“You can change the side of the road that you walk down every day. Even if the road is the same, you can still see new things. Isn't that enough to live for?”
– Yuichi Kannami in The Sky Crawlers
As the sidereal bard of Japanese anime, Mamoru Oshii has always pushed the boundaries of his creativity, blurring the lines between philosophy and science fiction, history and fantasy, and entertainment and social commentary. He has constructed a fascinating, utterly unique body of work that adds up to an evolving installation of total art, and has found a special place for his genius in the nirvana of global filmmaking.
Adjusting his visuals to linear, accessible storytelling, Oshii has brought to life a mesmerizing adaptation of Mori Hiroshi's novel The Sky Crawlers. The narrative is set in a modern world where familiar urban landscapes resembling Eastern Europe meet unfamiliar emotional geographies. Dwelling in a pneumatic void of memories live the Kildren, teenagers destined never to grow up. Unless they are killed in action, they persist forever in a dull adolescence. The Kildren are a human breed of fighter pilots; created to play the much-needed game of war in a world that keeps real conflicts at bay, they are hired to entertain the citizens of Europe with their celestial battles.
Top-notch Japanese fighter pilot Yuichi Kannami has just been assigned to a new air base. He has only vague memories of his past, and knows only how to fly and fight. However, when he meets Suito Kusanagi, the beautiful girl in command at the base, a disturbing new awareness of the meaninglessness of his life starts creeping into his timeless soul.
Positioning this moral tale in the distant coldness of a video game, Oshii presents his images with a disturbing tactile quality. He confronts the audience with issues crucial to today's Japan, including the increased crime rate among adolescents. A modern ukiyo-e printed on celluloid, The Sky Crawlers haunts us with fantasies too close to scalding reality.
Giovanna Fulvi
Mamoru Oshii was born in Tokyo and worked extensively in animation for television and film before turning his back on commercial entertainment to direct his own unique work. His filmography includes Patlabor: The Movie (90), Stray Dog: Kerberos Panzer Cops (91), Patlabor 2: The Movie (93), Ghost in the Shell (95), Avalon (01), Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (04), Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters (06) and The Sky Crawlers (08).