Avalon is a live-action film directed by Mamoru Oshii (of Patlabor and Ghost in the Shell fame) and released in 2001. Besides that, the movie is Polish. Avalon, on the other hand, truly deserves the title “visionary”; its depth and visual style makes The Matrix look like little more than a student project. Avalon, not to be confused with a couple of unrelated though very good films with the same name, is a deeply haunting and powerful film, set in urban Poland, and directed by anime legend, director Mamoru Oshii. Avalon, Mamoru Oshii’s 2001 follow-up to the critically acclaimed Ghost in the Shell and his first live action film since 1992’s Talking Head, deals with the nature of reality in the near future.
Back then Talking Head, Stray Dog and The Red Spectacles were virtually unknown in the West, then again the mastery that Oshii put on display here … Of course, I wouldn’t expect anything cut and dried to come from Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Jin-Roh), who wrote and directed the film. When one of my friends mentioned the name Mamoru Oshii my ears pricked up - over the last couple of years I've been developing a taste for Anime and Ghost In The Shell was both a formative experience there and still one of my favourites. in the future world, young people are increasingly becoming addicted to an illegal (and potentially deadly) battle simulation game called Avalon. Avalon is directed by Mamoru Oshii.
Avalon was released in 2001, so given its similarities to The Matrix it's all too easy to write off as one of several rip-offs hoping to ride the coat tails of that film. Unlike his famous work Avalon is not an animated movie. It is a film about a battle …
Avalon (Japanese: アヴァロン, Hepburn: Avaron), also known as Gate to Avalon, is a 2001 Polish-language Japanese science fiction drama film directed by Mamoru Oshii and written by Kazunori Itō.The film stars Małgorzata Foremniak as Ash, a player in an illegal virtual reality video game whose sense of reality is challenged as she attempts to unravel the true nature and purpose of the game. I saw Avalon first in July 2002 during the Cambridge Film Festival. Asia exclusive release of Avalon, directed by Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell). It is a joint Japanese-Polish production: written and directed by Japanese but filmed in Poland with Polish actors speaking their native tongue. When Avalon was first released it was widely believed to be Mamoru Oshii's first live action film.
He is most famous for the Ghost in the Shell franchise, Angel's Egg, the Patlabor franchise and The Sky Crawlers.