Angel’s Egg

Now recognized as a landmark work of animation, Mamoru Oshii’s Angel’s Egg is a cryptic, allegorical masterpiece—a hypnotic collage of signs and symbols, enigmatic ideas and overwhelming emotions. Inspired in part by the work of Andrei Tarkovsky and made in collaboration with legendary illustrator Yoshitaka Amano, Angel’s Egg is set in a nameless, ravaged land. A young girl scours the ruins of an abandoned city searching for food, while transporting a large egg she believes contains an angel. She then encounters a young man who wishes to crack the egg open. But the plot is, in a sense, neither here nor there: The central action is Oshii and Amano’s astounding imagery, conjuring the vastest of sci-fi dystopias and provocative biblical motifs. Haunting, curiously intimate, and boldly experimental, this is perhaps Oshii’s most personal work, and a crucially important film in anime history.

A GKIDS release

4K restoration supervised by Mamoru Oshii. Colorist Noboru Yamaguchi. Mix Supervisor Kazuhiro Wakabayashi. Sound Effects Restoration Kaori Yamada. Digital Restoration Yoko Arai, Kensuke Nakamura, Eiji Yamataka, Tajima Onodera. Presented by Tokuma Shoten Publishing.