News
Montreal World Film Festival Hosts Live-Action Patlabor Film
posted on by Kevin Pennyfeather
The Montreal World Film Festival announced this month that it will be showing Mamoru Oshii's live-action feature-length The Next Generation -Patlabor- on August 29 at 9:30 AM and August 30 at 9:30 PM at the Cineplex Odeon Quartier Latin.
The Montreal World Film Festival runs from August 27 to September 7 and hosts films from around the world in both competitive and non competitive categories. The Next Generation -Patlabor- feature will be shown as part of the festival's World Greats category and will not compete for any awards.
Cinema Today streamed a 90-second trailer for the film in February.
The film's story involves Section 2 Division 2 tracking down and fighting a terrorist who takes 10 million citizens in Tokyo hostage.
Oshii wrote and directed the feature-length film that opened during Japan's Golden Week holiday in May. It was the first Japanese film to feature a Dolby Atmos soundtrack for multidimensional surround sound.
The live-action project began last year with a seven-part series, which is composed of the "episode 0" and 12 full episodes helmed by chief director Mamoru Oshii and other directors. Each full episode is about 48 minutes long, while the feature-length film is about 93 minutes long.
Oshii commented that the seven-part series has a "slapstick" ambiance, while the feature film is more serious. Oshii and Kei Yamamura wrote the scripts for the series, and Kenji Kawai returned to the franchise to compose the music for both the series and the feature film.
The Next Generation -Patlabor- project is not a remake of the earlier Patlabor anime stories, but a completely new work. The story is set in Tokyo in 2013, and it represents the "third generation" of Patlabor. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police has disbanded its Section 2 Division 1 of police robots, and Section 2 Division 2 barely survived the budget cuts due to the long recession.
Former Hello! Project singer and actress Erina Mano stars as pilot Akira Izumino (as opposed to the earlier anime's heroine Noa Izumi). The cast also includes Seiji Fukushi as Yūma Shiobara, Rina Oota as Ekaterina Krachevna Kankaeva ("Kasha") from Russia, Shigeru Chiba reprising his anime role as maintenance crew chief Shigeo Shiba, and Toshio Kakei as Captain Keiji Gotōda (the successor to the anime's Captain Kiichi Gotō).
The Patlabor franchise's original concept of police officers piloting robotic mecha (patrol labors or "Patlabors") was developed by HEADGEAR, a group consisting of director Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Sky Crawlers), script writer Kazunori Itō (.hack, Dirty Pair), mecha designer Yutaka Izubuchi (Eureka Seven, Mobile Suit Gundam franchise), character designer Akemi Takada (Kimagure Orange Road, Urusei Yatsura, Fancy Lala), and manga creator Masami Yuuki (Birdy the Mighty). The franchise spawned two original video anime, a television anime series, and three anime films. The last anime film, Patlabor WXIII, was released in theaters in Japan in 2002.
[Via Brian Ruh]
