Direction: Rupert Sanders; Cast:
Scarlett Johansson, Michael Pitt, Pilou Asbeak, Chin Han, Juliette Binoche; Screenplay:
Jamie Moss, William Wheeler, Ehran Mruger;Based on Ghost In A Shell by
Masamune Shirow; Editing: Neil
Smith, Billy Rich; Producer: Avi Arad, Steven Paul, Michael Costigan; Music:
Clint Mansell, Lorne Balfe; Genre: Sci-Fi Action; Distributor: Paramount
Pictures; Location: Japan; Running
Time: 106 minutes
Technical assessment: 3
Moral
assessment: 3
CINEMA
rating: V14
Ghost in the Shell is based on the Japanese manga by Masamune Shirow. It is set at a time where people have a bit of robot in
them—either as physical aid to a disability or an augmentation to enhance their
capability. The Major, Mila Killian’s (Johanssen), is the first to have a human brain transplanted
into a robotic body. She is an experiment to develop a counter-operative
cyborg. But beneath the metal shell are
fragmented memories of the ghost of the person she used to be. The film follows
her battles as an instrument of violence and aggression to her quest to discover her identity and
humanity.
Undeniably, the movie is a visual
feast with a roller coaster of spectacular interpretation of the future and the
original anime. It stays faithful to the Japanese concept but in staying too
faithful the movie fails to come into its own. The iconic Japanese story is
nothing new as it resounds other movies of above average spies who are always
too willing to set aside their powers and skill in exchange for knowing who
they are and how it is to be human (think
Bourne Identity, Total Recall, Unknown,
and others). However, while the film surpasses them in its visual
techniques and production values, it misses the heart of the narrative—that
which drives a person to be human and to be with a family.
The message of Ghost in the Shell is everyone's struggle—to
find one's identity, to discover the meaning of humanity, and to be one with
society. Every person, over time and through the advancement of technology,
becomes cold and calculating like a robot. When people start to neglect another
person’s feeling in favor of his own, when they set aside natural and Divine
laws in the pretense of order and discipline, when the rights of another are
trampled to benefit the self—we become less human. But, even in a society where
the true self seems to be vanishing – there will always be a Major trying to
break free from the shell of corruption, apathy, and oppression in order to
discover what it means to be a person.
