EN
“Scene to scene, the obscure rules of its world and surrealistic logic of its narrative, images, and cuts can feel so obtuse, so intimately tied to Oshii’s personal subconscious, that the only substantive thing to grab onto can seem to be the inky, wispy beauty of Amano’s artwork. There is, however, a point. Like many Oshii stories, Angel’s Egg centers around a dialectic: a female persona (associated with light and water, defiant of gravity) who pursues a dream of transcendence; and a male (associated with earth and metal, who moves with all the weight of the material world he inhabits) arguing for cynical realism yet haunted by the female’s image. As the man and the girl meet and travel together, Angel’s Egg builds toward a single, pivotal dialogue that reveals the significance of the egg and telegraphs the film’s thesis via warped Biblical allusion: a poetic treatise on faith, salvation, and the silence of God.”
Eli Friedberg
“Oshii and Amano’s vision of a dying world is rendered through a masterfully limited use of color. The landscape itself is near monochrome: a sea of grays, deep blues, and heavy blacks are populated by impenetrable shadows and silhouetted figures. This deliberate desaturation makes Amano’s sparing use of color quite impactful. The nameless boy and girl provide nearly the only points of warmth in the film’s palette, punctuating space with their pale complexions, soft pinks, and bright reds. They appear as fragile sparks of life in a world both eternal and on the verge of dissipating completely. This atmosphere is complimented by Yoshihiro Kanno’s melancholic score, floating through the ruins like a forgotten memory.”
Cat Beckstrand
NL
“Welke catastrofe deze wereld heeft getroffen, is een vraag die de film niet beantwoordt. Zoals deze film sowieso tot aan zijn laatste shot geen antwoorden biedt. Zeventig minuten lang dwalen we op de spookachtige tonen van componist Yoshihiro Kanno door een wereld die nauwelijks houvast biedt. Een wereld van dierenskeletten en gras dat vloeit als water, van afbrokkelende ruïnes en naar onpeilbare dieptes wentelende trappen. Van een klok die een tijd slaat die voor niemand meer loopt.”
Elise van Dam
