Ghost in the ShellConsider that today's children will look upon an iPad or wi-fi as though it had always been, just as my generation looks upon things like unleaded gasoline and cable television as constants, now and forever. These advancements have become augmentations to our way of life, our own sociological evolution--mere tools--but objects that mold our society by their existence; how many people do you know who do not own a cell phone? As these tools expand in scope and presence, we adapt to become a technological culture and people, the thin wedge of transhumanism.
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Adapted from the manga by Masamune Shirow, Ghost in the Shell is the story of Motoko Kusanagi, a member of a secretive government force called "Section 9", which deals with information technology and security. Our first exposure to Kusanagi is an ambiguous one, a scene of an operative listening into audio chatter over a secret line, disrobing and diving into the vast city below, only to emerge for a brief from her sophisticated invisibility camouflage to assassinate an enemy of the state. The lines of operation between Section 9 and their internal rival, Section 6, highlights a future tangled up in bureaucracy and a re-emergence of "spy versus spy"-style stealth and subterfuge, daggers in the dark. But in this new "cold war", the most capable of spies are those who are a part of this technocratic matrix of information and data, computers which are the battleground of a brave, new world. It's hard to believe, but in the twenty years since Ghost in the Shell debuted, even the advanced futuretech pales in comparison with some of our own advances on similar fronts; tracking programs utilized in the film aren't half as detailed and sophisticated as Google Maps, not to mention more advanced programs in the employ of our own secret services. But all science fiction predictions are open to variables, and while some of these interconnected networks and coding sciences have grown by leaps and bounds, it's highly doubtful that beautiful android women walk among us, capable of feats of superhuman agility and strength. All the same, like so many other dystopian futures, Ghost in the Shell gives a reflection of the future that could be, one where global warming has caused devastating flooding in the fictional Newport City--unspoken, but implied by the referenced "flood" and predominance of waterways. Or a society which has--as the film's preface indicates--not as of yet given up its races and cultures in the advent of a highly-computerized civilization; homogeny does not bear diverse fruit, and overspecialization breeds weakness, as Kusanagi indicates to her comrade.
This brings up the fundamental theme of Ghost in the Shell, and that is the nature of identity and individuality. It is an old question in the post-human realm, but gets once again addressed in this film: "Can a robot have a soul?"; and if the answer is "yes", then it means a dramatic paradigm shift in our definition of everything from "self" to "God", even of life and death. There is no mystery for us that Kusanagi is a cyborg--we are treated to the creation of her physical form in the first ten minutes; but she acts and behaves as though she were a real woman. Are these just behaviors conditioned from programming? Aren't all of our behaviors the same? Kusanagi periodically makes reference to something called a "ghost"--a term synonymous with a soul--which whispers to her, something we are not privy to hearing but can only wonder what it truly is. Is the ghost in her "shell" her consciousness...or might it be the whispering of the elusive "antagonist", the "Puppet Master"? The Puppet Master is supposedly a sophisticated hacker, but one which shares some kind of underlying connection to Kusanagi, and an encounter between the two of them seems inevitable, a unity which promises to be transformative. Although the plot of Ghost in the Shell is really that of an action movie, it is a deeply philosophical one, which raises questions about our own status as human beings the more advanced we become, the more we transform into a collective joined by a "vast, infinite net" of social media, electronic communications, and more. From a production standpoint, Ghost in the Shell also represents a transitional work of animation, a cyborg-like hybrid crafted from hand-drawn animation fused with computer-generated graphics, the two styles merging to become stronger together as a result. This philosophical approach to director Mamoru Oshii's adaptation also underscores the theme of harmony--intrinsic in Taoism, and represented by the unification of man and machine, and later Kusanagi and the Puppet Master. The melding of stylistic action and philosophical underpinnings would later influence other filmmakers--like the Wachowskis, and their most overt send up to Ghost in the Shell, The Matrix--where identity is no different than data on a drive, to be downloaded by anyone, fantasy indistinguishable from reality--like all immersive animated marvels.
Recommended for: Fans of a ultra-stylized anime action film, with a sophisticated approach to animation and a complex and mature story. Ghost in the Shell is seminal Japanese animation viewing, one of the most significant breakthrough entries in this often misunderstood sub-genre of film, making waves back when anime was still a very cult thing.
This brings up the fundamental theme of Ghost in the Shell, and that is the nature of identity and individuality. It is an old question in the post-human realm, but gets once again addressed in this film: "Can a robot have a soul?"; and if the answer is "yes", then it means a dramatic paradigm shift in our definition of everything from "self" to "God", even of life and death. There is no mystery for us that Kusanagi is a cyborg--we are treated to the creation of her physical form in the first ten minutes; but she acts and behaves as though she were a real woman. Are these just behaviors conditioned from programming? Aren't all of our behaviors the same? Kusanagi periodically makes reference to something called a "ghost"--a term synonymous with a soul--which whispers to her, something we are not privy to hearing but can only wonder what it truly is. Is the ghost in her "shell" her consciousness...or might it be the whispering of the elusive "antagonist", the "Puppet Master"? The Puppet Master is supposedly a sophisticated hacker, but one which shares some kind of underlying connection to Kusanagi, and an encounter between the two of them seems inevitable, a unity which promises to be transformative. Although the plot of Ghost in the Shell is really that of an action movie, it is a deeply philosophical one, which raises questions about our own status as human beings the more advanced we become, the more we transform into a collective joined by a "vast, infinite net" of social media, electronic communications, and more. From a production standpoint, Ghost in the Shell also represents a transitional work of animation, a cyborg-like hybrid crafted from hand-drawn animation fused with computer-generated graphics, the two styles merging to become stronger together as a result. This philosophical approach to director Mamoru Oshii's adaptation also underscores the theme of harmony--intrinsic in Taoism, and represented by the unification of man and machine, and later Kusanagi and the Puppet Master. The melding of stylistic action and philosophical underpinnings would later influence other filmmakers--like the Wachowskis, and their most overt send up to Ghost in the Shell, The Matrix--where identity is no different than data on a drive, to be downloaded by anyone, fantasy indistinguishable from reality--like all immersive animated marvels.
Recommended for: Fans of a ultra-stylized anime action film, with a sophisticated approach to animation and a complex and mature story. Ghost in the Shell is seminal Japanese animation viewing, one of the most significant breakthrough entries in this often misunderstood sub-genre of film, making waves back when anime was still a very cult thing.