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Welcome to Nine Sisters - a site dedicated to Mamoru Oshii's magnificent movie
Avalon intended particularly for fans of the movie in the UK.

To navigate around the site click in the image map above. To get back to this
page click on the section of the site you're in to go back up the page tree.
Follow this link for a plain text version of the same information. In some cases
there's slightly more information on the textual pages, so take a look at those
too even if you can see the images.

Latest News!

24-Jun-2008

Thanks to Ashley Hibbert for providing this link to his analysis and comparison
of The Matrix and Avalon. It's on a blog page, so go add your comments!

04-Apr-2008

Added some "pet theories" from D Burnham

02-Apr-2008

Two new items today... both other on the thoughts page one from Artur, the
second from Scott Butler. One is on the naming of Bishop, and the other shares
some more ideas about some of the weaponry and how it's used by Ash

15-Jan-2008

Happy New Year everyone, and it's going to be particularly happy if you have a
Bluray high definition DVD player... Nicholas Milham sends news of a Japanese
Bluray release and associated (quite lengthy) review. It's at -
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews34/avalon_blu-ray.htm

29-Sep-2007

(Yes... the site is still alive, though unsurprisingly the rate of flow of
information has dropped to almost zero) This from John Page:

Ruh, Brian: Stray Dog of Anime: The Films of Mamoru Oshii. (Palgrave Macmillan
Div. of St Martin's Press, New York and Houndmills,;Basingstoke, Hampshire,
England; 2004). pp. 165-184 (Ch. 8). "Brian Ruh is (2004) a Ph. D. student in
the Department of Communications and Culture, indiana University, USA. He is
webmaster of AnimeResearch dot com, a website dedicated to the analysis of
Japanese popular culture." (from the back cover notes of the book) Mr. Ruh holds
the film in high regard.

21-Jul-2006 - Added some thoughts from 'Dr'

01-May-2006: Added excerpts from Gérard Kraus' dissertation on the Quest For
Interactivity as part of MA in Science Fiction Studies on the Thoughts page

25-Apr-26: Added some thoughts on parallels with Stanislaw Lem from Arkadiusz
Danilecki

14-Mar-2006: Added an analysis of the Arthurian aspects of the movie to the
Thoughts page by Andrew King. Thanks to Andrew and everyone else who's
contributed over the past months and years. If you're thinking of sending
something in (and please do!) let me know if you give permission to add the item
to the web site - I'll only put things on once I have an explicit permission to
publish.

05-Mar-2006: Doug Richardson has noted more connections between the game
Wizardry and the story of Avalon. See the Thoughts page for more...

26-Jan-2006: I'm a bit late posting this, but in my defence life has been a
little frantic of late. Rest assured, it's a temporary situation and I'll
continue to update the site with any news that comes in. The BBC recently showed
a series called Jonathan Ross' Asian Invasion looking at the impact and
developement of Asian cinema. The first episode includes an interview with
Mamoru Oshii. Most of it dwells on GITS or GITS2: Innocence, but one Avalon
question is posed - that of the dog's disappearence. Oshii says that he inserts
himself in his films as the dog so that he can look around the environment he
has created. In the case of Ash the dog became unneccessary, and probably never
existed outside of Ash's perceptions. Ross describes the transition into Class
Real as reaching reality, though most opinion on the Thoughts page - mine
included - is that Class Real is simply a better level of simulation; something
clearly (to me) proved by the effect when Murphy is shot rather than dieing in
front of Ash. In any case, this does back up the theories that say that the
whole movie is shot from Ash's POV, from the static clouds and people in the
tram to the dogs that are mobile and the lush colours in the food. As a total
aside, I've recently been reading Masamune Shirow's sequel to GITS, and if you
think Oshii does oblique, Shirow takes it further!

10-Jan 2006: No sooner do I write that things have quietened down than another
item comes in for the Thoughts page, from Simon Friend this time

06-Jan-2006: While things have certainly quietened down, several years after
Avalon's release, people are still coming to the film for the first time and
finding those same puzzles that many of us have been pondering for some while.
One such is Kalmar Nagy Andras, whose experiences have just been added to the
Thoughts page

28-Jul-2005: Added some thoughts from Craig Tallentire

16-Jul-2005: Thanks to Linus Kerley for the latest addition to the Thoughts page

09-Jul 2005: I was recently re-reading Gérard Kraus' essay (linked to from the
Thoughts page) about whether Avalon can be considered a cult film. Now that
we're some years on from the film's release, I think we can consider another
criteria for cult status met - the film continues to attract new interest and
new admirers. This leads me on today's update - some thoughts from Nelson Giron;
see the Thoughts page for more. I'm aware the Thoughts page is getting a little
large, but at the moment haven't really decided what to do about it... I don't
want to turn it into an index page with lots of links, and I rather like the
current blog-like format. Something to ponder...

16 Jun 2005: Avalon continues to gain new fans even now, several years after its
release. Some thoughts from Nicola Micheletti have just been added - I recommend
reading them

09 Jun 2005: Added some thoughts from Aniket Jaaware

16 May 2005: Added some thoughts from Steve Franklin

22 Apr 2005: Added an item to the Thoughts page from Vadim Solomonik.

There appears to be a pirate single disc DVD around also claiming to be a
Memorial Edition. More details when I get to check it over. Here's a quick
reminder of the position around the Memorial Edition(s). The authentic one is a
two disc set complete with two books. One book is part of the packaging, the
other is inside one of the Amaray cases. This is long out of print but a few
places still have stock. It's not cheap though... expect to pay around US$100 or
more. There is a four disc set which I'm still unsure about because it has
material I've not seen anywhere else (eg new navigation on Gate To Avalon to
'hidden' features). Lastly there's the single disk. I haven't seen the single
disk yet, but in discussion with someone who bought it it seems fairly clear it
is a pirate due to poor production standards.

26 Feb 2005: Updated the thoughts page with another instance where the Ghost
appears in the movie

25 Feb 2005: Thanks to Gérard Kraus for reporting the release of Avalon on DVD
for Region 4 (with the disc also coded for Region 2). Details are on the DVD
page. It looks like a fairly standard release. Here's a link to it on CD WOW
(usual comments - not a recommendation, your mileage may very etc etc)

09 Feb 2005: Thanks to Wojciech Kosmala for alerting me to a four disc Memorial
Box which is currently available. To be honest I cannot tell whether it's a
pirate or not, so I've given it the benefit of the doubt for now. If anyone can
confirm for sure either way I'd appreciate it. There are details of this set on
the DVD page

28 Oct 2004: Added some more thoughts from Kathy to the Thoughts page

26 Oct 2004: Thanks to Paul Wilson for passing this link along:
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/04/oshii.html

19 Oct 2004: Added some new items to the Thoughts page following an exchange of
emails with Gordon Clason

18 Oct 2004: Added details for the UK Region 2 DVD to the DVD page. The short
version is - much as rumoured/reported below. I also have some new material for
the thoughts page which I'll put up later this week - this is a "stop press"
update to get the DVD details out

08 Oct 2004: Added some thoughts from Ollie McDaniel

02 Oct 2004: I've found a few more sites that confirm a two disc release (so
maybe I'm going to be proved wrong about the content of the release. That said,
I still can't find any more about what is going to be on the disc. More info
welcomed!

02 Oct 2004: dvdtimes.co.uk reports that the UK release will be a two disc set,
but doesn't have any more information on extras beyond what's noted below. The
catalogue number is BLD24 for DVD (and BL24 for VHS).

29 Sep 2004: play.com has a bit more about the R2 UK Avalon DVD now, but it's
not particularly good news. Polish language with English subtitles (ie not the
R1 English dub of the US disc). There's a faint chance of these being new
English subtitles, but I have my doubts judging by the rest of this information.
No mention of sound formats, so don't expect the Polish DTS soundtrack. The
extras are spartan too - Making Of and Avalon SFX with no mention of whether
they've been subtitled in English. Compared with some of the other Canal+ group
releases (BlueLight, the UK distributor, is part of the group and I think
Cineart are too) this is very much a poor cousin (compare the French releases
for instance). Release date is 18 Oct and running time is 102 minutes (ie no
cuts, which is expected after it got a 12 certificate from the BBFC for cinema
exhibition). I have the disc on pre-order and will update the DVD page once I've
got the disc. At the moment the best disc remains the Korean one, providing you
have a multi-region DVD player. The US R1 disc also merits a mention for its
English dub and additional dialogue.

27 Sep 2004: IMPORTANT... Please note that the Bluelight site below (see entry
on Sep 6) is seriously out of date. When it talks about a first UK showing it's
referring to a couple of years ago! Although Avalon tends to show periodically
in film festivals and the like there's not much chance of seeing it in a cinema
now... but it's not long until the UK DVD edition comes out. I have it on
pre-order so I'll update the DVD page as soon as I get my hands on the disc.

14 Sep 2004: At long long last a UK DVD release of Avalon is coming. It is
currently listed on play.com with no information about extras and listed as
Polish language, English subtitles. The release is mid-October - extra
information welcomed!

6 Sep 2004: Two more Avalon sites to visit. The first,
http://www.avalonthemovie.com/, is Bluelight's site for the UK first showing of
Avalon a couple of years ago. The second which I thought I'd already mentioned
here in past news is Cineart's which was launched to co-incide with the DVD
release in Belgium. The site is at http://www.avalon-movie.com.

6 Sep 2004: That coming-soon item mentioned before hasn't come through yet, but
what I do have today is information from Marcel Smetsers on two Dutch editions
of Avalon. This reminds me - if anyone's got news/rumours about a UK release -
please share them.

10 Jul 2004: Look out soon for a new item on the thoughts page. In the meantime
Kathy has found a site that discussess themes running through Oshii's films -
see what you think! The page is http://www.evilnet.net/~jhfong/amv/rain/

28 Jun 2004: Added a couple more thoughts from Kathy, this time thinking about
the relevance of the dog(s) and Ash's gradual acquisition of clothing and
accoutrements as she leaves the terminal in Class Real

26 Jun 2004: Added a new item to the Thoughts page from Kathy - continuity
error, or something deliberate - what do you think?

6 Jun 2004: Added links to two essays by Gérard Kraus from the thoughts page

4 Jun 2004: Gérard Kraus reports that Avalon will have a showing on German TV
next week - 13 June at 20:15 on the German Sci-Fi channel. Interestingly the
film is titled "Avalon - play for your life"

31 May 2004: Added some Thoughts contributed by Paul Beentjes

05 May 2004: Apologies for the lack of updates for a while - I've been moving
home. Two items that came in whilst I was between houses have now been added to
the thoughts page.

27 Feb 2004: Added some more thoughts from a correspondent who prefers to be
anonymous, but sees parallels beyond the Arthurian theme into the entire realm
of chivalrous (or otherwise) behaviour. Also added a passing observation from
one of my friends that bears some further thought.

07 Feb 2004: Not one but two treats today! Lucas Worwag has contributed a new
original translation from the Polish spoken dialogue and James Byrne has
performed an exhaustive translation effort working from the various Japanese
sources (spoken, subtitles, and materials in the Memorial Box set). You can find
the results on their efforts on the script page.

22 Dec 2003: My own copy of the R1 version turned up today. DVD details updated,
and commentary on the disc and English dub is on the thoughts page. In summary,
it's the first English dub, is a pretty job of it, but has some subtle
differences from the original. There are no cuts that I noticed, though it has
an R rating (as compared to the UK where it's a 12A).

17 Dec 2003: Stephen Norris has sent in details of the R1 version - they're on
the DVD page. More details will follow when my own disc arrives.

14 Nov 2003: After a very quiet period for news, Alex Seltsikas reports that a
R1 DVD of Avalon is now listed on Movietyme, Play.com, Amazon and other
retailers. More interestingly some of these sources are reporting it has having
an English dub - which would be new. Whether this is Neil Gaiman project, which
was thought to have died, or something else remains to be seen! I will add DVD
details to the DVD page once they are confirmed.

22 July 2003: Vogel's Polish transcription is now available here.

21 July 2003: Vogel has produced a Polish transciption of the dialogue which I
hope to add here soon. He has also compared that with the English subtitiles -
see the script page for the comparisons.

18 July 2003: Avalon Preloaded 67% is an unofficial fan movie set before the
events of the film. See http://www.avalon.plan9.art.pl/main_e.html

5 July 2003: Updated information on the books page

1 July 2003: The Sonmay CD is also a pirate edition. Again, see
http://www.digital.anime.org.uk/piratefaq.html. (Mar 2009 - that link is
currently dead, instead there's some general information at
http://www.filmposters.com/articles/anime.asp)

25 June 2003: The Anime Cartoon DVD of Avalon is now conifirmed as a pirate
edition. See http://www.digital.anime.org.uk/piratefaq.html. (Mar 2009 - that
link is currently dead, instead there's some general information at
http://www.filmposters.com/articles/anime.asp)

19 June 2003: René recounts an interview in which Oshii says that Avalon came
about as a result of the Wachowskis being influenced by anime, especially Ghost
In The Shell with the Matrix series. If you've seen GITS and Matrix the
similarities are unmistakable. She also passed on the URL for a site with an
interview with Oshii: http://www.shift.jp.org/051/avalon/

14 June 2003: Duncan Foster recommends Stalker as another film in a similar vein
to Avalon that might have been an influence upon it. He writes...Stalker (1979)
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky

Near a gray and unnamed city is The Zone, an alien place guarded by barbed wire
and soldiers. Over his wife's strenuous objections, a man rises in the dead of
night: he's a stalker, one of a handful who have the mental gifts (and who risk
imprisonment) to lead people into The Zone to The Room, a place where one's
secret hopes come true. That night, he takes two people into The Zone: a popular
writer who is burned out, cynical, and questioning his genius; and, a quiet
scientist more concerned about his knapsack than the journey. In the deserted
Zone, the approach to The Room must be indirect. As they draw near, the rules
seem to change and the stalker faces a crisis. http://us.imdb.com/Title?0079944
I could see how this film could've influenced Oshii. It has similar themes, its
very slow in pace... There's also a dramatic shift in colour schemes, the first
30 minutes is shot in monochromatic sepia-toned grey, and then it suddenly
changes into colour when they enter the Zone.

7 June 2003: Added comments from Ben-Rudiak Gould around the subtitle
translation compared with the Japanese version of the continuity script included
in the Memorial box DVD. I hope to add more comments from Ben in due course, and
I'm still looking for more people to help with checking out all the subtitles
against either the Polish soundtrack or the oiginal Japanese of the script.
Please get in touch if you can help! Click here to read Ben's comments.

18 May 2003: Added some comments from Chris Pope.

18 March 2003: Added some thoughts from Tom Box and details from him of the the
single disc Emotion edition of Avalon.

26 February 2003: Added some thoughts from Mart Kont. Added DVD-ROM content
detail for the Belgian DVD courtesy of Etienne Bruggen.

25 February 2003: Can YOU help? I am always nervous about the accuracy of
translation of subtitled films, and with something as subtle as Avalon the
nuances of the language are potentially very significant. If you can translate
Polish to English, and would be willing to do a translation of the spoken
dialogue in Avalon please get in touch. Likewise, if you can translate written
Japanese I'd like to hear from you!

19 February 2003: First update after the great server crash of February 16!
Added some thoughts by Stuart Bray around the naming of the characters.

16 February 2003: Xavier Amet mailed me to explain a bit more about the French
sites. In fact the new French site is the same one as previous, but relaunched
under a new domain name. I've updated the web sites page to include this
information and also the URL for Xavier's Avalon site within his own site. I've
also put a graphic back on the DVD page to make navigating the site easier.

04 January 2003: Replaced the old DVD image pages with a new table summarising
the differences between most of the known editions of the film (I've not
included the French standard edition, since I consider the Collector's edition
much better). The table now includes details of the Korean Special Edition,
which provides a successor to the Memorial Box as the best version available
currently with English subtitles (and the Polish DTS soundtrack), though it's a
Region 3 NTSC edition. There's still currently no PAL edition with English
subtitles or the DTS soundtrack.

03 January 2003: Benjamin Färber provided this information about the German
disc, which confirms that it's quite spartan compared to some of the other
European DVD releases:-

Sound: German and Polish Dolby Digital 5.1. Subtitles: German. Runtime: 102
minutes (normal). Format: 1:1.85 (16:9 anamorphic) RC 2 / PAL. Specials
Features: Trailer (German and Polish) and a game. The game is played using the
left, up/down and right-button on the remote to "kill" people. The German
commission that rates Movies gave the movie a FSK 12 (suitable for People 12 and
older) and the DVD as a whole a FSK 18 (because of the game :-) ). For more
visit this site (German language) or amazon.de.

15 December 2002: Xavier Amet's French site has an analysis page about the film
which puts forward some ideas which make sense to me. I've added a summary of
his ideas to the Thoughts page, though a visit to the original is well
recommended.

8 December 2002: Thanks to Alex Seltsikas for passing on the info that DVD Zone
2 now have the Belgian disc listed. It has DTS and the usual extras, but like
the French DVD doesn't have any English subtitles on it. At the moment the best
disc with English on it looks like the Special Edition (see below). The best
edition overall is currently the French Collector's Edition which also includes
the soundtrack CD of the film on a seperate disc (ie it's two DVDs plus a CD).

7 December 2002: More DVD news... The Belgian 'official' Avalon site now refers
to a DVD. This is a new DVD release with cover artwork I've not seen before, and
is definitely a new release because it has the URL for the Belgian site on the
cover. I've not been able to actually find this disc for sale anywhere, so if
anyone tracks it down please let me know. The Memorial Box edition looks to have
been discontinued on schedule back in July, but a consolation prize is now
available in the form of a Region 3 Special Edition which lists most of the
extras plus the Polish DTS soundtrack which I thought was going to be on the
French edition. The Special Edition is listed at Movietyme, though they don't
have much detail about it. There's more detail about it at www.dvdasian.com. As
usual sites mentioned here don't constitute recommendations, but I've had no
trouble with Movietyme myself and have never used DVDAsian. I've just been
exploring the French Collector's Edition... it's a treat with a lot of extra
content and a local copy of another official site for the film, in French. I'm
impressed by the French edition!

30 November 2002: The French DVD release does NOT have the DTS soundtrack on it.
It does however have most of the extras from both Memorial and Anime Cartoon
two-disc editions. The menus are very nicely done, and if the eventual UK
release matches this standard we'll be in for a treat. By contrast the German
edition looks like it's going to be very spartan.

13 November 2002: Avalon has seen a number of reviews this week, and is
currently at a cinema in London's West End. Cambridge Arts Picture House will be
showing it again for a week from Jan 10th 2003 - hopefully this is part of a
more general UK release. A piece on Neil Gaiman's web site now suggests that his
work on Avalon probably won't see light of day. A new 'official' Avalon site has
come into being, serving the releases across Europe. The interview with Oshii is
particularly recommended reading. the site assumes Flash though. The French and
German Amazon sites both list Avalon now. There are two French versions, with
the more complete adding the soundtrack CD. Some sites are reporting that the
French DVD will have the Polish DTS soundtrack, so providing another way to
obtain it for those who missed out on the Japanese Memorial Edition. No sign of
a UK DVD release yet, but let's hope for something with plenty of extras!

Introduction

I saw Avalon first in July 2002 during the Cambridge Film Festival. 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. My
favourites aren't always mainstream - Angel Cop is probably my #2.

Avalon is a movie set in the near future about a player (Ash) of an illegal
virtual reality game (called Avalon) who seeks the way to a special level where
a former friend (lover?) has become trapped mentally leaving his body as a
vegetable. I've tried to be concise there, and lost a lot of the flavour. Try
this, from the film's opening, instead:

The near future. Some people deal with their disillusionment by seeking out
illusions of their own - in an illegal virtual reality war game. Its simulated
thrills and deaths are compulsive and addictive. Some players, working in teams
called 'parties' even earn their living from the game. The game has its dangers.
Sometimes it can leave a player brain-dead, needing constant medical care. Such
victims are called 'unreturned'. The game is named after the legendary island
where the souls of departed heroes come to rest: Avalon.

Avalon is not Ghost In The Shell though, although it touches on some similar
ideas - it is another exploration of reality and just whose perspective you're
looking at it from. Where it differs significantly is that Avalon is not an
animated film. It's live, filmed in Poland with a Polish/Japanese crew and
Polish actors. That said, it has been extensively post-processed to apply colour
draining, highlighting and special effects.

This may sound a little reminiscent of the Matrix, and the two are in similar
enough territory that it's hard to resist comparisons, However Avalon is two
things Matrix is not. First, it's a very introspective, thought-provoking film,
with no clear resolution and lots of questions to ponder along the way. Second,
although it has action sequences (and impressive they are too, with genuine
military hardware from the Polish army) it's not a VR action film even though
the trailers might give that impression.

It's a case where the whole is a worthy sum of its parts: a thought-provoking
story which resists the Hollywood urge to explain everything; excellent casting
and acting; settings which truly complement the story; and a soundtrack where
Kenji Kawai shows his ability to turn his skills to composing an orchestral and
choral soundtrack that fits perfectly with the film.

The rights for the film have been bought by Miramax, so there will presumably be
a theatrical release at some point. It's reported that Neil Gaiman will be
working on the script. It may be dubbed since the original dialogue is in
Polish, but I really hope not. I also hope Hollywood resists the urge to try to
fill in the areas that have been deliberately left vague. In the meantime
though, Avalon is becoming a favourite at film festivals, and is already
available on DVD and CD soundtrack. After seeing the film I wanted to own it on
DVD, and this site is intended as a one-stop information resource about what's
available about Avalon at the moment and where it can be bought from.

For the people who want the answers quickly, go to http://www.animebooks.com/
for the Making Of book, and http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/ for the soundtrack and DVD
memorial edition. The single disc DVD can be ordered from
http://www.movietyme.com/ This does not represent an endorsement of any of these
- I've used them successfully, but your mileage may vary. Keep an eye on eBay
too - the single and double DVDs show up quite often.

If you have any updates to the information here send me an email at web - at -
ninesisters - dot - org

Why ninesisters.org ? If you've seen the film you''ll get the reference :-)

Alan