is a 1992 live action film written and directed by Mamoru Oshii

Mamoru Oshii

Mamoru Oshii is a Japanese filmmaker, television director, and writer. Famous for his philosophy-oriented storytelling, Oshii has directed a number of popular anime, including Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer, Ghost in the Shell, and Patlabor 2...

. Its a surreal meta-film mystery involving the production of an anime called Talking Head.

The film has many references to the anime industry with characters being named after animators such as Yasuo Ōtsuka

Yasuo Otsuka

is a Japanese animator who worked with Toei Animation and Studio Ghibli.Prior to becoming an animator, Ōtsuka worked in the Kantō-Kōshin'etsu district drug enforcement office at the Ministry of Health and Welfare. As a member of the support staff , he was responsible for the seizure of drugs and...

 and Ichirō Itano, designer Yutaka Izubuchi

Yutaka Izubuchi

is a Japanese anime designer and director. Izubuchi is credited for designing costumes, characters and creatures, but most of his designs are mechanical...

, writer Kazunori Itō

Kazunori Ito

is a Japanese anime screenwriter and artist who is well known for his work in the .hack Franchise and his writing for the Ghost in the Shell movie. Itō also provided the art for .hack//Another Birth. He is a member of the artist group known as Headgear....

, and composer Kenji Kawai

Kenji Kawai

, born April 23, 1957 in Shinagawa, Tokyo, is a Japanese music composer, for motion pictures, anime movies, video games and televised programs. He has contributed to the musical scores for numerous films from Japan and other countries in Asia, working in film genres as diverse as anime, horror,...

. The director of the film within the film is named Rei Maruwa, which was a pseudonym for Oshii on several of his projects.

The film features a short anime segment by famous character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto

Haruhiko Mikimoto

is a Japanese anime character designer, illustrator and manga artist. Mostly active during the 1980s, during that decade he rose to promience and is considered one of the top character designers of his time....

 (of Macross

Macross

is a series of science fiction mecha anime, directed by Shōji Kawamori of Studio Nue in 1982. The franchise features a fictional history of Earth/Humanity after the year 1999. It consists of three TV series, four movies, six OVAs, one light novel and five manga series, all sponsored by Big West...

fame).

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