Based on the manga comic series by Masamune Shirow (which i haven't yet had the pleasure of reading) Ghost in the Shell (released in 1995) is a tale of the future, 2029 to be exact. Directed by Mamoru Oshii (who was a supervising producer for Blood: The Last Vampire) 'Ghost' has essentially a rather simple story line. Centered around 'Major' Motoko Kusanagi, who works for section 9 a type of police, and her quest to find a hacker known as 'The puppet master', aided by Bateau a friend who also works for section 9 (voiced by Akio Otsuka who is the Japenesse dub voice of William Riker in Star Trek: TNG!). But the film is really padded out, its 82 mins in total, with a number of philosophical points and discussions between the characters about individuals perception of reality, existance as well as some political and socialogical aspects. Now i could quite possibly write pages and pages looking and analysing the philosophical issues within this film but someone has beaten me to it and made a rather good start :) at the bottom of this page is a banner for a site called 'In the shell' its also in general an excellent 'Ghost' site that also reviews the manga comic as well, so go have a peeky. I'm not going to linger on the philosophical aspects of the film, hopefully in the near future i'll get a second page up and running with something on all that. So let us move on :)
If you ever get this film on VHS because like me don't have the joy of a DVD player yet get the collectors edition with the production report, its worth it! Watching the production report explains not only how they made the film and how the film contains a mixture of the traditional drawing of cels with CG work and digital editing etc. but also some of the thought behind certain effects. For example, when the major is battling the tank the realistic quality of the bullets as they richoquet off various surfaces, real bullets spark when they hit metal but don't spark when they hit stone and this is replicated in the film. A scene that i particularly liked was when the Major is talking to Bateau on the boat, as she is talking the background and her move in and out of focus and the background seems to come to life, kinda like when you've spun round lots and your dizzy. In the production report it says that subtle distortion of the background and incremental size changes in the background and foreground were used to create a clautsophobic feeling.
The music in the film is rather than being all futuristic is a more traditional chinese composition which reminds me of ceremonial and religious music, giving the impression that the film is building towards an important event or some kind of spiritual enlightenment. Theres a brilliant use of silence and pauses in this film and at times the film very effectively combines both a sense of tension with a serene quality. The best example of this is when the Major and Bateau are chasing a person the puppet master is controling to an open area ankle high with water.
Ghost in the shell is just a brilliant film overall, its one of the first manga films i saw and had more than a helping hand in getting me sucked into this fascinating genre. |
