Patlabor 2: The Movie
With all of the peace and war talk going on in this, I couldn't shake the feeling that the screenplay was attempting to evoke a Cold War scenario. Not only do I say that because of the internal/external paranoia and mostly snow drenched Winter setting, but Oshii seemed to be expanding on the bird imagery further here than he was in the first film.
Similar to the, at times literal, birdcage motif from Patlabor: The Movie, there are frequent shots of a bird or flock depicted on a surface with lines running across it as if it was, yet again, a birdcage. It can act as a form of shelter, a sense of security and protection, but it's also a suppressor to those within it. It keeps things in order very much like how the government is seen running the city in this film. But what if that order and sense of security is disrupted?
Mamoru Oshii and Kazunori Ito dove into that idea and more here rather exceptionally. The visual and audio direction were also superb. There was always this over-looming, palpable feeling of paranoia that continued to build till the end. And Oshii played with that with his use of
perspective,
lighting, and audio cues to create some great tension-filled scenes like the car ride with Arakawa.
This ended up being a much more satisfying, versatile work that felt at once more focused and larger in scale than its predecessor. I'd love to have had more of a background understanding of
, but I didn't think it hurt the experience when all is said and done.
Incredible stuff. I was really blown away.
