 | Original title: Tenshi No Tamago |
Rating:  (4 / 5) | |
| Year: 1985 | |
| Director: Mamoru Oshii | |
| Duration: 71 min. | |
| Genres: Animation, Fantasy |
Angel’s Egg
Angel’s Egg has to be the strangest film I have ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot of weird stuff. It most reminded me of another Japanese anime – also from 1985 – called Night on the Galactic Railroad, which is also a little hard to understand. To a lesser extent it could be compared to Koyaanisqatsi or Fantastic Planet. This is going to be a bit shorter than usual. Reason being that I have no idea what I just watched. However in this case I think I am partly at fault for not getting it. Angel’s Egg appears to be riddled with subtle biblical references, mostly revolving around Noah’s arc. Me being an atheist with little interest in the details of the bible doesn’t help. But then again, it doesn’t seem like anyone has a definitive answer on what it is about.
Anyway, since I have no idea what the film is about I’ll keep this part short. Angel’s Egg starts with a little girl awakening in a desolate area near an equally deserted city. She carries with her a bright white egg. At some point she finds a guy carrying a cross-shaped weapon. They walk around some and that’s about it. Well no, there is a little bit more, but I wouldn’t want to spoil the plot now would I? *Ahum*
So the story is weird, but something else caught my attention. This film has an a-ma-zing soundtrack! Beautiful haunting music all throughout the 70 minutes the film is long. It goes well with what is actually pretty good artwork for a mid-80’s film – although it is not of Ghibli quality. For the anime/fantasy fans, this is by the director who also directed Ghost in the Shell, and he was helped by the guy who did a lot of the art work on the earlier Final Fantasy games. The result is a film that is more like an abstract Dali painting, than an actual film with characters and a story line. In other words, Angel’s Egg is whatever you want it to be.
