Serdar | Genji Press

Talking about a movie like Angel’s Egg is bound to be frustrating, because my first impulse is just to recommend it unhesitatingly to anyone with the slightest interest in animation as art. Like Koyaanisqatsi or 2001, it doesn’t lend itself to being described; it’s the sort of thing best seen first and then discussed. Unfortunately, most of the people reading this may never get to see it — at least not until someone licenses the film for an English-speaking audience — so I’m forced to improvise through words and stills.

Angel’s Egg is a collaboration between director Mamoru Oshii and visual designer Yoshitaka Amano. Oshii is best-known for directing Ghost in the Shell, Avalon, and many other films — live-action and animated — all of which deal in some way with memory and the meaning of being human. His movies aren’t for everyone, but contain many rewards for the patient and openminded. Amano has provided design work for many anime and manga (Five Star Stories) and video games (Final Fantasy); his art style is beautiful and unmistakable. He provided the character and set designs for Egg, while Oshii wrote the story and framed the action. The result is a successful hybrid of two very dynamic talents.

Among Japan’s most prolific authors of samurai-fantasy and lady-ninja adventure stories was a fellow named Futaro Yamada, and his Samurai Reincarnation (also known as Darkside Reborn) was a wildly successful retelling of various samurai legends all spun into one with a supernatural twist. The story has inspired various movie versions, but the best-known and most widely enjoyed remains this version, directed by Kinji Fukasaku in 1981.

Aside from Fukasaku’s golden touch, Makai Tenshōu also features none other than Sonny Chiba playing the plum role of the master ninja Yagyū Jubei. (Fans of Kill Bill who know little of what Chiba was actually famous for in the first place need to put this on their list immediately after screening the Street Fighter movies.) Small wonder it was a stupendous hit in Japan, but it’s taken forever for it to show up here in America in a proper edition — all previous versions of the film were saddled with a ludicrous dubbing job and terrible-looking transfers.