atomicskate - Shanghai…

A few months ago, my mother has sent me from France a flyer about a new manga inspired by Gustav Klimt painting style and relating a classic tale from Alexandre Dumas: "The Count of Monte Cristo".

As I’m not a manga addict, and as news from Japan are not so well broadcasted in France (and within the foreign French community), I’ve never heard about this new chef d’oeuvre…
Firstly, I’ve tried to find this movie (composed of 24 episodes of 24 minutes each) in the DVDs stores, here at Shanghai. But, it has been released too recently (in late 2004), so the only available version was Japanese with Chinese subtitles… Not so nice So, I’ve finally decided to download it on a P2P network, where the Japanese version with French subtitles is easily attainable (it seems that there is no version with French audio).

This unique adaptation features direction by Mahiro Maeda (The Animatrix, Blue Submarine No.6), costumes by world-renowned Anna Sui, and music by Jean-Jacques Burnel (bass guitar-leader from the English 80’s band The Stranglers). The production is from Gonzo Studios (Last Exile, Samurai 7).

The tale has been shifted to the future, nevertheless the action is still mainly located in France. The characters wear some old fashion clothes, but they use space ships… Policemen drive old Citroen DS but customized like Blade Runner vehicles…
 
Here is the trailer:

(If you are in China, you won’t be able to watch it, as Google Video doesn’t have the authorization from the Government to broadcast videos. In order to see it, please go here)
 
 
In December 2005 and January 2006, an exhibition, titled "Klimt, Schiele, Moser, Kokoschka. Vienna 1900", was held at the Paris’ Grand Palais hall and has shown all the episodes of Gankutsuou. This manga was selected as a work related to this exhibition because its 2D texture representation and color palette draw strong inspiration from Klimt’s artistic style.
I guess that you know this painter born in 1862 and dead in 1918 You’ve probably already see some of his most famous paintings, like:

"The Three Ages of Woman", 1905
 

You can easily see how Gankutsuou is inspired by Klimt, by comparing the following canvas, titled "Judith II" (1909) and a drawing of Haydée & the Count:

If you want to download all the episodes (Japanese with French subtitles!), I’ve put them on my FTP server at your disposal.
In the same directory, you can also download the marvelous OST and the Classic album (if you like opera, piano and classic music, I think that you’re going to appreciate it!).
If you don’t like FTP and prefer eMule , you can download all the episodes thanks to this file.
 
 
For those who have never read the original book, written by Alexandre Dumas in 1845, you can read it here.

A complete review about the manga is available here:
http://www.heroic-cinema.com/reviews/gnktsuo

More details on the two official websites:
http://www.montecristodvd.com
http://www.gankutsuou.com

Last but not least, you can watch another -unofficial- trailer: