In the film, Ghost in the Shell (2017), the character known as the Major, played by Scarlett Johansson, has nothing but vague memories. She also has no identity. She has no idea what it even is to be human. ScarJo’s performance of the character is very robotic, lacking a lot of the reactionary emotions that you would typically see in a normal human being; reactions that seem to be displayed in her place by her frequent companion, Batou.
There are tidbits here and there that hint to the idea that the Major’s search for her past is unnecessary. Lines like ‘You don’t need your memories to tell you who you are,’ or ‘Your actions are what define you,’ these types of sentiments. The big teller is, of course, the scene at the end where she identifies herself neither by the name she had before nor the name she was given by Hanka Corporations, but instead by her military title, ‘Major.’
She is not Mira Killian, because Mira Killian was designed to be a tool of Hanka, and Hanka is dead to her. She is not Motoko, because she does not know who Motoko is (the only memory of her past that she is able to uncover doesn’t even reveal her face, which I believe to be an intentional choice by the director). In a lot of ways, she is at the cusp of a brave new world of her own. She understands that there is nothing that can define her because she and her kind are unprecedented.
For a large portion of the people who live in America, history is adopted. I find myself saying ‘We’ when talking about actions taken by the American government (or the country as a whole) from a time long before me or my parents ever lived here. There are also plenty of people who choose to tie themselves and their identity to the culture of their heritage, and there’s nothing wrong with that. More often than I like, I also find myself saying ‘We’ when referring to the people of Korean history.
Being stuck between two histories, I personally find myself with the freedom of choice; most times, I choose to be American. I prefer to associate myself and my values with being American. But I also, quite undeniably, associate myself with Korean culture and what I think is a very Korean way of thinking. In some ways, I can’t help but think of that old symbol, the yin-yang. I am not and probably never will be wholly one or the other.
Where am I? Wherever I want to be, as far as I’m concerned.