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The students of Tomobiki are working long hours and preparing feverishly for tomorrow, when the student fair finally will begin. It has been a long, difficult job, and everyone is relieved, knowing it will soon be done – but there’s a catch. They soon discover that days, possibly weeks have passed, yet they never reach tomorrow, and the student fair still has not begun. As they desperately try to discover what is happening to their world, their beliefs on reality and the world of dreams are radically challenged. Is the gang doomed to repeat the same day for the rest of their lives?
In a dark and largely abandoned city a little girl wanders in search of something – beneath the folds of her dress she carries a mysterious giant egg. While living on the streets, she encounters a lonesome warrior who has forgotten his past and his purpose and, like the girl, travels aimlessly. Now they journey together, mistrustful of each other whilst sharing in the silence of the city. But who is the little girl? Who is the warrior? And what form of creature lies sleeping inside the egg?
These two eighties anime movies were both directed by Mamoru Oshii. Both are largely serious films inundated with dream imagery. Beautiful Dreamer is more normal and contains quite a bit of humour - while Angel's Egg contains little more than a handful of lines of dialogue - but fans of Oshii's films should try both.
After robbing a casino and finding out the entire take was counterfeit, Lupin and Jigen are off to the duchy of Cagliostro to find the source of this trickery, and to stop it. Upon arrival, the two become entangled in a car chase between a woman in a wedding dress and several men in a black car. Before she is kidnapped, this woman passes off a ring to Lupin, a ring that sparks his interest more than counterfeit money ever could. Unfortunately for Lupin it also grabs the attention of those who want the ring back, and would kill him for it in a heartbeat.
Both 'Castle of Cagliostro' and 'Beautiful Dreamer' are films based on a popular TV/manga franchise by directors who subsequently became famous in their own rights - Hayao Miyazaki and Mamoru Oshii, respectively. Each film has that director push the franchise in a direction similar to his later pictures - 'Castle of Cagliostro' downplays Lupin's lothario nature and gives us a typically Miyazaki heroine, while 'Beautiful Dreamer' sidesteps Urusei Yatsura's comedy to give us a brooding, philosophical work that is very Oshii in feel. If you enjoyed one for being an early work of promise for an anime director, you may also enjoy the other.
In Japan, a team of scientists have created a medical breakthrough: a device that allows the wearer to enter the dreams of a patient, for the purpose of healing. The talented Paprika is a master at her profession, but complications have now appeared in the form of a “dream terrorist” – an unknown foe who inserts nightmares into the minds of those who use the device. The victims are swept up in a ghoulish parade of dolls, kitchen appliances, and musical animals, and are reduced to a vegetable state – or worse. Now, Paprika and the team of scientists must delve into the minds of those affected to figure out the source of the tampering before more people, including themselves, are damaged beyond repair.
Both are movies about dreams (and not only), created by famous directors (Mamoru Oshii and Satoshi Kon). They are quite different when it comes to story & atmosphere, yet their dream settings and general irreality of things still make them a fine match.
From the depths of the human imagination comes Twilight Q, a Twilight Zone-style set of two tales based upon the paranormal and supernatural. In one story, Mayumi and Kiwako find a camera that supposedly came from the future, with very interesting film and already-taken pictures inside. Secondly, a tale by Mamoro Oshii which chronicles a strange occurance of planes turning into carp in mid-air, much to the dismay of private investigators and the media alike.
The second episode of Twilight Q and Beautiful Dreamer are both Mamoru Oshii's works that execute essentially similar Groundhog Day scenario to describe our life as a recurring dream. Both are thought-provoking & surreal to the core.
