Jigoku no banken: Akai Megane
Cast (Credited cast)
- Shigeru Chiba ... Koichi Todome
- Machiko Washio ... Midori Washio
- Hideyuki Tanaka ... Soichiro Toribe
Additional Details
- aka. The Red Spectacles
- Directed by: Mamoru Oshii
- Writers: Kazunori Ito, Mamoru Oshii
- Produced by: Daisuke Hayashi, Shigeharu Shiba
- Genre: Adventure, Experimental
- Color: Color / Sepia
- Sound Mix: Stereo
- Cinematography: Yousuke Mamiya
- Film Editing by: Seiji Morita
- Original Music By: Kenji Kawai
- Runtime: 116min
- Country: Japan 1987
- Language: Japanese
Jigoku no Banken: Akai Megane (aka. The Red Spectacles)
Jigoku no banken: Akai Megane is one of Mamoru Oshii's earlier productions. The story takes place in the universe of Jin Roh, chronologically after it. But this movie is a different thing..
Three officers of the Kerberos Corp. refuse to give up their weapons, after the institution is pulled down. They start their rebellious journey to find out what's going on. But soon their location is found and they defend themselves. During the shootout officers Soichiro and Midori are badly wounded, as even the impressive Kerberos armor has it's weak points.
But officer Koichi is left unwounded. He promises to return back to rescue his comrades. But before that, he must find out what is going on behind the scenes. And encounter his feelings towards beautiful Midori.
The movie is something between art-house,mystery and slapstick parody. There is a lot of Oshii's strange humor. A low budget is clearly obvious in some scenes, but it didn't bother me so much. The beginning of the movie was shot in color, but the rest is in sepia tones, similar to Avalon.
The movie is totally unlike any other movie I've ever seen. I enjoyed the mystery feel of this movie and the parody. The way how Koichi fought his way alone in the world of betrayal and terror, only having memory of his love was something almost poetic.
There are plenty of references towards Japanese literature, and then, the beautiful scene which features the old Japanese song "Dog Policeman".
Duo of Shigeru Chiba and Machiko Washio (interesting congruency as the character's name is also Washio) surprised me. They seemed very natural together.
