Tag: Metrograph

The Red Spectacles Restored! And Celebrating Mamoru Oshii’s Kerberos Saga

Mamoru Oshii’s The Red Spectacles returns in a striking 4K restoration that reveals just how strange, abrasive, and foundational it is to the Kerberos Saga. Part neo-noir, part absurdist fever dream, it plays like a dark mirror to knightly orders and Orwellian authority, stitched together by one of Kenji Kawai’s most playful scores.

The Red Spectacles OriginalMetrograph Showtimes:

  • Nov 22 8:15pm
  • Nov 23 9:00pm
  • Nov 26 8:20pm

Distributor: Small Sensations!

Anyone unfamiliar with Mamoru Oshii’s Kerberos Saga may wonder where to begin. The franchise sprawls across anime, radio dramas, manga, and live-action films, making its chronology look more like a web than a line. For my part, I believe the journey starts most powerfully with The Red Spectacles. Its recent 4K restoration—debuting at The Metrograph and perhaps also courting other art houses down the road—offers the perfect opportunity to revisit this strange, brooding cornerstone of Oshii’s world. There’s hardly any grain in sight!

To experience this work on the big screen is essential. The Japanese crowdfunding campaign (via Motion Gallery) performed remarkably well, reflecting both local enthusiasm and international curiosity. And for viewers whose entry point was Jin-Roh—as mine was—this neo-noir odyssey feels shockingly raw. More grounded. More abrasive. Visceral in ways that anime, by its nature, softens.

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Mamoru Oshii at the Metrograph. A Cinematic Tribute to a Master

Metrograph honours Mamoru Oshii with restorations of Angel’s Egg and The Red Spectacles, plus influences from Tarkovsky to Yamatoya. It’s a must see for fans of this master auteur!

Mamoru OshiiVenue: Metrograph, 7 Ludlow St, New York
Dates: November 15–23

Among anime fans, Mamoru Oshii stands apart for his singular art-house aesthetic. Though most know him as a director, understanding the depth of his writing means looking closely at his filmography. Angel’s Egg remains his first truly original work, while Urusei Yatsura: Only You (1983) and Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer (1984) were where his unique voice first began to shine. From there, his contributions to some of the most influential anime of the 90s cemented his reputation as a visionary.

With Avalon (2001), Oshii explored the harmful effects of virtual reality long before it became a plaything of today, and parts of that story (written by Kazunori Itō) resonate. Through its existential themes, he explored what it means to live and dream inside a machine—ideas that would echo throughout science-fiction cinema for decades.
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