WWW.ScarJo in the Shell.arg?
I understand things you love as a kid, sometimes don’t have the same feel when you go back as an adult and watch them. This film although visually pleasing, but left a hole in the hearts of lovers of the Ghost In the Shell series. Being a fan of the series since the late 90’s, back in the days when VHS was still a thing, I tried really hard to give this film honest try. But damn ScarJo, what have you done to our beloved G.I.T.S.? And why did the screen writers have to change Major’s name??? Mira? No, she is Motoko. Man oh man.
https://imgur.com/gallery/S8NxTY6
The opening scene was a throw back to the 1995 making, and they almost nailed it. Then you notice a white women was cast to play Major. And I get that Hollywood is all making money, and agents are like car salesmen. But in my opinion, they really should have put more into casting this movie and stuck closer to the original source material. They hit the nail on the head if they where looking for a feelingless over cast white women with a stereo typical Hollywood body to be the center of yet another female superhero like role. She got the sexy part right, she is gorgeous. But unfortunately her skin tight white body suit looks a little to close to that of Marilyn Manson’s, that he flaunted on stage in the late 90’s. And each time I saw it I thought of him, but now that I look back. He might have been a better choice for the roll.
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Just saying he might have been a better fit for the roll.
Okay enough Scarlet bashing for now. Onto my observation about the film. I loved the way the visual feel and the use of computer generated elements. The score was great too, it fit the feel of the visuals well and the theme of the series. The building of Major’s shell montage was great and gives the audience a feel of complexity of the machine within. The way she went in and out of cloaking was rad, and her fight skills echoed that of the original series. I really enjoyed the Matrix like fights and use of vivid color in the futuristic no named world. With a 5th Element feel to the multi ethnic machine run world, the viewer is given that immersive feel of being in a melting pot of culture.
Major’s inner battle to find the truth of “who” is inside of her shell falls flat. Under the impression her and her family died in a terrorist attack, and the company Hanka Robotics where able to save her brain and placed her in a host body. Being used a advanced cyber warrior of the Section 9 team, she fights crime against the evils of the future. She begins having “glitches” in her vision, which flash images from her past. But the scientist at Hanka delete these glitches and tell her it’s nothing. An enemy starts killing the Hanka scientist and becomes the focus of Section 9 team. Trying to figure out more about the attacker, Major does a counter hack of a Geisha used to assassinate on of the scientists, and finds Kuze. They track him to a night club, where he traps Major and this is when you get the feeling these two are connected. Kuze, tells her she isn’t the only shell experiment and makes her question Hanka as she knows them.
She questions the women scientist who works on her about her past. Then there is an assassination attempt on the scienist by Cutter the head of Hanka, and the scientist gives her a file of majors true past. Major visits the home of a Japanese women, whose daughter went missing a year ago and begins tot piece together her past. The women tells Major, she reminds her of Motoko her daughter. Which is weird a random white lady walks into her house and she just feels comfortable enough to tell her all these things. Not very traditional for an elder Japanese women to do this, but it’s hollyweird…. Eventually she figures out, her family didn’t die in a terrorist attack and her she is housing this missing young ladies brain. The glitches intensify and she searches out Kuzo for more answers.
In the end, she finds the location of the building she sees in the glitches and her and Kuze take a trip down memory lane figuring out that they both who they both where and boom. You find out they where runaways, who lived in this building traditional home from her glitches together. They were both captured and their brains transplanted into these shells to be Cutter’s enhanced human projects. Procter 2571, Kuze had gone rogue, and was the evil one, while Major was the successful version and headed up Section 9. It’s weird they threw in the little love story feelings moment at the end, then all hell broke loose. There is a battle where her and Kuze, team up to fight Cutter’s men and a giant Spider Tank. Major destroys the tank after Kuze is killed, and Beat’s character kills Cutter in a standoff.
I was excited to see Beat Takeshi, his fight scene was true to his past rolls. I took a Japanese Film class at Evergreen years ago and he was the subject of my final project as well as my favorite Japanese actor. So I knew he doesn’t go out without a fight and he’s a great resource to have on your side. He was about the best cast roll in the movie, besides Major’s mother. Having him as one of the only Japanese speaking role was odd, and again we can thank hollyweird for that.
The movie ends with Major continuing her work as cyber soldier fighting for justice and the end is left open for a sequel. Hopefully she will get a shell made that fits her heritage better and moves the remake back towards the original source material. The internet is full of theories this film could have done better with an Asian women in the roll of Major, and I think they are right. With so many super fans, the series lovers would champion a movie with a better cast and something that holds true to the source. I understand sometimes things need to be shaken up, but please hollywood have some compassion towards the stories you rob from other cultures and redo. Do them justice and please try to hold up the cultural values over watering them down for white bread America.