Futurefilm Retrospective: the Oshii Ghost in the Shell Films

In this edition of the Futurefilm Retrospective I'll be talking about Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell films, Ghost in the Shell and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence.

1996 saw the release of Ghost in the Shell, a very influential anime film based on the manga by Shirow Masamune. The first time I saw it I was entranced by the traditional Japanese chant that came along with the creation of a cyborg (it turns out that the song is a wedding chant!) the philosophy and the futuristic setting. Not long after I managed to get a copy of the original manga and compared the two. Both works are philosophical and consider the same concepts, but as always the anime trims down most of the subplots to focus the story.

There are a lot of biblical references in the narrative, most notably the passage that our protagonist, Motoko Kusanagi, utters in the halfway point of the film, continued in the last part of the film. I think it's from Corinthians, also a source of other cultural references in the film.

Culture is another thing that is discussed in both films, although subtly. Despite (or perhaps because?) of the major technological advances in human manipulation, cultures have begun to meld together without being wiped out. The setting of the series, Newport City, is not confirmed to be in Japan at all; in fact most of the signage and rituals point to a Chinese origin, despite the fact that the main characters are working for the Japanese government.

Masamune is a weapons otaku and it shows in the manga - each weapon is given a lovingly detailed description, with notes on ammo capacity, rate of fire, penetrating power and so on. In the films, weapon sounds and recoil are researched thoroughly, although the explanations are not as prominent. One notable omission in the anime is the inclusion of the sentient battle tanks known as Fuchikoma. Their story is expanded in the anime series where they gain a collective consciousness and are retired due to that fact.

The films continue with Innocence, released in 2004 at the Cannes Film Festival. Although a sequel to the film, it is not based on either of the manga sequels, Human-Error Processor or Man Machine Interface. Instead, it is loosely based on a chapter from the first manga series. This film explores the concepts of identity and having a soul even further than the first one. It's a bit hard to discuss it without spoiling anything so I'll just leave it at that.

In both films the dog is a major symbolic reference. In some mythologies they are regarded as guards over the next plane of existence. In particular, the Basset Hound that we see in his other films are here (even more so in Innocence) as an anchor to reality. A major motif in the second film is the doll and its symbolic comparison to the cyborgs and androids that we see in the film.

The original film was reworked and released as Ghost in the Shell 2.0. It uses advanced CGI sequences and cleans up most of the shots in the movie. There are some major changes that have been a point of controversy (the Puppet Master's voice has been changed from an effectively jarring male to a female) making it a work that stands on its own. Your mileage may vary on which version you think is better.

Ghost in the Shell is a must see work that has to be seen at all levels. I also recommend the anime series, Stand Alone Complex, which expands most of the cyberpunk and sci fi themes from the manga to a remarkable work on its own.