The Sky Crawlers R2J finally announced. DVD and BD coming 25.2.09. No subs.
Also, if you have 40 000 yen extra lying around, why not get the BD box set with a fighter plane, script, 3 extra dvds and other sfuff? All in a metal box designed by Oshii himself
I think I'll settle with the standard release... Good film with a beautiful soundtrack by Kenji Kawai.
It's the subs I'd be worried about with Panorama. Unless you've got a friend in HK I see no reason to be interested in the HK BD, as the US BD is only around $23 online. As a price comparison DDDhouse do the HK BD for $25ish
It's been confirmed as region free, but a customer on Amazon.com has said that the soundtrack is different on the US version:
The theme song by Ayaka is gone.., May 26, 2009
By C. Liu (USA) - See all my reviews
The other people's review pretty much said about everything of this film.
The only thing that i feel upset is the theme song by Ayaka is cut out of the US version...
Reminds me of the UK release of GITS having a different ending theme.
When does this song play? Hopefully not in the beginning of the ending credits.
As far as I recall, the print I saw had Sony/Columbia/Whatever (some US studio anyway) logo in the beginning. And the ending in this version is absolutely perfect. The ending credits begin with this music.
I definitely need to have the version with this ending.
C. Liu says:
The song title is "Konya mo Hoshi ni Dakarete," and it was meant to be at the end credits, but was replaced by other soundtrack. The song is great and I think the music is part of the movie, so it is a big deal for me
Sorry, but I'm still confused.
So apparently you saw the US-Version which had some instrumental music in the ending, but the Original version has a song playing, and yet you still prefer the US-Version?
Well, it's not really special but not bad either. So I guess I could live with either version. But, anyway, I'm now looking forward to "Sky Crawlers" even more. Looks like a fantastic movie.
You established that the song plays over the end credits, no one stated categorically whether the song or music from the song actually played during the film.
Aye, I thought Oshii's approach was a bit too dispassionate to fully drive the rather minimalist narrative for 2hrs, but still enjoyed it overall. Have you reviewed it yourself somewhere on these boards?
Shingster wrote:Aye, I thought Oshii's approach was a bit too dispassionate to fully drive the rather minimalist narrative for 2hrs, but still enjoyed it overall. Have you reviewed it yourself somewhere on these boards?
I just wrote a few words after the festival screening I attended. But you know me, when I'm on a film festival I watch 4 or 5 films every day so those reviews aren't always so great and the grammar is what it is...
"Sky Crawlers (Japan, 2008) – 3,5/5
Initially I saw this as a potential crowd pleasing effort by Mamoru Oshii. That is fortunately not the case. Sky Crawers doesn’t go overboard with philosophing, but it’s pure Oshii from themes of identity and soul to lack of comprehensive answers. It’s not Oshii at his most effective, and suffers from some over-length, but it’s a fascinating piece set in unidentified time and place in the future. The numerous air battles are well done, and the final touch is given by Kenji Kawai’s terrific score. "
After your review and a few other recent reviews I was about to say that impatient reviewers complain about the film's length for nothing, but now I see I even wrote so myself
EDIT: This reminded me of how scared I got in the screening when I first saw a US studio logo in the beginning of the film, and then the first lines of dialogue were in English... I thought it was a dubbed version
HungFist wrote:I just wrote a few words after the festival screening I attended. But you know me, when I'm on a film festival I watch 4 or 5 films every day so those reviews aren't always so great and the grammar is what it is...
I don't think I've read a review of yourse that wasn't very well written, seems your views on the film weren't too different from mine. I do think he could have been a bit ruthless with the editing and chisel it down to a very lean 100minutes or so.
EDIT: This reminded me of how scared I got in the screening when I first saw a US studio logo in the beginning of the film, and then the first lines of dialogue were in English... I thought it was a dubbed version
Yeah I was surprised he decided on English for the alternate language in the Crawlers universe given his love affair with Poland and general Polish influences on the graphic design. Sadly there's no discussion on the use of multiple languages in the extras, but I think you'd appreciate the fun location-scouting featurette.
