Film: Ghost In The Shell
Release date: 28th February 2000
Certificate: 15
Running time: 111 mins
Director: Mamoru Oshii
Starring: Atsuko Tanaka, Akio Ôtsuka, Tamio Ôki, Iemasa Kayumi, Kôichi Yamadera
Genre: Anime
Studio: Manga
Format: DVD
Country: Japan/USA
Rarely does an animated film have what it takes to stand up against the masses, and the opportunity to be considered as a breakthrough feature. Yet there is one such film that possesses such an intelligence and beauty in both its plot and cinematography, that it easily rivals its live-action counterparts, whilst cementing its precedence as a forerunner in its own genre. Japanese director Mamoru Oshii’s dark, yet emotive cyberpunk anime Ghost In The Shell explores what it means to be human in an age of technological domination.
Based on Shirow Masamune’s popular manga, Ghost In The Shell takes place in 2029 against the neon embedded backdrop of the Hong Kong cityscape. In this technologically advanced future, humans are able to cybernetically augment and upgrade their bodies, and the world is connected by a hugely vast and complex electronic mainframe - one that governs the state and administers the various sectors to maintain the prosperity of the people. One of these sectors, Section 9, is the law-enforcing security firm, in which our heroine Major Motoko Kusanagi and her partners Batou and Togusa are on an undercover mission to infiltrate an elite hacker known only as The Puppet Master.
The film is centred around Kusanagi, and through her we are introduced to the deep philosophical nature that underlies the film, whether the human form can sustain its humanity and identity when only organic brain matter, known to hold a person’s ‘ghost’ (soul) remains within the metal ‘shell’ of their cyborg body. Kusanagi whose ‘birth’ we witness at the beginning of the film even questions whether she has a ghost, believing her memories and experiences are nothing more than programmable data implanted into her neural system.
Her doubts set about asking the same question to the audience watching, how long will it be until we no longer have to think for ourselves? How long until we are mere puppets trapped in the complex web of data and programmable information? Asking questions with no definitive answer, the film really is so much more than just another animation…
Oshii’s film is full of references towards identity, and indeed the fragmentation and contemplation of one’s own human existence. Kusanagi’s inability, or rather fractured sense of being is depicted through a series of subdued, contemplative scenes that reach out and pull you in. At times, it seems difficult, almost impossible to remember that you are watching an animated feature. The film is about transcending into something more than your physical being, and it is the dualisms between The Puppet Master and Kusanagi that are most prolific.
The Puppet Master is in essence a machine that has reached a level of awareness and consciousness far above the limitations of software and programming, yet Kusanagi, a human with machine enhancements, questions whether this sentience can remain inside a cyborg body. The Puppet Master’s proposal of a ‘marriage’ between himself and Kusanagi towards the end of the film serves to imply the crosshatching between the physical limitations of the body to the liberation of the mind. Their merging opens up the possibilities of surpassing the faults in both of their organic and machine makeup/programming to create a new species of life inside the ‘net’ - a reference not only to the sea of living data, but rather the absolute supremacy of a divine maker.
Often hailed as the film to define a genre, Ghost In The Shell is one of the first anime features to incorporate CGI graphics alongside realistic animation. The result is a bifurcation in setting, a cleverly constructed parallelism between the real world and ‘the net’ – the two realms which run analogously throughout the film. The use of colour is used perfectly, highlighting the cyberpunk aesthetic of ‘high tech, low life’, from the dark, gritty streets, to the sanitized and clinical interior of the Section 9 headquarters. A lot of thought has been put in to create a film with superb attention to detail, and therefore you are guaranteed a film of quality, rather than excess.
The film’s attractive visuals are teamed by its attentiveness to sound, in particular the haunting female choir. When Kusanagi traverses the city waterways, the music becomes a thematic commentary as Oshii’s images of mannequins, neon signs and extreme close ups of Kusanagi’s face fill the screen. The poetic poignancy of the combined elements is unbearably apparent, as we are bluntly asked the question of what it means to be human in a world at the brink of information overload.
Although tagged as an action film, there are only two or three major action sequences throughout its short running time. The film’s precedence is far more in its philosophical constructs. On occasions, the film falls back to the inevitable conventions of naked girls with guns seen in so many anime features, but the intelligence in tone and narration clearly extinguishes any frustration one may have.
The contemplative tone that runs throughout the narrative interjects even the most fast-paced action scenes – Kusanagi’s battle with a giant mecha-inspired tank is one such example. Being an opponent with superior weaponry, speed and technology, it would seem that Kusanagi would be no match; however, after a lengthy sequence of acrobatics, and a barrage of gunfire, we see the answer to Kusanagi’s question concerning her humanity. The scene is extremely powerful - as her nude cyborg body begins to fail, her synthetic skin stretches and her limbs tear out of place revealing the inner wires, cogs and motors of her body. The overtly human essence behind her stubbornness to give in depicts the true power of her human emotion as she defies the limits of her cyborg body, revealing the power of the ghost verses the restrictions of the shell.
One of the most commendable points is the film’s ethos, and indeed its relevance to our modern day dependency to technology. The events we witness on screen seem scarily plausible if not already probable. The idea behind the cyborg is that it is organic matter augmented by mechanical components; therefore prosthetic limbs and pacemakers are in ways steps to cyborgization. For all that the film conceptual refers, there are an abundance of new questions and possibilities for us to explore within our own technologically obsessed society.
The theory surrounding the cyborg is fascinating, and the film expertly develops upon both postmodern and feminist theory concerning the body, gender and identity. The film’s detailed touches of colour, animation and music exemplify the quality of the feature, and cement the philosophical ideas concerning the narrative into an even more believable and emphatic response. For fans and newcomers to anime alike, Ghost In The Shell is definitely one not to miss. LF
