Three Reviews: Ghost in the Shell

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2021
Images from the Internet

The first two Ghost in the Shell films were anime, and the third a mixture of real actors, including Scarlett Johansson, and major CGI. I will take a look at these in order of their release. Note that I will not be including the revamped Ghost in the Shell 2.0 (2008), which is a retooling of the first film, the “Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045” (2020) animated series, and other sequels. The films reviewed below can be found on TubiTV, Netflix, or YouTube, which is where I viewed them. The trailers will be at the bottom.

Ghost in the Shell (aka Kôkaku Kidôtai)
Directed by Mamoru Oshii
Kodansha; Bandai Visual Company; Manga Entertainment; Production 1.G.
83 minutes, 1995

This film is a classic piece of anime, based on the manga by Shirow Masamune. In the simplest description I can express, the “ghost” is the original memories of an individual – the core person (one may say the “soul”) – and the “shell” is the body, be it human or cyborg. In this world of the distant future, 2029, technology has advanced enough that most people are more a collection of a human body and implanted electronic circuits. This is sort of a present-day anti-vaxxer conspiracists nightmare. As some people today are part cyborg (pacemakers, artificial limbs attached to the brain that can “read” thoughts to move, etc.), the advent of this being an actuality is not all that far fetched.

In rare cases in this film, the entire body is, for lack of a better term, a replicant, with human memories, such as in Blade Runner (1992), RoboCop (1987), and Total Recall (1990). The key character here, Major Motoko Kusanagi is just such a cyborg, working in a special ops division called Section 9, dealing with counter terrorism and cyber crime.

She and her team are on the hunt for a cyber hacker named the Puppet Master (no Blade, Leech Girl or Driller in sight), who hacks into people’s brains and gives them false memories to bid his doing, which is to commit crimes for him.

The Major is partnered with Băto, a big lunk of a guy who is part human and part cyborg (she asked him how much). They make a good team, as they use their strengths to get the job done. For example, she can throw herself off a building Underworld (2003) style and make herself invisible in a Predator (1987) mode.

What makes this such a strong contender is its philosophical edge, discussing what makes a person themselves, what is considered living in general (i.e., is a cyborg a life?), and then there is also some global neo-capitalist politics involved. While there is no sex (do they even have sex organs?), but there is some nudity (The Major’s and another female cyborg, not Băto) and quite a bit of shoot-‘em-up violence and chases.

The animation is stunning, giving the impression of a cross between classic anime and Ralph Bakshi’s photo-automation (e.g., 1983’s Fire and Ice). One of my favorite things about the particular animation in this film is the backgrounds of the city, which are stunningly detailed and beautiful, in their compact and crowded visuals full of signs (mostly in Japanese), buildings, trash, puddles and pedestrians.

While this is definitely a sci-fi laden action flick with remarkable illustrations, it also goes pretty deep into philosophy, which actually improves the story rather than getting in its way. This is the second time I have seen this film, and I get more impressed with it each time.

 

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (aka Inosensu: Innocence)
Directed by Mamoru Oshii
Kodansha; Bandai Visual Company; Manga Entertainment; Production 1.G.
100 minutes, 2004

This animated sequel, released nine years after the first, picks up three years later than the previous, in 2032 (still practically around the corner from now). Rather than the Major being the main characgter, this one focuses on Batou (yes, the spelling of the name has changed slightly), and his partner, Toguse, who also appeared in the first film as a Section 9 agent.

The animation here is different. As in the first film, the backgrounds are gorgeous and sumptuous, but many of the characters have a grayish look, and are flatter. Perhaps the budget was higher in this release, but the imagery of most of the characters is less engaging. The main improvement, however, is that motion is much more fluid, which is a boon. What is also interesting to me is that the computer readouts on the first film looked almost 8-bit, but here, they are much more sophisticated and imaginative.

There are a lot of POV (point of view) shots through the eye of a cyborg, mostly Batou, with the technical information, much like the title character in The Terminator (1984). Luckily, for some reason, I am happy to report that the language of this is in English.

This sequel focuses on “gynoids,” sex-robot geishas who are reprogrammed to kill – shades of Westworld (1973) – and then self-destruct. It is up to our intrepid Section 9 agents, Batou and Toguse, to figure out why, and to stop further slaughter…of the humans.

There is still a high level of philosophy. As one chain smoking scientist, “Miss Harawai” (not Dr.) ponders, “I wonder why humans are so obsessed with designing robots that resemble them.” I believe the answer to that is easy: because we are ingrained with Genesis 1:27: “God created man in His own image.” Batou brings up Descartes when discussing the different between animate and inanimate/surrogate humans (dolls). There is a lot of discussions about what is life, between humans, cyborgs, and “dolls” (robots). Included are mentions of the Bible, Milton, and Confucius, among others. I’m not sure how it translates from the original Japanese, but the dialogue is sometimes philosophically cryptic, and doesn’t talk down to the audience.

Sometimes, the story seems secondary to the mental musings between the characters. There is definitely more violent (mostly shootings) action than in the first film, but there are certainly extended dialogues about the meanings of lives.

Most people we meet have electronically enhanced noggins (referred to as e-brains). While this gives the advantage of high thought processes and a way to connecting to each other in a kind of Vulcan mind meld fashion, it also makes it where a person can be hacked with false memories, or sort of a virtual reality causing them to unknowingly harm themselves. The question it raises that I really liked is not as much what is human, but the degrees of how much. Marshall McLuhan (d. 1980) would probably be fascinated by this stuff.

Batou and Toguse set off to the far north to a lawless area of corporations and information hackers in search of the people involved with the robot gynoid geisha genocide. The artwork is especially spectacular there. Of course, there is the expected cameo which I won’t divulge, but it will probably not come as any surprise, nor will it be ruined either by knowing or not.

There is definitely some of The Matrix (1999) thought in here, in reality vs. technology, especially towards the end. While this film is “denser” than the first when it comes to deep thought, the action holds up and it is worth the view. Most people know the first film, but this sequel is a bit rarer.

 

Ghost in the Shell
Directed by Rupert Sanders
Paramount Pictures; Dreamworks Pictures; Reliance Entertainment; Shanghai Film Group; Huahua Media; Down By the Sea; Amblin
107 minutes, 2017

For the purposes of the mostly live action (with tons of CGI) version, the definition of “Ghost” is a bit different in that literally “a human brain is transplanted into a fully synthetic body,” rather than its “essence” or “soul,” as the beginning scroll explains. We see that in the Major’s creation in the opening sequence (as it was in the anime). Rather than looking like a normal human, as the cartoon showed, the synthetic body in the film looks smoother without nipples, like a Barbie doll. This keeps the actors from having to do nudity. That being said, there is an added interesting layer to The Major’s sexuality here, absent from the first two animes.

Speaking of which, the 800 lb. gorilla in the room is that the Asian main character of the Major is being played by a nice Jewish meydl from Manhattan, Scarlett Johansson. This has raised a ruckus and cries of appropriation. I understand that, but the original director, Mamoru Oshii, was okay with it, so I’ll just keep on going, especially since she is a new, created being, not her original Japanese self. A noteworthy point is that thanks to her work as the Black Widow in another cartoon world, the Marvel Universe, Johansson is used to both acting in from of a green screen, and is trained to do physical stunts.

The character’s name of Motoko Kusanagi has also been changed to US audience-friendly Mira Killian (though Motoko comes up in an interesting way). For this film, she is the initial full human brain/synthetic body “miracle,” so called by her creator, Dr. Ouelet (Juliette Binoche). Batou (same name) is now played by hulking Danish actor Pilou Asbæk. Johansson is quite short, which makes Asbæk look that much bigger. At least Togusa, who is barely in the film, is still Asian (Chin Han, from Singapore, Malaysia, who CNNGO – a division of CNN – named as one of Asia’s 25 greatest actors of all time).

It is kind of fun to notice both the similarities and the differences from the anime. This one sort of combines the first two films, with killer geishas (called geishabots, which is better than gynoids) with exploding faces as in the second film. There is also a mimicking of Mira’s creation in her body rising in liquid to its on reflection on the surface (looked so cool in the first film and is done quite decently here). They also revive the original’s Underworld-ish jump off the building and shooting into the window, and some The Matrix-style running along the walls during gunplay. By this time, Mira is also known as The Major and working for secretive Section 9. There is also a shadow of the Borg, as people on “the grid” can hear what others are saying when they are plugged into the outlets on the backs of their necks (like the dead Bishop on the landing).

While the anime duo are steeped deep in philosophy, there is less of it here, which is more about memories making us who we are rather than personhood per se. All seems as illusionary as the giant advertisement holograms present throughout the city streets, something that I can see becoming a reality. There is also some interesting symbolism, such as life coming out of liquid, and death going into water, bookending the film.

The enemy for this film is also a hacker, but rather than Puppet Master, it is Kuze (Michael Pitt). He is the one trying to destroy the company that built The Major, Hanka Robotics. I am about a third of the way in, and I can see the possibly motivation for it and the following common trope twist ending (which, of course, I will not reveal).

One of the cool aspects of the film is that one character, Mr. Aramaki (Takeshi “Beat” Kitano) speaks Japanese (with English captions) to everyone around him, who is speaking English, and is clearly understood by all. This is a nice nod to the original story. Speaking of which…

Binge watching all three films is interesting because the first two releases are still in my short-term memory, so I notice the differences and the similarities a bit easier. For instance, if it had been a while, I may not have noticed their using the garbage truck drivers – albeit for a different purpose – and the interrogation of one of them having false memories. And there is the spider tank, whose origin is different but is essentially the same.

At the halfway point especially, the film takes a totally different direction than the anime story, even while keeping it within the framework, which is an interesting choice, even though it borrows the zeitgeist of RoboCop, which influences the second half a lot, with Hanka Exec Cutter (Peter Ferdinando) filling in the Jones (Ronny Cox) role. Speaking of inspirations, many of the fight scenes, especially in corridors, is reminiscent of Johansson’s earlier film, Lucy (2014).

While they only kept partially faithful to the story, the character of Mira/The Major is mostly true to the original, but she is way more emotional here than in the anime, which is kind of manipulative on the audience. Having her more stoic in the anime with some sad wondering is expressed with her diving and the conversation with Batou on the boat in the harbor, shown in both the original and this one, but the emotion is definitely ramped up here as she tries to search for her original ghost/memories.

The film received some slack, especially from fans of the manga and anime version, but it is good action fun, though I miss the heady philosophy.