GHOST IN THE SHELL (KOKAKU KIDOTAI) *** (out of ****) Directed by Mamoru Oshii & written by Kazunori Ito, from the graphic novel by Masamune Shirow, with English dub by Paul C. Halbert Featuring the voices of: (Japanese) Atsuko Tanaka, Iesama Kayami, Akio Otsuka, Tessho Genda, and Tanio Oki (English) Mimi Woods, Abe Lasser, William Frederick, Ben Isaacson, and Christopher Joyce 1996 R What the best anime—that’s the word for Japanese cartoons geared toward non-children audiences—does is to alternate between episodes of dizzying kinetic action and enormous questions about the nature of existence. There’s a terrific scene in “Ghost in the Shell” in which the angry computer virus that’s been killing everybody is trapped in the body of an unfinished robot. We’re all set for a colossal battle between the computer virus and all the armed guards, but instead the computer virus claims that, as a living thing, it has the right to political asylum. You’re not a living thing, retorts one of the humans. You’re just a self-replicating pattern of instructions, coded in ones and zeros. True, replies the computer virus, but isn’t human DNA just a self-replicating pattern of instructions, coded in genes? The question of where flesh-based life ends and computer-based life begins is central to “Ghost in the Shell.” In a future metropolis, we meet Major Kusanagi, leader of an elite band of police with cybernetic implants that allow them enhanced speed, vision, strength, hearing, and agility. Kusanagi, the most advanced of the team, is even able to turn invisible. The price is that all their memories before enlisting in the police department are no longer in their heads, but stored on a hard-drive somewhere, waiting for them on that day when they retire. As Kusanagi becomes ensconced in a covert war between her agency and a rival department over who will catch a rogue computer hacker, she begins to wonder if she ever had any memories, or if she is merely the creation of science. She wonders, if I have no past and if I were never human, am I really alive? Or am I merely a machine without a soul? Kusanagi has every reason to worry about her memories, or lack thereof. Cybernetic enhancements are so prevalent in the future that pretty much everyone has an internet connection in their brain. This means that the rogue hacker hunted by both departments, known as the Puppet-Master, is able to hack into the minds of powerful politicians and ordinary citizens in order to bend them to his evil will. In an especially poignant scene, we meet a man heartbroken to the point of numbness by the discovery that his wife and daughter were only fake memories implanted by the Puppet-Master. Kusanagi’s investigation leads her back to the very company that manufactured her artificial body, and which may have manufactured her mind and soul as well. This also leads to a computer virus that is not only self-replicates but, like every flesh-based life form, allows for mutation and adaptation. Kusanagi’s hunger for her past even pits her against her own department, and she must weave her way through political intrigue, power struggles, and the suspicious eyes of her superiors. Her only confidante is her partner on the force, a mountain of a man with electronic eyes. I think there’s supposed to be some sexual tension between him and Kusanagi, but it’s difficult to tell because his shoulders are about as far apart as the two towers of Notre Dame Cathedral. “Ghost in the Shell” takes place over the course of a few nights and the direction by Mamuro Oshii carries itself with the pacing and gravity of a hard-boiled, live-action thriller. The movie moves almost too quickly, considering the technology and political climate we must absorb in order to follow what’s happening. There’s a gunfight or two, a couple car chases, a breathtaking battle between Kusanagi and a tank, and some truly impressive 3-D heads-up displays used by the cops to track fleeing suspects through the metropolis. Like “Akira” before it, “Ghost in the Shell’s” metropolis is a terrifically-realized cesspool of purple skyscrapers, slow-moving planes, unemptied garbage cans, and perpetually damp streets. There are also plenty of little sci-fi touches, my favorite being that the girls in the typing pool never blink and have robotic hands with dozens of little metal wires in place of fingers. I liked the overall look of the movie, with its rich, sometimes gothic urban tones. I’m not the biggest fan of anime’s stiff-moving elf-people; and, of course, in the style of anime, Kusanagi’s supermodel figure is exploited again and again, before the opening credits, during the title sequence, and several times after. Her ability to turn invisible either requires her to be naked, or wear a flesh-colored bodysuit. Either way the effect is the same. “Ghost in the Shell” covers some of the same territory as Ridley Scott’s classic “Blade Runner.” Mankind is fascinated and terrified by the idea of shaking his fist at heaven and becoming a Creator in his own right. “Ghost in the Shell” reflects that by showing the creation of electronic life as both wondrous and awful, and by praising the old-fashioned, flesh-only humans. My favorite character in “Ghost” is the one guy on Kusanagi’s team who doesn’t have any electronic enhancement. He is by no means the most useful member of the team, but his passivity, empathy, and irony represent what hangs in the balance if machinery is to be the next stage of man’s evolution. At a crime scene in which sniper-fire has literally disemboweled a suspect, he is the only person to remark “what a mess.” Finished February 27th, 2003 Copyright © 2003 Friday & Saturday Night |
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