Patlabor the Live Action Movie (Pilot Film)

Another complete oddity. In October 1997 Mamoru Oshii announced he was making a new live action film; "The Record of Garm War" or "G.R.M." for short. To see if his ideas for the film were feasible, several pilot films were created including a short live action piece and oddly an anime pilot film, presumably made in an attempt to salvage the concept if it wasn't made into a live action film. For whatever reason another pilot film was made, a CGI/live action Patlabor pilot film in 1998. There doesn't seem to have any real story to the film. It begins was a panoramic shot of Tokyo Bay at dawn and pans over to a Labor which is test firing a gun. The second scene takes place in daylight in the middle of a busy Tokyo street. The Labor walks through traffic, down a street and past a Basset Hound (one of Mamou Oshii's visual trademarks). The final scene, filmed as if it were shot on a shaky video camera, has the Labor pitted against a helicopter gunship. People run for cover and shots are fired. Eventually the pilot of the Labor has the helicopter in his sights and shoots it down. The film is set in the year 2003 and the Labor is a brand new design, not seen in pervious Patlabor anime or manga.

In the end neither "The Record of Garm War" nor the live action Patlabor film were made (though the Oshii directed film "Avalon" morphed out of the former). Whether or not the pilot film was a serious attempt to see if a real live action Patlabor film was feasible, or if it was just was merely a test by Oshii see how computer animation would work in a live action film is completely unknown (though it has been stated by Bandai Visual that no actual full length film will be made). What is known however is in 1997 French director Christophe Gans announced he was making a live action Patlabor film. Whether it was a deliberate attempt to scuttle that project, part of a collaboration or test for Gans or just a test on Oshii's part to see what he could do with CGI, no one is saying.

In December 1998, the CG models were used in the artwork of the first DVD releases of the first two Patlabor movies. The February 1999 issue of Animage magazine included a two page spread on the pilot film, and a ton of stills from it as part of the promotion of the DVD releases. The first footage of the film was first commercially released as three 30 second promos that appeared on the Playstation video game "Patlabor - Game Edition" which was released in March 2000 in Japan. The full film was later released commercially on "Patlabor DVD Memorial Box" in May 2007. The soundtrack to the film, by Kenji Kawai, can be found on the "Cat Nights" disc of the CD box set "Kenji Kawai Cinema Anthology".

Below is a selection of images from the pilot film.

This pilot film is not available in English anywhere commercially. However both the 30 second promo and the full length film can be found on various sites. Because I only like to support official releases, I won't be providing any links to download this video.

Three 30 second promos of the pilot film appear as extras on the Playstation game "Patlabor - Game Edition" released by Bandai in November 2000. As this is a NTSC format Playstation game, check your instruction manual to see if your Playstation can actually play it. The full length version pilot film appears as an extra in the "Patlabor DVD Memorial Box" in Japan from Bandai Visual/Emotion. The DVD box set is only available in Japan, and therefore will only work on DVD players that are both NTSC compatible and will play region 2 discs (if you don't live in Japan, check your DVD's instruction manual to see if it will play the discs). Please see the Software and Computer Games List and Japanese Original OVA Releases for a complete listing of all releases, formats and product specifications for the pilot film and commercials.

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