Angel's Egg© is a Japanese art film original video animation written and directed by Mamoru Oshii. Released by Tokuma Shoten on December 15, 1985, the film was a collaboration between artist Yoshitaka Amano and Oshii. It was the first original project by Oshii and carries themes found in his other works. Angel's Egg features very little spoken dialogue and a story that is strongly allegorical which has led to many viewers being confused about the film's supposed meaning. The film uses Biblical allusions and has been described as a cult classic by many viewers.
The surrealist world of Angel's Egg is desolate and devoid of the bustle of traditional everyday life. Instead, the world is filled with ominous phenomena, including floating orbs populated with statues of goddesses, a seashore, a mysterious mechanical sun, gargantuan army tanks that seem to move unmanned, armies of fishermen who chase after the shadows of nonexistent fish, and caverns solely decorated with glass vessels of water.
In this run-down world, a young girl scavenges for food and drink and takes care of a large egg, which she believes will hatch into an angel. She encounters a mysterious man disembarking from a tank, with a cross over his shoulder, who soon becomes curious about who she is and what her egg contains. They decide to explore the lost and broken landscape together, questioning each other about the nature of faith, the purpose of the world, and the origins of their lives.
"I've seen a tree like this somewhere... When was it? So long ago that I've forgotten... Under a sky where the clouds made sound as they moved. The black horizon swelled and from it grew a huge tree. It sucked the life from the ground... And it's pulsing branches reached up, as if to grasp something...""
"You have to break an egg if you are to know what is inside."
"Keep precious things inside you or you will lose them."
