That was an excellent one.

one of my absolute favorites!

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

This title was not heavily promoted in the English-speaking world, which I find a curious omission, as I am sure that it would have attracted attention. I knew nothing about the film until seeing it being sold very cheaply by the local public library (They had no use for a DVD in German).The addictive nature of the game referred to in the title is underscored by showing players using VR sets in a squalid den resembling a heroin "shooting gallery" and going through the motions of life with the sole purpose of returning to the game.Eventually the heroine manages to find a level of the game which is better than real life. She is, however, cognizant of the fact that in reality she is very likely to be a brain-dead hospital case, depending on the care and charity of others to keep her alive.Should she just play on on the new level, considering that to be her "reality", as another character advises, should she try to reach the ultimate level, or should she deliberately lose? This is the moral problem which she has to solve.A minor problem with the film is the rather purposeless prolongation of the scenes of grinding debasement at the expense of the time spent in the "new" level. This can cause the plot to become somewhat boring in the middle of the film.If you can find this film dubbed into or subtitled in a language you understand, my advice is to watch it. If you're interested in cyberpunk, this is the real thing!

As someone who is a gamer, a computer and sci-fi enthusiast, I found this to be a pretentious long winded bore. Hang on, I'll tell you why! First, the visuals. The blurry, heavily bloomed and contrasted, sepia toned imagery that dominated the film just didn't work for me. While it masked the room temperature cg elements, I found that it just made the film look muddy and I was unable to get pulled into this world.Then there is the story. The theme of "What's real?" isn't something new and I don't consider it a high end effort when I find myself strained to watch a dull woman in a bad wig stone face her way through pointless, repetitive and drawn out scenes, one after the other. I suppose the abstract, disjointed writing mixed with the director credits can allow for people to interpret depth and sophistication but for me it just didn't feel cohesive and worthwhile but rather like drug enhanced, self important, hipster produced script. I waited to be intrigued, I waited to be invested, I waited for the shots to amount to some kind of message that justified the running time and for just something, anything to actually happen. No dice! Blank and stoic leads may work easily in stylized animation but is terribly difficult in live action and Ash failed hard. Sorry, I don't think the goose laid a golden egg this time around.I will say though, the orchestral piece in the conclusion was simply awesome.

Avalon is a game, a virtual game that may kill you in real life. Sounds kind of familiar, right? You may think that this is nothing but a "Matrix" copy, but the truth is that it has its own aesthetic (so attractive and original) and even though I didn't understand anything I'm pretty sure that those who love online gaming, role games and stuff will like "Avalon". I mean, this must be just like porn for them!! As I said before I gotta point out the look of the movie, the nebulous photography and the soundtrack... Oh, and Malgorzata Foremniak is gorgeous!!.*My rate: 5'5/10

I've passed this one over too many times. It always hooks me, but I'm too impatient. Now I have to get it for keeps.This is a unique gem. I'm concerned, as others have already suggested, that the people who were involved in this movie will not be recognized for what they have done. This is such special magic.What made me come back and take another look at this was a chance viewing of another often-misunderstood gem, "Vampyr" (1932). I see many similarities: the slow pacing, the sullen and underplayed characters, the unusual lighting and camera-work, the haunting, creepy feeling one is left with for *weeks* after. It seems to me that either (or better yet, both) of these movies are a one-stop film-making class. So many unusual techniques, so many encouragements to experiment without restraint.Well worth the time and intellectual excersize.