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| Not to be confused with "A Bird in the the Hand" of similar triangles. |
Dear Internet,
The
"Ghost in the Shell" franchise is perhaps one of the keystones of
modern anime. Whether or not you like
it, you have to admit that its impact upon an international scene is one of the
biggest of its kind. From the original
three volumes of manga, there are two movies with a third on its way, two
television series with a made for TV movie, and three video games. On top of that are a number of OVAs and
subsequent mangas that I will not even try to count up. The vast bulk of this material has been
translated into English and been distributed throughout the world. This long reaching effect of
"Ghost" marks it as one of the biggest works that also helped cause
the late 90's anime boom that continued to the mid 00's.
The
film, "Ghost in the Shell," follows around Major Motoko Kusanagi and
the rest of Section 9, a special enforcement agency that is a part of the government
to combat the new type of terrorism that has sprung up. In the not too distant future, human beings are
able to transplant their minds into cybernetic bodies. With only a little brain tissue being all
that stops them from being pure machine.
These individuals are able to enter into the vast informational networks
that link the world together. Along with
this ability, the robotic bodies are vastly more physically powerful than their
biological counterparts. Enter in the
Puppet Master, an international digital terrorist that uses others to commit
his crimes for him. He does so by
implanting false memories into his pawns to make them do his work for him. A garbage man who believes he is spying on
his wife is actually a single man who is being manipulated into trying to hack
into the police network. "Ghost"
follows a single case of Section 9 and attempts to examine the various problems
of a cyborg future.
This is
not the first time that I have come across this film. This is about the third time that I have sat
down to watch it. Now before you start
throwing biomechanical organs at me, Internet, let me explain. I have sat down to watch this film in both
dub and subtitle formats. Both times I
fell asleep. Now this does not mean that
the show was boring. It was just that
unless you sit down and watch it uncut, you will most likely get bored and
chance the channel, which is partially what made me fall asleep both
times. This film is one that requires
your full attention without distractions.
Early on, it sets out to create its cyberpunk world. Immediately afterwards, it delves into the
political problems that occur within that world. For one thing, an escaping programmer fleeing
a country through the use of diplomatic immunity is the same as smuggling arms
out of the country. The importance of
what a single programmer can accomplish must be astounding given this level of importance
to them. Considering that even today, programmers
with inside workings of how you work, Internet, and who you report to are running
from one country to another, there is some truth to the film.
Visually,
the film is fantastic. I do not mean
merely the quality of the animation, but I will address that first anyway. The animation is split from 2D rendering and
3D rendering. There are plenty of CG graphics
that dot the picture. It almost requires
it for certain sequences. For a film
that touches heavily upon a world that is neck deep in technology, using
computer graphics to make a visual point about that technology is a
no-brainer. The characters move smoothly,
without choppy motions. The backgrounds
are detailed plenty to show the Hong Kong of the future, filled with a flooded
city at its bottom with a sprawling metropolis at the top. However, what really takes the cake is the films
visual language.
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| Late in the film, there is a visual display of technology destroying the past. |
The
opening title credit sequence is intermixed between the title cards and the process
of creating a cybernetic shell.
Specifically, it is the shell that the Major uses in the film. The viewer is able to see how a person goes
from only a few bits of brain tissue to a machine of the future. In those few minutes, the film sets the stage
for the viewer. It is a quick rundown of
all the inner workings of a cyborg, from the brain to the skin. What makes it more interesting is that the
Major seems to wake up from dreaming this sequence. The viewer is then able to not only associate
the robot-man making process with that specific character but also gain an
awareness that the process is something that weighs heavily upon that specific
character. I will get to that in a
minute. At the same time, the film's
soundtrack is able to take center stage.
The
film's music is haunting. It does not
rely on a futuristic soundtrack filed with synthetic beeps and electronic
sounds, or at least from what I remember it did not. No, the main showcase in the music department
is the eerie vocals that echo throughout.
The lyrics are apparently formed from Yamato kotoba, or old Japanese
vocabulary. This use of an older
language to make the language used in the music creates a hard contrast to the
futuristic setting the story takes place in.
However, it brings up another point on the film. Similar songs, if not the same one, play in
at least two other sequences in the film.
Both of these sequences are montages of the setting. No plot takes place or is minimal at
most. These sequences show off the setting
with the backdrop of the music. While at
first I started to think that these were slowing down the pace of the film too
much, I started to find them enchanting because they were taking time to
present the world to the viewer. It is
not a pretty one, not in the least, but if the film sped by them for the sake
of the plot, it would have discounted itself.
If the film only presented the high technology side of the city, it
would be ignoring the have-nots of the future.
If the film only showed the city's gutters, it would cause the viewer to
miss out the technological wonders that are central to the film. These slower sequences are also there usually
when a character is traveling, so it makes sense for the audience to get a glimpse
of the world the characters exist in, especially considering that the action oriented
scenes are very fast paced.
Finally,
there are the show's philosophical aspects.
The All Knowing Wiki even has a dedicated article for the franchise's philosophy. So, it would be make this entry lacking if I
did not even touch upon it. As I said,
the Major is weighted heavily with her own nature as a cybernetic being. She wonders if she was ever human. Considering that even in the film, memories
can be created and implanted with ease enough by the antagonist, there is a possibility
that she is a product of the police department to create a soldier. At the same time, she wonders if she is even
alive anymore after having her consciousness implanted into a mechanical
body. Indirectly, the question of
whether or not the soul is tied to the body or the mind is brought up in the
film. This in turn brings up more
questions. If a person's consciousness can
be completely digitized, does that mean it can be copied? If it can be copied, does that mean the new entity
is a human? If that new entity is a
human, does it then have a soul? The
film does not go too deep down the rabbit hole, thankfully. If it did, we might be here for three or more
days. Maybe that is something that the
TV show does, but that will be another day.
Right now is the film. And the
film tackles these philosophical questions with caution and fear, as is customary
to the human condition. By the end, it
does not answer many of them. This seems
to be somewhat of a cop-out considering if it only asks questions of the viewer
it can come across less like a professor at college testing his students and
more an annoying 5 year old constantly asking "Why?" However, the film is not a shallow mocking of
the viewer, but a rightful challenge to figure out an answer before such
questions arise as technology progresses.
"Ghost
in the Shell" is one of those films that does just about everything
right. It world builds, it creates a suspenseful
narrative, it has energetic action scenes, and it leaves the viewer with
something to ponder about. It is the
kind of film that makes me want to hear more about the story's world and the characters
in it. As a work based off a manga, it
succeeded in generating interest in the source material that helped it spawn
off more works. The film is worth its
time and warrants more.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
P.S. Next is "The Lower Depths" (1957).
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