Archive Cinema City 2009.
Genre: Animation
Synopsis:
In an otherwise remarkably serene and peaceful world, an eternal war is being fought in the skies. The opponents are not countries as such, but two multinational companies called Rostock and Lautern. The world is divided into "theatres of war", and in each of these regions groups of fighter planes struggle with each other for supremacy. Flying these planes are special pilots knows as "kildren", genetically enhanced to stop growing in their teenage years. This gives them undiminishing sharp reflexes and theoretically unlimited lifespans, but the very brutal air battles keep them from lasting long.
When a Rostock kildren named Kannami is transferred to a new base to replace a dead pilot, he is surprised to find the man’s unharmed plane waiting for him. His new colleagues are unwilling to tell him what happened and when Kannami questions base commander (and fellow kildren) Kusanagi about it, she refuses to give him a clear answer. As the air battle intensifies in the weeks that follow, Kannami has to fight not only the Lautern kildren but also a nagging sense of deja-vu and a seemingly unstoppable adult human pilot called "The Teacher"...
About the film:
The Sky Crawlers is based on a popular six-part novel by a best-selling writer, Hiroshi Mori. The novel has sold more than 900,000 copies in Japan alone. The story unfolds in another possible 'now.' The main characters are youngsters called "Kildren", who are destined to live eternally in their adolescence, and fight a "war as a show" organized and operated by adults.
After reading the novel, Director Oshii praised it as "a work that should be made into a movie for young people now." Clothing, food and housing are in abundance in our modern society, and yet we carry an unfulfilled vacuum in our hearts. "It is time to face this new perception to our existence through the Kildren, who live indefinitely in eternal adolescence, and this theme should be dealt with now," claims Oshii earnestly. The author Mori regards his novel, "The Sky Crawlers", "as the most difficult among all of my works for film adaptation." However, Mori declared himself "surprised and relieved at the same time to know the director was going to be Mamoru Oshii," and gave his immediate consent.
This time, Oshii has promoted an up-and-coming scriptwriter, Chihiro Ito, who depicted youngsters' sensitive feelings beautifully in two acclaimed movies, Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World / Sekai no Chushin de Ai wo Sakebu (2004) and Spring Snow / Haru no Yuki (2005). The music score is written by Oshii's most trusted composer, Kenji Kawai.
Official site [jp]
Trailer
Nominations:
Best Animation Film, 2009 Awards of the Japanese Academy
Best Motion Picture - Animated or Mixed Media, 2008 Satellite Awards
Best Film, 2008 Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival
Golden Lion, 2008 Venice Film Festival
Awards:
Best Animation Film, 2009 Mainichi Film Concours
Carnet Jove Jury Award, 2008 Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival
Future Film Festival Digital Awards, 2008 Venice Film Festival
