THE RED SPECTACLES Film Screening (ENG subs)
Friday 2. January 2026 at 18:00 - 20:00
FOMO Secret Cinema, Tbilisi
Mamoru Oshii | 1987 | Japan | 1h56m | Presented in the original Japanese with English subtitles.
Mamoru Oshii’s first feature already contains the obsessions that would define his later work. THE RED SPECTACLES follows a former member of a disbanded police unit returning to a city that has reorganised itself around hilariously arbitrary laws, fascistic uniforms, and ritualised authority. Nothing quite functions, yet everything continues.
Shot largely in stark black and white, the film blends noir, political satire, and absurdist theatre. Dialogue loops. Scenes repeat. Logic collapses. Oshii is less interested in plot than in systems, how they persist, how they outlive their purpose, and how individuals either submit or drift into exile.
What makes the film especially fascinating is how clearly it anticipates Oshii’s later projects. The distrust of institutions, the obsession with surveillance, the circular narratives, and the dry, almost hostile humour all resurface in PATLABOR and reach their zenith in GHOST IN THE SHELL.
THE RED SPECTACLES feels like a rough manifesto. Messy, confrontational, and deliberately alienating, but already fully formed in its worldview. A must-see for fans of Japanese cinema and manga.
Location: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi.
How to find FOMO: Enter the Bazari via Atoneli St above Carrefour and take the stairs immediately on your left behind the jewellery stand. The cinema entrance is one flight up in the stairwell. For a helpful video, visit instagram.com/fomo.cinema and click the Find Us highlight.
FOMO Secret Cinema • Bazari Orbeliani, 0105 Tbilisi, Georgia
