.:: Hello World's ::.: Avalon

Avalon is a Japanese/Polish science fiction movie by Japanese filmmaker Mamoru Oshii. It was released in 2001. The name of the film originates from the island Avalon in the legend of King Arthur. The film is set in a bleak future, where the population is hooked on an immersive illegal virtual reality video game called Avalon. Despite its popularity the game can be deadly, leaving players' bodies catatonic in the real world. One player of the game, Ash (played by Polish actress Małgorzata Foremniak), hears of a secret level hidden within Avalon. The film follows her quest to find the level.

The film's colour palette is mainly sepia tones, helping to blur the line between the real world and that within the game itself. The film is typically Mamoru Oshii styled in its pacing and editing. It is relatively slow paced, reinforcing the mundane nature of the world Ash lives in and highlighting the excitement of playing the game. The film superfluously features a basset hound, a breed of dog common in Oshii's films, since he has one, named Gabriel. The film's score is by regular Oshii collaborator, Kenji Kawai.

The near future. Some young 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.

The film begins with a display of a digital tactical map, with symbols indicating the various units and their statistics. The map changes to a real-life scene of tanks plowing through a grassy plain. The tanks begin to fire at an unseen enemy. Aerial units bomb the tanks into oblivion. As the tanks explode, the blast freezes in mid-air, to show that the explosions are actually rendered 2D graphical sprites. A woman wearing combat armor teleports into the scene, which shifts to a cityscape. The woman watches crowds of people running away from numerous tanks that have appeared on the streets, and then sprints off. Some people, wearing similar combat dresses like the woman, fire at the tanks, to no avail.

The tanks kill several citizens with their weapons. As they die, the people unfold into 2D shapes and explode into sprites. The woman moves from cover to cover, eventually climbing onto a tank. She grabs its machine-gun and fires at some soldiers, killing them. Hearing movement, she points her gun and kills a soldier who attempts to escape while stating that he's not ready for Class A. This reveals that she's playing a virtual-reality game, and the "soldiers" she has killed earlier are in fact players themselves.

An advanced chopper drops bombs on the populace, killing them, and then fades away in the sky. A short while later, a large number of players run across the plain, with the woman teleporting into the scene. The chopper appears and the players fire with all they have got, with no effect. The chopper kills several players with its gatling gun and missiles. Meanwhile, the woman runs into an abandoned building, and sets her sniper scope on the chopper. She fires into the cabin of the chopper, which leads to it swaying out of control. The woman climbs aboard a tank and uses its machine-gun to fire at the chopper until it explodes. The explosion kills several players in its blast, then the game stops and states that the mission is complete. Satisfied, the woman leaves. Unknown to her, a man in a cloak watches after her with his scope and smiles.

Download:
Rapidshare part1 - part2 - part3 - part4 - part5 - part6 - part7 (Polish audio with english hardsub) - srt subtitle
Megaupload part1 - part2 - part3 - part4 - part5 - part6 - part7 - part8 (English audio)
Avalon Original Soundtrack