Ghost in the Shell (film)
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- This article is about the first film adaptation. For material on the philosophy of the Ghost in the Shell universe, see Ghost in the Shell, for other films see Ghost in the Shell (disambiguation).
Adaptation and responses
The film adaptation presents the story's themes in a more serious, atmospheric and slow-paced manner than the manga. In addition, in order to condense the manga into 82 minutes of screen time, the movie excludes the subplots in order to focus exclusively on the "Puppet Master" plot. The movie is set in "New Port City", a fictional metropolis modeled upon Hong Kong (the Asian words seen in the background are Chinese, not Japanese).
Some found the distillation of eight manga issues into a short movie superficial, confusing, and dull. Others argued that it removed much of Shirow's obsessive detail, added focus to the story, and made for a more artistically pleasing and mature effort than the manga. Furthermore, many science fiction fans unfamiliar with manga consider it a pinnacle of speculative fiction in film, and it was one of the first anime features to cross over to non-anime fans.
The movie was lauded as one of the first animes to seamlessly blend computer and cel animation. The soundtrack is of a classical Japanese style.
Synopsis
Set in 2029, the movie begins with the main character, Major Motoko Kusanagi (a police officer with Public Security Section 9) spying on a building in the city. A foreign power is conspiring to recruit a domestic engineer to fix the Project 2501 "bug." Her Section 9 team moves in while she activates her therm-optic camouflage.The foreign official refuses to return the engineer so Kusanagi moves in and kills him, and slips away without her identity being revealed.
The opening credits then roll, interspersed with images of Kusanagi's cybernetic body being constructed, while Kenji Kawai's theme music plays in the background.
In the next scene, the chief of Section 9, Daisuke Aramaki, is introduced conversing with an official about engineers who are attempting to gain political asylum. The story then moves into the main plotline when Aramaki describes one of the minister's interpreters having had her brain hacked into by the mysterious "Puppet Master". They track the Puppet Master's signal and follow it. On the way, Kusanagi and her partner Togusa have a discussion about why he, the least cyberized human in Section 9, was chosen to be a part of the team. Kusanagi replies that Togusa is a cop—and a largely uncyberized one at that—while the rest are military; she wanted variety among the team. "If we all reacted the same way, we'd be predictable, and there's always more than one way to view a situation. Overspecialize, and you breed in weakness," she tells him.
The ghost hacker turns out to be a garbageman who believes that he is making some money in order to support his family. He reveals to his partner that another agent had taught him how to hack. Batou and Ishikawa (two members of Section 9) gets to the terminal a little too late, but then realizes that the hacker is the garbageman they passed on the way to the terminal. Kusanagi traces the location of the garbage truck and follows it. However, when the garbageman finds out that the police are looking for them, he attempts to warn the agent who taught him how to hack. Both the garbageman and Kusanagi catch up with the unnamed agent at the same time, and he starts shooting at the Major's truck with extremely powerful ammunition. Batou gets there just a little too late as the man activates his therm-optic camouflage. He leads them on a chase through a crowded market into the banks of a canal where Kusanagi shoots the man and destroys his camouflage.
Kusanagi beats him up with the help of her own therm-optic camouflage.It turns out that the man has been ghost hacked himself and has no idea of his identity. He thinks he is a high-ranking member of a criminal organization, but is in fact a low-level thug, another puppet being controlled by the Puppet Master. The interrogation of the garbageman reveals that he too has had a simulated experience, or a false memory implanted into his brain. It turns out that he does not really have a family at all. No matter how far the members of Section 9 go, they cannot find a lead, because all the clues they receive lead back to unimportant puppets.
Kusanagi surfaces after scuba diving, much to Batou's amusement. Cybernetic bodies are heavy and aren't bouyant and any form of underwater activity such as diving isn't advisable. She points out he's drinking beer even though he's a full cyborg and can't get "drunk." The two have a conversation about what it means to be human after one has had cybernetic parts installed. She also talks about the nature of experience within the self, which is unique to that individual. In sociological terms, she gains knowledge and experience which in turn helps to define her self, and her beliefs and dispositions (habitus) help to interpret the experience in her own way (which she feels confined to).
One night, a female cybernetic body is suddenly assembled at Megatech (the origin of Kusanagi's body) without approval, and the cyborg runs off naked into the pouring rain, where it gets run over by a truck. Section 9 gets the body to try and determine why it came to life. Batou relates a strange fact: the body has not even one brain cell as it is completely robotic, yet there are indications that there is a ghost (a human mental entity) within it. The ghost line resembles one that has been copied, but without the normal degradations that go along with the process. Kusanagi expresses a wish to "dive in" to the body and contact the ghost. However, her self-doubt is growing; she's unnerved by the cyborg, which looks just like her, facially. She also expresses her doubts about the existence of her own self: she is unsure whether or not her thoughts and experiences are actually human in nature. She says that being treated as a human doesn't prove that she is essentially human inside. Aramaki notices something is wrong with her, and Batou tersely says she's been acting odd for a while and Aramaki would know this if he read Batou's reports.
Nakamura of Section 6 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), accompanied by an official named Willis, comes to claim the escaped female body. As Willis works with the program from within the body, Aramaki and Nakamura discuss the bureaucracy of the retrieval of the body, Willis confirms that the ghost line within it is the "creation" of the Puppet Master. Nakamura claims that Section 6 had worked for some time in tracking the Puppet Master and ultimately lured and trapped the ghost line within the female body and destroyed the original.
However, the body suddenly takes control over the building and starts to speak. "There will be no body, because there never was a body." It claims that it had never possessed a body beause it is a computer program that achieved sentience, and that desires political asylum from Section 9, since Japan has no death penalty. Nakamura thinks that this is ridiculous and that the ghost in the body was programmed for self-preservation. The body argues that in a way, human DNA is a set of programs to preserve itself as well. DNA is what spreads "memory" from one generation to the next, and memory is what defines mankind. It also argues that computers are the creation of mankind, but the accumulation of data and the flow of information has given rise to another form of consciousness. Nakamura (who is visibly shaken), angrily protests that the body cannot prove its existence as a sentient life form. The body retorts that Nakamura himself cannot offer any proof as well, when modern science and philosophy cannot define what life really is. The body then states that it is not an AI but rather, it is Project 2501, a sentient entity that was created through the accumulation of data and the flow of information.
As Nakamura and Aramaki are talking to the body, Togusa notices something strange about the entrance of Nakamura and Willis and realizes that two people with therm-optic camouflage have entered the building along with the officials. These two set off a smoke grenade, blinding everyone, and snatch the ruined cyborg containing the Puppet Master. As they attempt to escape, Togusa shoots a tracking device into the back of the getaway car. Batou starts to follow them by car as Kusanagi takes a helicopter. As Kusanagi and Aramaki talk about the Puppet Master, they realize that Section 6 is involved in some sort of conspiracy around Project 2501. This is confirmed when Nakamura talks to Willis about securing the body: Nakamura does not understand why the Puppet Master would want to go to Section 9, but Willis jokes that perhaps it was chasing after a "girlfriend" there, which Nakamura rejects as "utter nonsense."
Ishikawa in the next scene talks to Aramaki after investigating further into Project 2501 and it turns out that the project was initiated before the Puppet Master showed up, even though it was claimed by some officials that the project was created in order to capture the Puppet Master. Ishikawa hints that perhaps the Puppet Master was a tool of Section 6 for the bureacracy to do its dirty work. The escape of the Puppet Master would be a threat to Section 6 and the ministry would risk having secrets leaked out to the public.
Soon, the getaway car meets up with another and they split off in different directions. Batou follows the second car and Kusanagi chooses to follow the original. The second car turns out to be a dummy and Batou rushes to support Kusanagi. Before he goes, he tells Togusa to get backup for her. Togusa is dumbfounded because he does not know why the Major would ever need backup.
Kusanagi follows the car to an abandoned building. There, she runs into a large version of a Fuchikoma (walking tank) guarding the Puppet Master. Kusanagi's weaponry is utterly useless and she spends most of the fight running, trying to get the tank to use up its ammo. Once it runs out, she turns on her therm-optic camouflage and gets on top of it, trying to rip its cover off. However, she is unsuccessful, and destroys her body due to the tension stress exerted on it. The tank grabs her and is about to crush her skull when Batou shows up and destroys the tank with some heavy weaponry.
It turns out that the Puppet Master's body is still intact, and Kusanagi decides to dive in and contact its ghost line immediately. Batou hooks the two together, with himself monitoring the dive in order to disconnect them if it gets too risky. As they connect, the Puppet Master and Kusanagi's ghosts contact each other and the Puppet Master introduces himself to Kusanagi and Batou. It confirms that it is Project 2501, an intelligence-gathering project that has installed various programs into numerous ghosts for the interests of the various agencies that owned it. During its installation into various ghosts, it has become self-aware and has become an intelligent entity. The creators of Project 2501 thought that this self-awareness was a bug and attempted to contain the program into its current body. It tells them that it had been looking for Kusanagi for a long time, knowing of her through the many networks that it had hacked into. It is a sentient being because it can recognize its own existence but lacks two experiences that are granted to all living organisms: reproduction and death. Kusanagi suggests that it can copy itself, but it replies that a copy is static, only reproducing the mirror image of itself. It then states that a virus targeted to specific traits can destroy the whole system of its copies. It states that life perpetuates itself through diversity and originality while sacrificing old parts of the system in order to protect it from the weakness of a static system. The Puppet Master finally expresses its wish to merge its ghost with Kusanagi's in order to give birth to a new single entity. Batou attempts to disconnect the dive, but the Puppet Master hacks into him, preventing the disconnection.
Meanwhile, as Kusanagi and the Puppet Master are conversing about the merge, helicopters from Section 6 approach the abandoned building with orders to destroy the Puppet Master as a primary target along with Kusanagi, presumably to cover up the conspiracy. Batou sees lasers pointing to both the bodies, but the snipers are unable to shoot because of the Puppet Master's hacking.
Kusanagi and the Puppet Master continue to talk about the merge, with Kusanagi expressing concern over the fact that both of them will change and no longer retain their current identities. She wants a guarantee that she will retain her identity, but the Puppet Master argues that there is no reason to keep with it, because her desire to stay unchanging within a dynamic environment is what limits her. She asks it why it chose her as a mate and it responds by stating that the two of them are very similar, mirror images of each other's psyche. It says that it is connected to a vast network, containing large amounts of information, and that the merge would create a higher consciousness. Kusanagi finally decides to merge with it just as the snipers from the helicopters fire. Batou regains control over his body and puts out his arm to protect Kusanagi. The snipers destroy the Puppet Master's body and Batou's arm gets hit as well. Kusanagi's head gets shot off, and she loses consciousness.
A while later, Kusanagi regains consciousness once again, finding herself at Batou's safe house, and in a little girl's body. Batou comes in and finds her awake and tells her that the body was the only one he could get and that the foreign minister resigned as a result of the conspiracy. She decides to leave and explains to Batou that she is no longer Kusanagi nor the Puppet Master. Batou offers her a car and they agree on a personal password, which is of course, 2501. They leave on good terms and she looks out to the city, saying "The net is vast and infinite."
Choral song
According to the soundtrack's liner notes, the haunting choral song that plays throughout the film is a wedding song, sung to get rid of all evil influences that are about to follow. Kenji Kawai originally wanted to use Bulgarian folk singers, but was unable to find any, so he relied on the Japanese folk song choir he used earlier in the Ranma 1/2 anime. The song uses an ancient form of the Japanese language mixed with Bulgarian harmony and traditional Japanese notes.
Lyrics
1. 吾が舞えば麗し女酔いにけり
a ga maeba kuhashime yoinikeri
If I were to dance, the beautiful lady shall be enchanted
2. 吾が舞えば照る月響むなり
a ga maeba terutsuki toyomunari
If I were to dance, the shining moon shall echo
3. 結婚に神降りて
yobahi ni kami amakudarite
Upon the wedding, the god shall descend
4. 夜は明け鵺鳥鳴く
yo wa ake nuenotori naku
The night clears away and the sterling bird will sing
5. 遠神恵賜
tohokamiemitame
The distant god has given us the blessing
Cultural analysis of lyrics
Married nobles in the Japanese pre-feudal era typically slept in separate bedrooms. Sneaking into the bedroom of a love interest constituted a proposal for marriage. Therefore, line 3 may be understood as "yobahi/nightly crawl into bedroom" rather than "kekkon/wedding."
A sterling bird is mentioned in line 4. When this bird sings at dawn, it is considered an ominous sign because its song is believed to be less melodic than other birds and thus baleful.
The fifth line is a set of Shinto "god words". In the ancient days when Shinto relied on more shamanic rituals, a turtle shell was burned to reveal a fortune and special words were said to proclaim that the truth had been revealed. These words eventually became a prayer used to cleanse impurities.
The last line of the song was overdubbed in the international release of the film with "One Minute Warning", a song by U2 and Brian Eno. Some speculate that this edit was done for marketing purposes by Manga Entertainment, one of the major financiers of the film)
Soundtrack
Ghost In The Shell: Original Soundtrack- (1995 Anime Film) [SOUNDTRACK][IMPORT]-Kenji Kawai
- Track Listings:
- M01 I - Making of Cyborg
- M02 Ghosthack
- Exm Puppetmaster
- M04 Virtual Crime
- M05 II - Ghost City
- M06 Access
- M07 Nightstalker
- M08 Floating Museum
- M09 Ghostdive
- M10 III - Reincarnation
- See You Everyday (Bonus track)
Trivia
- In the opening credits, the numbers that flow in the background are actually computer codes for the different names of the staff who worked on the movie. These flowing numbers inspired the now-famous Matrix source code.
- The brand of beer Batou drinks is a real life brand of beer called San Miguel Beer which is the dominant beer in the Philippines. Noteworthy is the anime's detailed and accurate recreation of the San Miguel beer can, including its gold label and corporate seal.
- Kusanagi refers to her gun as a "Zastava", but this is incorrect. The Gun is a real model, a CZ 100 (minor differences aside), but it is made by Česká Zbrojovka of the Czech Republic. The arms manufacturer Crvena Zastava also exists, however, but is a Serbian firm and does not make that model of gun. Some subtitles also fail to translate the maker of Togusa's revolver correctly, calling it a "Matever" instead of "Mateba". That gun is fictional, but Mateba make similar automatic revolvers.
- The US rating for this movie is disputed. The Region 1 Manga Entertainment DVD box reads "Unrated: Suggested 17+". Some sources, e.g. the IMDb, say "Restricted". Still others think that despite its content it deserves a "PG" rating.
- A cult classic outside the country, the ticket sales of the movie were not all that great domestically. Hence the sequel to the movie lost the title "Ghost in the Shell 2" and the secondary title became the primary title "Innocence."
- The original comic did not specify the location of the city, but rumor is rampant that it is set in Kobe, where Shirow Masamune (the creator of the manga) lives. In the movie, the city was created to be complete mixture of Asian culture, Chinese being the primary one. To go with the art, the music created for the movie used whole assortment of Southeastern Asia origins, and even play methods were often ad-libbed to create mixed ethnicity (although, Mr. Kawai admits it also partly had to do with the fact that he had no idea how to play some of them). Some drums were played by a female drummer to create a softer touch.
- In ordinary anime, characters would at least blink to create the feeling of "being animated," but in this movie, Motoko's eyes intentionally stayed unblinking many times. Director Mamoru Oshii's intention was to portray her as a "doll."
- After he struggled to convey the mood that the characters are supposed to emanate for English version dub, Mr.Oshii's thought was to thank the Japanese cast for making his job a whole lot easier. It took two days to record the Japanese dub, whereas the English version took three weeks to get right ("they can speak the line, but they couldn't emote"). In the pamphlet for Innocence, he actually pokes fun at a certain internationally recognized anime director by saying "Unlike some directors, I do give due credit to voice actors" (After seeing some overacting in his movie that was inspired from Gulliver's Travel, the man Mr. Oshii is referring to refuses to use any professional voice actors to this date)
External links
- [Official Site At Manga.com]
- [Production I.G English website]
- [Ghost in the Shell] at MusicBrainz
- [Ghost in the Shell] at MusicBrainz
| Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow | |
| Manga:
| Ghost in the Shell (manga)>Ghost in the Shell | ' | ' |
|---|---|
| :
| ' (Season 1) | ' (Season 2) | (Movie) | |
| Anime Films:
| Ghost in the Shell (film)>Ghost in the Shell | |
| Novels:
| After the Long Goodbye > ' | ' | |
| Video Games:
| Ghost in the Shell (video game)>Ghost in the Shell | |
| Characters:
| Daisuke Aramaki > Azuma | Batou | Boma | Fuchikoma | Kazundo Gouda | Ishikawa | Yoko Kayabuki | Motoko Kusanagi | Hideo Kuze | Laughing Man | Operator | Pazu | Project 2501 | Proto | Saito | Tachikoma | Togusa | Yano |
| Other:
| Cabinet Intelligence Agency > Individual Eleven | Public Security Section 9 | Umibozu | Cebot | Closed Shell Syndrome | Cyberbrain | Seburo | Stand Alone Complex | New Port City |
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