Patlabor 1- the birds...
Arnold Kim
I just saw Patlabor 1 eaqrlier today and enjoyed it-but I have a question. There seem to be
a few important references to birds throughout the film-the one in the beginning, and
especially all those in the room in the scene near the end. Is there any signifigance to
them, or am I totally blowing this out of proportion?
Arnold Kim
wants to see Patlabor 2...
Saben2
Arnold Kim wrote:
there is some signifigance to the birds in the movie (maybe the
producers like birds?)because there are more birds in the second movie
O_--
--
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Robotech_Master
On Thu, 06 Nov 1997 20:48:50 -0500, Arnold Kim <ki...@erols.com> wrote:
> I just saw Patlabor 1 eaqrlier today and enjoyed it-but I have a
> question. There seem to be a few important references to birds
> throughout the film-the one in the beginning, and especially all
> those in the room in the scene near the end. Is there any
> signifigance to them, or am I totally blowing this out of
> proportion?
I heard from a post from someone else here a while back on the subject
that the birds are sort of a Japanese cultural reference. Here, and
in Patlabor 2, the birds are symbolic, an evil omen. At least, that's
what I seem to remember from that post.
--
Chris Meadows aka | http://www.eyrie.org/~robotech/index.html
Robotech_Master | -----------------------------------------
robo...@eyrie.org | Co-moderator, rec.games.mecha
robo...@jurai.net |
Tonybridge
>On Thu, 06 Nov 1997 20:48:50 -0500, Arnold Kim <ki...@erols.com> wrote:
>
>> I just saw Patlabor 1 eaqrlier today and enjoyed it-but I have a
>> question. There seem to be a few important references to birds
>> throughout the film-the one in the beginning, and especially all
>> those in the room in the scene near the end. Is there any
>> signifigance to them, or am I totally blowing this out of
>> proportion?
Two things, I think.
First, I've heard that birds are often used as messengers of heaven in either
buddhist or shinto (can't remember which) tradition.
The second thing (SPOILER WARNING FOR P1) is biblical, actually. In the opening
scene, when Eiichi Hoba jumps from the Ark, he releases a raven into the sky.
At the end of the movie, when Noa enters the control booth, she sees that same
raven (the one with Hoba's "666" ID tag), along with a gazillion seagulls that
seem to have flown in to take refuge from the typhoon.
In the Genesis account of the Deluge, Noah releases a raven from the ark to see
if the waters have begun to subside anywhere, but after a time, the raven
returns to the ark, because it still couldn't find anywhere else to land. If
Oshii's taking that image and giving it a more Japanese spin, maybe you can
see Hoba's raven as his soul (I think it's the story of Yamato Takeru where
the hero's soul leaves his body like a bird; cf: Windaria for more of that
imagery). But Hoba's bird returns to the ark at the end. Then as the ark
crumbles, there's that interesting shot of all the birds flying out of the
tower.
I think this is showing that Hoba's soul didn't find the escape it sought. All
the places in Tokyo that Hoba loved were being torn down and rebuilt, so his
soul, finding no rest, returns to the Ark. Then it's even kicked out of there.
All this is open to interpretation though, which is one of the things I love
about Oshii's movies. Because the bird imagery was *so* loaded in P1, I
thought it worked better there than in P2 (even though I think P2's better
overall). Anyway, I'm sure there's lots more I'm missing, though. Any other
interpretations?
--Daniel Huddleston
email: daniel(dot)(at sign thingy)telcores(dot)com
Deposit $0.25 for witty closing quotation.
Mark L. Neidengard
In article <346273...@erols.com>, Arnold Kim <ki...@erols.com> wrote:
>I just saw Patlabor 1 eaqrlier today and enjoyed it-but I have a question.
>There seem to be a few important references to birds throughout the film-the
>one in the beginning, and especially all those in the room in the scene near
>the end. Is there any signifigance to them, or am I totally blowing this out
>of proportion?
Oshii himself was asked that at AX96. His answer was that the birds constitute
the eyes of God watching over the acts of the characters in the story, silently
observing them amidst their travail. An "inner audience" as it were.
--
/!\/!ark /!\!eidengard, CS Grad, VLSI. http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/~mneideng
"Fairy of sleep, controller of illusions" Operator/Jack-of-all-Trades, CACR
"Control the person for my own purpose." "Don't mess with the Dark Elves!"
-Pirotess, _Record_of_Lodoss_War_ Shadowrunner and Anime Addict