Ghost in the Shell Movie Review
by Curtis Hoffmann
[Insert standard copyright stuff here. Oct. 21, 1995]
[If you want to reprint this review, please contact me first.]
"People love machines in 2029 A.D."
"Who are you? Who slips into my robot body and whispers to my ghost?"
Introduction
The Ghost in the Shell movie is loosely based on the manga created by
reknowned artist Masamune Shirow (Appleseed, Black Magic, Dominion)
which has been translated for American release by Dark Horse comics.
Because many western fans have the Dark Horse comics version to read,
and base their opinions on, there's probably going to be some discussion
on the storyline used in the movie, and the redesigns of some of the
major characters.
Masamune likes drawing beautiful, thin sharp-faced women, and the
protagonist in Ghost, Section 9's killer cyborg Major Motoko Kusanagi,
has been turned into a rather plain, flat-faced, dull-eyed creature.
The Chief of Section 9, Aramaki, is no longer the scheming little monkey
that he was in the manga. Kusanagi's right-hand cyborg, Batou, hasn't
changed too much, but his face has been turned more squarish and less
brute-like.
However, although the character designs have changed, and most of the
standard characters have been dropped and a few new ones have been
added, the design artwork itself is still very good. The characters all
look and act "alive". This factor goes a long way into making Ghost a
very convincing "cartoon."
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Ghost is being billed as having "a world-wide release." This means that
you should be able to watch it on the big screen in theaters in America,
and it has already been subtitled in English. The subtitle text isn't
all that great; there are a few garbled sentences, not all of the
Japanese dialog has been translated, and occasionally, the English
meaning doesn't really match up with the original Japanese. But, the
subtitles are enough to help you follow the story, if you work at it.
Being able to watch Ghost on the big screen is IMPORTANT. The
background artwork is phenomenal. The level of detail that went into
creating each scene greatly enhances this movie, and it almost crosses
the line from animation to live-action film. Most of the background
animation is very fluid, and vehicles like trucks and aircraft also move
with very little jerkiness.
Ghost is a great movie to have on video disk, just for the scenery.
The music, at least for the opening and closing credits, with some
repetition through-out the film, was sung by Saeko Higuchi. Saeko is a
pert, cute Japanese version of Pat Benitar. The songs are fairly decent
hard rock, and the vocals have the right kind of chilling warble that
fits the cyber-punk element pervading Ghost's backgrounds, and
influencing it's character designs. The sound track CD will come out in
Novemeber, for the standard 3000 yen price tag.
As with all anime, the clincher is the quality of the voice actors.
And, as with all anime, you've heard these voices before. That's not
meant to belittle the voice actors themselves -- it's just that when you
look at the character designs, you know what to expect. Batou has the
standard deep, rumbling macho voice, the Major has a plain,
to-the-point, commanding voice, etc. The range of acting is good, and
when people are in pain, they yell A LOT. You kind of have to wonder
what condition an actor's throat is in at the end of the day...
Which now takes us to the story itself. The original manga was a series
of interconnecting action-packed police procedurals, following the
growth of Section 9, and the tracking of an international terrorist
group. Ultimately, Major Kusanagi is tricked into killing a normal
human, and is sentenced to be destroyed. The reasoning behind this is
that humans created cyborgs to do their bidding, and it's ok for a
cyborg to waste another cyborg. But, the penalty for injuring or
killing a human will be swift and severe. However, Batou manages to
secretly copy a backup of the Major's memory into another "shell", and
the Major is given the chance to disappear and start over.
The scriptwriter, though, scrapped most of the original story concept,
and replaced it with the larger question of "do androids dream of
electric sheep." Or rather, can cyborgs be considered truly "alive",
and eligible for political asylum in a foreign country...
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It is the near future, 21st century. Cyborgs are common, and most
humans have at least some kind of artificial enhancements. Major
Kusanagi is a top-of-the-line cyborg commissioned to Section 9 --
Japan's future equivalent of the secret forces. Aramaki starts out as
already being the chief of Section 9. In a Japanese office building, an
AI software expert is trying to defect to another country, and is
claiming asylum in the arms of that country's ambassador. Kusanagi has
been given the job of assassinating the ambassador, which she does in
bloody detail.
From here on, the movie deviates from the manga as Section 9 learns that
some super software hacker from America, code named "Puppet Master", has
been hacking into the "ghosts" of various cyborgs and turning them into
his tools. Kusanagi and crew track down several "hacked ghosts", and
arrest them. Aramaki and his intelligence master "Ishikawa" locate
someone identified as the Puppet Master, but they quickly decide that
this guy is himself a hacked puppet.
Along the way, Kusanagi is undergoing a serious personality conflict as
she tries to resolve the fact that all of her memories and personality
are artifical, even though they seem so real to her.
Shortly afterwards, a naked female cyborg gets hit by a truck, and
whisked into Section 9's labs. Section 6 (which is more like a normal
police force) gets involved, and the Chief of Section 6 wants to claim
the body -- because it contains the essence of the Puppet Master. Turns
out that the Puppet Master is really a kind of AI program that had gone
rogue, and was finally tricked into downloading itself into a cyborg
body. Now that it is in a physical location, Section 6 wants to destroy
it.
But, there are plots within plots, and Section 6 is lying to cover up
its involvement in a top secret operation known only as Project 2501.
Further, the Puppet Master manages to override the controls placed on
its damaged body to announce to Aramaki that it voluntarily entered this
body to give it a chance to meet Aramaki and to plead for protection
from persecution on the grounds that it is a living, reasoning entity.
I won't give away any more of the story, or the twist ending (which is
rather predictable, if you know the manga.) Suffice it to say that the
Puppet Master has a crush on the Major (as does an assault tank.)
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If you watch Ghost in the Shell (Gits) expecting to see an animated
version of the manga, you will be disappointed. (Which is natural,
given the precedent set by Appleseed.) However, if you approach Ghost
in the Shell as a fantasically well-animated film on the order of Akira,
you'll probably agree that GitS is one of the best movies made in any
country in any form, in a long time.
One of the best features of GitS is the use of a special camouflage
outfit that renders the wearer almost completely invisible. The outfit
is referred to as a "therm optics suit." The Major uses such a suit, as
do many of the enemy. This results in a series of really fun battles
where one person gets flung all over the place by a mysterious, unseen,
attacker. Good stuff, Maynard.
I recommend very highly that you see GitS in a theater at the first
chance that you get. ATTENTION -- Try to watch the subtitled version!
If you see a dubbed version of this movie, it's going to come across as
being VERY LAME! The subtitled version will be well worth the money. I
just wish that the English subtitles were better.
Caution: Violence and some simulated female nudity.
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Revision History
- 10/21/95: Created this file.
- 03/10/97: HTML'd this file.
People who helped me on these files:
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You can contact me at: riemann96@yahoo.com
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