with Ridley Scott’s take on Philip K. Dick’s ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ (or Blade Runner to you and me).

As with his early series Patlabor, Oshii concerns himself with the ‘little people’ caught up in the conflict. Powerless to change anything around them, they are mere pawns in a war or power struggle far beyond their comprehension. In tone it greatly resembles the last part of Oshii’s Jigoku no banken trilogy, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade – its effectively slow pacing paying tribute to films of the past. A reference which seems almost deliberate, as the name of the pilot Yuichi replaces is Jin-Ro.

But if Jin-roh looked to Hitchcock and the mesmerising Vertigo for inspiration, here Oshii looks to aerial combat movies like Battle Of Britain and The Dawn Patrol. Rooted in two World Wars, the film is as much about the endless waiting between those dogfights as it is the exciting aerial action. If anything, Oshii seems obsessed with that tedium, treating it in a detached, almost hypnotic fashion.

It bleeds a quality rarely seen in live-action films, with a strong voice cast including Oscar-nominated Rinko Kikuchi and cameos from famous Japanese actors such as Kill Bill’s Chiaki Kuriyama and prolific Naoto Takenaka, whose numerous roles include Shall We Dance and Ping Pong.

It’s glorious stuff, and though this might not appeal to every Anime fan, it should find an audience far beyond the genre. A beautifully shot, intelligent tale of innocence lost.

The Sky Crawlers is released this Friday, 23 April, by Manga Entertainment and will open at selected UK cinemas, including the ICA in London, and there’s a special preview tonight at the BFI Southbank ahead of their Anime Weekend in May.

The Sky Crawlers will also be released on DVD and Blu-Ray by Manga Entertainment on 31 May.

DVD details

Distributor: Manga Entertainment (UK)

Fantastic transfer of a great film. Bonus wise, there's an interview with director Mamoru Oshii which, despite looking rather cheaply shot, shows him in typically enigmatic form – revealing just why he decided to put that final scene right at the end of the titles (he likes to stay sat down in cinemas till the lights come up!) – and some trailers.

Sadly, though perhaps not surprisingly, two features are saved for the Blu-ray only: The Sound Design and Animation of The Sky Crawlers, and Animation Research for The Sky Crawlers. Get used to it. While distributors are still trying to entice over to the dark side, erm, Blu-ray, we are going to see much more of this.

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This entry was published by Andy H on Friday, April 16th, 2010 at 10:00 am and is filed under Action / Thrillers, Anime / Live-Action Manga, Anime classics, Cinema Club – The finest in Asian film, Films, Reviews, Sci Fi / Fantasy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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