Avalon (2001)

Director:

Mamoru Oshii

Writer:

Kazunori Itô

Release Date:

20 January 2001 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Dare to enter a world of future videogames

Plot:

In a future world, young people are increasingly becoming addicted to an illegal (and potentially deadly) battle simulation game called Avalon...

Plot Keywords:

Dog | Near Future | Battle | Warrior | Winning

Awards:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Malgorzata Foremniak	...	Ash
Wladyslaw Kowalski	...	Game Master
Jerzy Gudejko	...	Murphy
Dariusz Biskupski	...	Bishop
Bartlomiej Swiderski	...	Stunner (as Bartek Swiderski)
Katarzyna Bargielowska	...	Receptionist
Alicja Sapryk	...	Gill
Michal Breitenwald	...	Murphy of Nine Sisters
Zuzanna Kasz	...	Ghost
Adam Szyszkowski	...	Player A
Krzysztof Szczerbinski	...	Player B (as Krszysztof Szczerbinski)
Marek Stawinski	...	Player C
Jaroslaw Budnik	...	Cooper (voice)
Andrzej Debski	...	Cusinart (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Zdzislaw Szymborski	...	Man at Philharmonic (uncredited)
Elzbieta Towarnicka	...	Soloist at Philharmonic (uncredited)

Directed by
Mamoru Oshii

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Kazunori Itô

Produced by
Takehiko Chino	....	associate producer
Ryoichi Fukuyama	....	associate producer
Kazumi Kawashiro	....	co-producer
Tetsu Kayama	....	executive producer
Shinji Komori	....	associate producer
Atsushi Kubo	....	producer
Takenari Maeda	....	associate producer
Yasuki Miki	....	associate producer
Katsuharu Nagata	....	associate producer
Katsuhiro Ogawa	....	assistant producer
Naoyuki Sakagami	....	executive producer
Toru Shiobara	....	executive producer
Nobuyuki Tohya	....	associate producer
Shin Unozawa	....	co-producer
Shigeru Watanabe	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Kenji Kawai

Cinematography by
Grzegorz Kedzierski

Film Editing by
Hiroshi Okuda

Production Design by
Barbara Nowak
Takashi Watabe

Costume Design by
Magdalena Biernawska-Teslawska		(as Magdalena Teslawska)

Production Management
Masato Araki	....	production manager
Janusz B. Czech	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Makoto Kamiya	....	special assistant director
Isao Kaneko	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Hiroyuki Hayashi	....	digital art director
Yoshihisa Kato	....	imageboard designer
Tom Miller	....	property master
Tanake Watabe	....	art designer
Waldemar Weiss	....	construction coordinator

Sound Department
Shuji Inoue	....	sound designer
Tom Myers	....	sound designer
Tom Myers	....	sound re-recording mixer
Randy Thom	....	sound designer
Randy Thom	....	sound re-recording mixer
Kazuhiro Wakabayashi	....	sound director
Stuart McCowan	....	assistant sound designer (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Nobuaki Koga	....	visual effects supervisor

Camera and Electrical Department
Piotr Obloza	....	gaffer

Animation Department
Atsushi Takeuchi	....	mechanical designer

Editorial Department
Reiko Saitoh	....	assistant to editor

Music Department
Tomoyuki Asakawa	....	musician
Tom Boyd	....	musician: oboe soloist
Kenji Kawai	....	music arranger
Kenji Kawai	....	music producer
Kenji Kawai	....	synthesizers/percussion
Shigeru Otake	....	music coordinator
Jerzy Swoboda	....	conductor
Elzbieta Towarnicka	....	musician: soprano

Other crew
Seiichi Tanaka	....	title designer: main titles
Kazue Yoneda	....	production assistant
Akiko Yukawa	....	production assistant

Production Companies

• Deiz Production
• Bandai Visual Company (presenters)
• Media Factory (presenters)
• Dentsu Productions Ltd. (presenters)
• Nippon Herald Films (presenters)

Distributors

• A-Film Distribution (2002) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Monopole-Pathé (2002) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• A-Film Home Entertainment (200?) (Netherlands) (video)
• Blue Dolphin Film Distribution
• Buena Vista Home Video
• Central Partnership (Russia)
• Cinévia Films
• Des Films (France) (DVD)
• Herald Film Company (Japan)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (Germany)
• Madman Entertainment (2004) (Australia) (all media)
• Miramax Films (USA) (subtitled)
• One Movie (2006) (Italy) (all media)
• SBP (Argentina) (DVD)
• SBP (Argentina) (VHS)
• Studio Canal (France) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Motor/lieZ
• Omnibus Japan
• SpFX Studio
• deiz

Other Companies

• Chór Filharmonii Narodowej  group cast members: choir (as Warsaw Philharmonic Choir)
• Daybreak  music coordination
• Filharmonia Narodowa  filmed at
• Orkiestra Symfoniczna Filharmonii Narodowej  group cast members: orchestra (as Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra)
• Skywalker Sound  post-production sound services
• Teru Uchida Strings  orchestra (strings)
• Warsaw Philharmonic Chorus  choir
• Warsaw Philharmonic Hall  music recorded at
• Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra  orchestra

Also Known As:

"Avalon" - International (English title)
"Gate to Avalon" - Hong Kong (English title) (video box title)
"Avalon" - France
"Avalon - Spiel um dein Leben" - Germany (TV title)
"Avalon - Virtuális csapda" - Hungary (imdb display title)
"War-Trix: Guerra virtual, muerte real" - Argentina (video title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

Japan | Poland

Language:

Polish

Color:

Color | Black and White (Sepiatone)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital EX

Certification:

Italy:T | South Korea:15 | Canada:PG | Germany:12 | Netherlands:12 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12 | USA:R | Australia:M | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Filharmonia Narodowa, Jasna, Sródmiescie, Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland

Company:

Deiz Production

Trivia:

Director Trademark: [Mamoru Oshii] [biblical quote]

Goofs:

Continuity: When Ash starts searching for The Nine Sisters, she enters some keywords and the results show up on the monitor of her computer. However, the reflection on her glasses doesn't match what happens on her screen.

Quotes:

Ash:Is this what you wanted? For this you abandoned us all? To spend the rest of your life as a hollow shell in a hospital bed, staring at nothing?
Murphy:How can you be so sure? Do I look like a hollow shell? Do I? Reality is only what we tell ourselves it is! That's all! I choose this one. I prefer this reality.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Asaruto gâruzu (2009)

Eyes that do not see...

I think many of the complaints about this movie are by those that overlook one of the most obvious statements of the movie... that day to day life is boring & tedious, (walking hallways, taking lonely boring train rides, feeding your dog, watching an annoying person eat) all the while the visual world (read spiritual, artistic, visionary, higher level, etc.) is breath-taking. None of the characters of this world are privy to the visual poetry we are being exposed to as viewers... and that is part of the point, they are blind to it... yet it's a reminder that technological obsessiveness, or material obsessiveness, blinds everyone from simple visual beauty. The lighting alone in the movie was incredibly inventive, variations of sepia tones that went from red to green to blue during the course of the movie... overall the lighting and photography in the movie was amazing. You could take any given frame of this film and have a very beautiful photograph. There is a lot of CGI work in this movie that many nay-sayers called "low budget" and didn't even notice. Watch at the very end of the movie how the ghost's mouth wavers, almost like the Mona Lisa, from sad half-frown into a smirk, and this was done in post. I'm sure many people missed very subtle and beautiful touches like this on first viewing. If someone were to critique it for lack of complexity, I would agree... Blade Runner was not "deep" in the same way... but both, upon multiple viewings, remain almost timelessly poignant while being very reflective of when they were made, and I'm sure in 10 years this movie will seem as striking, as Blade Runner is to me now over 20 years since it's release. This will be one to watch over and over again every 6 months.

One caveat... the Miramax version is rubbish. The translations are horrible and stupid. Literally you lose half the meaning of the film. At one point Ashe is talking to the Gamemaster discussing Avalon (the mythic island) and discussing Odin and the helmet of forgetting... right as she puts the VR helmet on. In the Miramax version... the Gamemaster just says "be careful it's dangerous in there"... etc. Not even close, it's like they didn't bother even attempting a real translation, pathetic.