PDA

View Full Version : Ghost in the Shell's Identity Crisis



IMPress Polly
04-02-2017, 09:57 AM
The new Ghost in the Shell remake is about the wrong questions.


The original 1995 anime was about how the unchecked growth and use of technology threatens to wipe out our whole sense of identity, as humanity's biological housing may become rendered obsolete and memories subject to editing from without. And there was also a second layer: the original came from creators who captured the energy of a Japan that had rapidly transformed itself to become a major creator and distributor of technology and culture in the aftermath of the Second World War. Thematically, that movie hence also reckoned with what people as individuals, AND also as nations, gain and lose when systemic shifts happen. In other words, it was also spiritually about how Japan's adoption of capitalism and induction into the global community threatened to wipe out its own sense of national identity; it's own individuality.




The new film, by contrast, tries to wipe away that specificity in order to appeal to a wider, international audience. The result is a story trajectory that feels much more generic and empty. The Major (the main protagonist), having lost her memories, in this film wonders more about who she was before and where she’s been, rather than who she really is and what part specifically differentiates her from others. This changes what originally was a philosophical reflection on the nature of humanity and identity into a standard-issue superheroish cop drama rife with generic corporate villainy.




Likewise, continuing along this theme of eliminating the specificity of the original in order to broaden the audience, the violence has been de-bloodied and toned down in order to garner a PG-13 rating and, to appeal to a primarily white, American audience, the Major is played by a white actress rather than one who is ethnically Japanese. It feels like they're trying to pander to Western expectations and it ruins the material. And that's pretty ironic considering that the original Ghost in the Shell was all about the threat of losing one's sense of identity! Now, as technology and globalization have progressed further two decades later, the Ghost in the Shell franchise itself seems to have lost its identity. It has become just another bland, money-making venture aimed at a global audience of all ages.

Crepitus
04-02-2017, 10:02 AM
It is sad. I've been a fan of ghost in the shell for ages, and I don't think I'll bother to go see this.

Hal Jordan
04-02-2017, 10:13 AM
I've long been curious as to how the 95 movie compares to the original manga.

Coming to you from the depths of inner space.

Crepitus
04-02-2017, 10:16 AM
I've long been curious as to how the 95 movie compares to the original manga.

Coming to you from the depths of inner space.

Been a long time since I read that, but iirc the whole.thing fits together pretty well.