The Red Spectacles flopped in its original 1987 Japanese release, but the merchandisable design of the Kerberos armor somehow led to the creation of a whole franchise. The best-known film in said franchise is the animated installment Jin-Roh, written by Oshii and directed by Hiroyuki Okiura. If you're going into the 4K re-release of The Red Spectacles having only seen Jin-Roh, you might expect something along those lines: slow-paced realism, complicated but generally straightforward storytelling, a heavy depressing tone. Abandon those expectations right away, because aside from taking place in the same continuity, The Red Spectacles has almost nothing in common with Jin-Roh.

The Red Spectacles takes place 40 or so years after Jin-Roh; the former presents a futuristic '90s as imagined in the '80s while latter depicts an alternate '50s as imagined in the '90s. Where Jin-Roh shows the Kerberos unit at the peak of its power, The Red Spectacles depicts its death throes. Its last three soldiers fight the government seeking to disband them suited up in the film's opening scene, which is also one of only two parts of The Red Spectacles to be shot in color. Said opening scene proves Oshii could make a solidly thrilling traditional action movie if he wanted to — and the rest of The Red Spectacles shows he doesn't want to.

Once Koichi returns home, the cinematography shifts to black-and-white; the ex-cop spends the rest of the film in a the trench coat and shades of a film noir antihero. Jean-Luc Godard's sci-fi noir Alphaville is the most obvious stylistic influence; Oshii's arthouse references also include Chris Marker's La Jetée and Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris. With its eerie dreams-within-dreams structure and mental breakdowns exposing the artifice of its sets, it's the sort of film you could accurately describe as “Lynchian.”

Here's the part you're not expecting: for all its high-brow allusions and Shakespeare-quoting conversations, The Red Spectacles is a comedy, and an extremely silly one at that. The opposite of Jin-Roh using animation for gritty realism, The Red Spectacles is a live-action movie that feels like a cartoon. Fight scenes are punctuated with cartoon sound effects, and combatants will stop in the middle of a fight to share a beer or do a little dance. There's a subplot about outlaw fast food stands (which spawned its own inexplicable franchise) and their noodles that keep giving Koichi the runs. Shigeru Chiba, who plays Koichi, expertly handles the swings between the broad comedy and the moments of arthouse stillness; I knew he was a great voice actor from his decades of anime work, but I didn't know he had such impressive physicality.

I'm not sure how much of Jin-Roh's world-building Oshii had in mind while making The Red Spectacles, so it can be weird watching this older film with memories of its prequel. Does the Little Red Riding Hood symbolism mean the same thing in both films? If it does, the ending leaves a very different impression. Had Oshii already figured out the backstory with Germany occupying Japan post-WWII? Jin-Roh delivered a clear message about fascism destroying the souls of its own foot-soldiers. The Red Spectacles is more complicated to decipher as the dream of one of those now-rejected soldiers. How much, if any, of the dystopian depiction of post-Kerberos Japan is meant to be seen as “real” versus Koichi's deluded self-justification for wanting to hold onto his former power? Saying it's all the latter might be convenient, but nonetheless the contradictions within Koichi's fantasy beg for analysis. His crimes are framed as both being “individualist” and “too loyal,” an agent of fascism who perceives (with possible accuracy?) the forces trying to stop him as themselves fascist. It also seems as if there's some element of Oshii's own self-criticisms of Japan's New Left mixed in here, and the loaded choice to psychically connect a real protest movement with fictional riot cops shutting down protests is something I feel like I don't have nearly enough context to unpack. As such, I couldn't say whether The Red Spectacles is successful as political satire.

Though I was a bit too baffled by The Red Spectacles to love it or declare it a great movie, I was never bored by it (which I can't always say for Oshii films). Not everyone will have the same patience for its tonal swings, but I personally found it more entertaining than the more coherent but sometimes painfully slow Jin-Roh. The Red Spectacles is certainly one of the least predictable movies I've ever seen — in each scene, I could never tell what would come next, and its surprises were often fascinating. It's visually stunning, especially considering its low budget and that it was Oshii's first time working in live-action, with actors that commit to the madness and a nice synth score from future Ghost in the Shell composer Kenji Kawai. I hope people seek out this movie with its re-release.