By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The 1987 movie has been restored for a new theatrical booking.
THE RED SPECTACLES, the first live-action feature by anime legend Mamoru Oshii (GHOST IN THE SHELL), will have its first New York theatrical screenings beginning this Friday, November 21 at the Metrograph theater. Co-scripted by Kazunori Ito, whose credits include GHOST as well as Shusuke Kaneko’s GAMERA trilogy, SPECTACLES was given a 4K restoration from the original camera negative last year, crowdfunded by nearly 3,000 supporters. Described as “a visually striking, near-future sci-fi black comedy that meditates on justice, memory, and the cost of loyalty,” it was the second entry in Oshii’s “Kerberos Saga” franchise. The synopsis: “Three years after the disbanding of his unit, former Panzer Cop Koichi Todome [Shigeru Chiba] returns to Tokyo to reconnect with his old colleagues only to find the city in an advanced state of dystopian desuetude, a haven for swindlers, hired guns, femme fatales, and other unusual and unsavory characters.”
The RED SPECTACLES engagement is part of “Mamoru Oshii Restored: Origins and Inspirations,” currently running at the Metrograph. In addition to another new restoration, of Oshii’s ANGEL’S EGG, it includes Andrei Tarkovsky’s STALKER, Atsushi Yamatoya’s INFLATABLE SEX DOLL OF THE WASTELANDS and Luis Buñuel’s THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE.
