Member Takuma Posted September 30, 2014 Member Share Posted September 30, 2014 Mamoru Oshii's new English language film will premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival in October. Director: Mamoru Oshii Cast: Lance Henriksen, Kevin Durand, Melanie St-Pierre It’s been 20 years since “Ghost in the Shell” astounded the world. Now, director Mamoru Oshii brings us a new epic feature film, with Hybrid Animation, fusing pioneer CG and live-action technologies. - http://2014.tiff-jp.net/news/en/?p=7111 Trailer: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/1411900157 Website (almost empty) - http://garmwars-movie.com/jp/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Casshern Posted October 2, 2014 Member Share Posted October 2, 2014 I´m surprised that this man still gets money to film his bombs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted October 3, 2014 Author Member Share Posted October 3, 2014 I´m surprised that this man still gets money to film his bombs. He hasn't directed a feature film since 2009. I admit I'm one of the few people who like Assault Girls, but if we ignore that film, almost everything he had done up till then is a major or minor classic. He had also done brilliant live action films like Stray Dogs. Why wouldn't he still get money? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Casshern Posted October 3, 2014 Member Share Posted October 3, 2014 He hasn't directed a feature film since 2009. I admit I'm one of the few people who like Assault Girls, but if we ignore that film, almost everything he had done up till then is a major or minor classic. He had also done brilliant live action films like Stray Dogs. Why wouldn't he still get money? Because he is boxoffice poison. Oshii is in charge of a very expensive project called Patlabor Next Generation and I don't think it will be able to recoup that money. On top of that he also made this movie with an international cast. He is mostly known as a anime director of expensive bombs like GITS 2 and The Sky Crawlers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted October 3, 2014 Author Member Share Posted October 3, 2014 Because he is boxoffice poison. Oshii is in charge of a very expensive project called Patlabor Next Generation and I don't think it will be able to recoup that money. On top of that he also made this movie with an international cast. He is mostly known as a anime director of expensive bombs like GITS 2 and The Sky Crawlers. Why do you think those films bombed? Sky Crawlers made back its production budget in Japanese theaters alone, and keep in mind most of the money for titles like this are in the worldwide dvd market. It wasn't a major hit, but is seems to have made quite a bit of profit in the long run. GitS2 didn't do as well in Japan, it made about 60% of its budget back in Japanese theaters, but then again, GitS has never been very popular in Japan, so even more than with Sky Crawlers, the target market was foreign dvd distribution. Most likely it made its money back and a small profit as well, seeing it's a popular title with dvd releases around the world. I don't know what's the case with Patlabor, but half of it hasn't been released yet, including the movie. The episodes are still coming to theaters as planned, I see the DVDs and BDs in stores, and the movie is coming next year. Patlabor wouldn't affect to Garm Wars, though, as I think the project started long before Patlabor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member tdb Posted October 4, 2014 Member Share Posted October 4, 2014 What you've got here is a Japanese Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Casshern Posted October 14, 2014 Member Share Posted October 14, 2014 Why do you think those films bombed? Sky Crawlers made back its production budget in Japanese theaters alone, and keep in mind most of the money for titles like this are in the worldwide dvd market. It wasn't a major hit, but is seems to have made quite a bit of profit in the long run. GitS2 didn't do as well in Japan, it made about 60% of its budget back in Japanese theaters, but then again, GitS has never been very popular in Japan, so even more than with Sky Crawlers, the target market was foreign dvd distribution. Most likely it made its money back and a small profit as well, seeing it's a popular title with dvd releases around the world. I don't know what's the case with Patlabor, but half of it hasn't been released yet, including the movie. The episodes are still coming to theaters as planned, I see the DVDs and BDs in stores, and the movie is coming next year. Patlabor wouldn't affect to Garm Wars, though, as I think the project started long before Patlabor. Suzuki(GITS 2 producer) would disagree, he even admited it in some interviews. The anime market had a crash in 2008, people in the west prefers to watch anime for free in the net and even before that the creators hardly saw any money. Sky Crawlers is a movie that nobody in the west cared about, It wasn't a landmark like the first GITS movie was. Patlabor is an expensive project with a very limited audience in the west. It looks too cheap thanks to the Digital Camera and on top of that Chapter 1 got very poor reviews from Japanese fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted October 25, 2014 Author Member Share Posted October 25, 2014 Review: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/garm-wars-last-druid-tokyo-743570 Some people on twitter have been less kind "GARM WARS: THE LAST DRUID... Stick a fork in Oshii, he's DONE." - Don Brown "Do you remember how bad, stupid and ugly are Zack Snyder movies ? Well… Oshii's 'GARM WARS The Last Druid' is that bad." - Uzaigaijin "Mamoru Oshii's GARM WARS: THE LAST DRUID felt a bit like watching Final Fantasy cut-scenes while really drunk." - James Hadfield "Just saw GARM WARS. I, um, err... what??" - Matt Schley Then again, the last guy also goes on to say it'a about the same quality as Oshii's other live action films. Keep in mind he has done some brilliant live action work before, like Stray Dogs, which is a near-masterpiece but unfortunately hated by most Oshii fans who complain it doesn't have enough robots and action and they were bored by it. I think it's the second best thing Oshii has ever made (after Ghost in the Shell). My fellow Finnish film reviewer, who's a major scifi and genre film specialist, also saw Garm Wars in Tokyo and said it was "pretty awesome". In other words, looking forward to this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted November 7, 2014 Moderator Share Posted November 7, 2014 The guys over at Twitch have given this one a pretty damning review - http://twitchfilm.com/2014/11/tokyo-2014-review-garm-wars-the-last-druid-mamoru-oshii-delivers-magic-dogs-amidst-turgid-fantasy.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted April 6, 2015 Author Member Share Posted April 6, 2015 Oshii's live action Patlabor movie doesn't look that bad. I never bothered with the series as the trailers failed to spark much interest, but this might be worth seeing. 4KGWH-aZz7g I'm much more looking forward to Garm Wars, though. Unfortunately no release date or anything since the TIFF screening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted October 12, 2015 Moderator Share Posted October 12, 2015 This is going to be hitting US DVD on November 3rd - http://www.cityonfire.com/mamoru-oshii-suits-up-for-the-last-druid-garm-wars/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted December 19, 2017 Author Member Share Posted December 19, 2017 Either I have forgotten to post my thoughts on this one too, or they've gone missing with some forum crash. Anyway... Garm Wars: The Last Druid (Japan, 2014) [DCP] - 3/5 Mamoru Oshii's live action sci-fi fantasy was quite universally panned upon its release. That wasn't necessarily for no reason, but as usual with Oshii films, I found it quite interesting. Oshii has created an entire fantasy universe with its own mythology, strange creatures, odd technology and confusing terminology. It takes a bit of effort from the viewer to even get a grasp of what's going on. It could be described as cheap CGI fantasy - it is a far cry from the likes of Ghost in the Shell - but it's strangely watchable at the same time. It certainly feels like an Oshii film, and the Kenji Kawai's score is beautiful as usual. Mélanie St-Pierre, Lance Henriksen and Kevin Durand star - yep, it's an English language movie. I still might not dare to recommend it to anyone, though. btw, some reviews state 102 min as the running time, but I don't think such version actually exists. I think the 92 minute Japanese version is the only version that was ever made. Tokyo Int. Film Fest (where the film premiered in 2014) page also states 92 minutes. Also, as a bit of trivia, they released both English and Japanese spoken versions in theatres in Japan. I went to see the original English version of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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