brunoafh123 This film is not for everyone. It is not even for all fans of Mamoru Oshii necessarily. It is extremely bizarre, often seemingly incomprehensible, very unpredictable, and a mix of several genres that is not necessarily seamless. It seems that most of the negative reactions to it are from viewers that were expecting something more in line with Jin-Roh, and being that it is supposed to be part of that saga, this isn't exactly a wild conclusion to make. However, it is quite different from Jin-Roh and other Kerebos related works. It is possibly Oshii's most bizarre work to date, and although not completely different than Jin-Roh, still a different beast. Mostly, I would urge viewers not to go into this expecting the heavy doses of action delivered in his anime works.For what it is, the production values are quite good. Most of the film is shot in black and white, but it is one of those movies where this helps the tone and it feels natural. The opening sequence is an over the top action scene in color where the main characters mow down a bunch of bounty hunters with their gigantic machine guns and power armor, but after that it is mostly straight surrealism layered with general insanity. The tone shifts frequently and leaves you never knowing what to expect. You just never know if you are going to get an action scene, comedy gags, or long sequences of social commentary... which are sometimes intertwined with action and comedy.Red Spectacles is one of the finest works of surrealism I have seen. The feeling it evokes is very unique and stayed with me for days. It bounces between noir drama, gun fights, kung fu, suspense, tragedy, slapstick comedy, and set piece driven sequences without any given indication. It is a wild ride that will take you off guard, for better or for worse. It is steeped quite heavily in symbolism as usual with his films, but I feel that this is one of his best deliveries in terms of that. The ending is incredibly powerful in particular, and paired with Kenji Kawai's brilliant soundtrack, and the outlandish landscapes, ended up being straight up haunting. The OST is absolutely one of Kenji Kawai's finest scores as well, and I do not say that lightly as I hold his work in the highest regard. The epic main theme is unforgettable, and the movie would not have been what it is without him.Lastly, Shigeru Chiba's performance is simply amazing. You may know of him from his anime voice acting career. I assure you that the film is at very least worth watching for his over the top and ridiculous performance. He is honestly even more entertaining on screen than he is as a voice actor, it would have been great to see him in more live action films. He single handledly brings the film alive and makes it even more than it could have been. His performance here is reminiscent of Tomorowo Taguchi's acting in the films of Shinya Tsukamoto.Love it or hate it, I guarantee you will never forget it.

vrkolak666 I learned about the existence of this movie after watching Ghost In The Shell. Being a fan of the franchise, I thought other work from Mamoru Oshii would be at least as good. So, I stumbled upon Red Spectacles. Inspired by "1984" it said, so my interest was picking up. And then I watched it and was left disappointed, to say the least.I'm not going to say why I like Ghost.. because this review will turn into review of the anime. Japanese anime and movies have tendencies to confuse the one watching more often than not, and while this is not always a good thing, there is always something that grips you to try to understand it. This movie is just confusing, and there never is a sign that something is going to happen that will explain things. It's just more confusing junk piling over at every corner, intertwined by pretentious quoting of Shakespeare and toilet humor.Yes, toilet humor. There are scenes actually when the protagonist is struck by diarrhea. While the first time this happens it is amusing and you can attribute it to the quirkiness of Japanese culture, but by the third time you come to question the the director's fascination with it.Second thing i don't get is why is considered dystopian, Orwellian, and other words connected with that meaning. At the beginning, it really sets the story in that direction. But by the end, (here come spoilers), you realize it may all be happening in the protagonists head. So why exactly am i watching this? It reminds me of another also pretentious western movie with Tim Robbins now that i think about it...The only thing that made me give this movie 4/10 is the visual style, witch were this a different movie with actual plot would be great, and the score by Kenji Kawai. Besides that, nothing makes this movie worth your time.

Gordon Cheatham (cheathamg) I watched the trilogy by Mamoru Oshii. The words surreal, Orwellian and Kafkaesque come to mind. However, despite all their bizarre aspects I believe they are essentially jokes. The darkness was there as a chiaroscuro backdrop to highlight the humor. The first, Red Spectacles, is about a man who can not let go of his past not matter how painful and dangerous it was because he never felt more alive that when he was facing death. The second, Stray Dog, shows that man during an interim period when he seems to be almost at peace, being brought back to that death-seeking modus operandi which precipitates the events of the first film. The third film, Talking Head, while not directly related to the events of the first two, does refer back to them as a man attempts to create truth out of illusion. The idea is that film, as an art form, is essentially an exercise in madness and that illusion is finally a higher truth, an idea that was touched on in the first film. But it is the humor that is Oshii's ultimate goal. He doesn't want to make highly significant pronouncements on the nature of humanity and reality. He just wants to tell a story, and if the story is funny, all the better. I suppose that many parallels could be drawn between Oshii's work and that of Philip K. Dick.

Wetbones RED SPECTACLES starts typically enough for an Oshii film. First of all it is based on the same manga that much later inspired JIN-ROH so the power suits seen right at the beginning of SPECTACLES will look very familiar to those who've seen that later film. It is also shot in a very desaturated way, kind of similar to AVALON in how it is almost monochromatic. In a series of texts on screen we are introduced to a future world where an elite police force has just been disbanded and forced to disarm. Three officers refused to give up their weapons and it's their fate that this film will mostly be about. They hole up in a dilapidated building and are soon attacked by dozens of civilians who are out to collect the bounty that has been put on their heads. However, with their superior guns they mow them down like so much corn at the time of reaping. But still, only one of them can continue his escape as the other two (a man and a woman) are badly wounded. They make him promise that he'll eventually return and he's off.The rest of the film is about his return and his adventures in a very changed city. But I was in for a big surprise! If I thought this would be a typically gloomy and melancholic Oshii film at the beginning I soon realized with utter amazement that this is one hell of a weird hybrid of a film. Yes, there are a lot of typical Oshii-esquire moments of philosophizing and melancholy but for every such scene you get one in which the hero suffers from diarrhea and runs around making silly faces while looking for a toilet. There are a total of 3 (!!!) scenes of that in the film and they are acted, filmed and scored (by the once again brilliant Kenji Kawai) like a post-modern Japanese take on LAUREL & HARDY. And to make things even stranger there are also entire scenes set on a theatrical stage! Oshii resorts to simply filming the actors acting like they were in a play, sometimes even resorting to pantomime! Awesome, just awesome! Then, towards the end of the film it takes a turn for the surreal that I won't spoil but it involves a girl who may or may not represent fate, BLADE RUNNER skylines and the mysterious contents of a suitcase.Well, what can I say? When I popped in this DVD I expected Oshii's patented brand of beautiful and cultivated tedium but instead I got what could possibly be described as a bizarre hybrid of URUSEI YATSURA and GHOST IN THE SHELL with elements of the films of David Lynch thrown in for good measure. I found the film to be extremely ahead of the time it was made in. Even after 15 years RED SPECTACLES still feels fresh and intriguing and thoroughly modern. Which is only further testament to the genius of Mamoru Oshii, who is simply one of the most exciting filmmakers to emerge out of Asia in the last 2 decades.