Hot Picks
|
|
|
Kokaku Kidotai
Ghost in the Shell
Japan 1995
produced by Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, Ken iyadomi, Ken Matsumoto, Yoshimasa Mizuo, Shigeru Watanabe, Teruo Miyahara (executive), Takashi Mogi (executive), Andy Frain (executive) for Kodansha, Bandai Visual, Manga Entertainment
directed by Mamoru Oshii
screenplay by Kazunori Ito, based on the manga by Masamune Shirow, music by Kenji Kawai, animation director: Toshihiko Nishikubo, key animation supervisors: Kazuchika Kise, Hiroyuki Okiura, character design by Hiroyuki Okiura, special effects by Mutsu Murakami
anime Ghost in the Shell
review by Mike Haberfelner
|
|
|
|
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
|
|
2029 AD: By now the world is mostly computerized, with cybernetic
gadgets having invaded every aspect of human life, and most people are
even enhanced by cybernetic organs. In such a world, the cyborg special
agent/assassin Motoko hunts down (cyber) criminals with her colleagues,
the vastly augmented Bateau, and Togusa, who's still mostly human.
At the present time, their main target is the Puppetmaster, an
artuificial intelligence that has surfed through the minds of many humans,
using them as his puppets, and has often erased all their memories, and
even their ghost, the thing that still makes them human. But since the
Puppetmaster isn't a being as such anymore but just intelligence hopping
from shell to shell, it's increasingly hard to take him down and takes
many a chase. Ultimately though it seems that fate intervenes when he (she
?) gets caught in a cyborg body that is run over and shattered by a truck.
Once Motoko's organisation, dubbed Section 6, has gotten hold of
the body though, the foreign office (Section 9) claims the body
(having created the Puppetmaster in the first place as their
weapon), but the Puppetmaster - who claims not to be mere AI
anymore but claims to have a ghost of his own - requests political asylum
... but while Section 6 and 9 are still arguing over responsibilities, the
Puppetmaster is broken free, and it seems only Motoko and company are able
to stay hot on his heels - until Motoko finally manages to corner the
Puppetmaster, and after breaking down his defenses she insists on Batou
watching over her diving into the Puppetmaster's mind ... and
realizes that he is nt really her enemy but a being very much like
herself, Artificial Intelligence that has become independent and
human-like and that's fighting for its right to live. Ultimately, she
agrees to blending her mind with the Puppetmaster's to become a new
being - and Batou can escape with this new mind just before Section 9
bombards the whole site - and transplanting the mind in a childlike cyborg
body he got from the black market, he grants the Motoko/Puppetmaster-hybrid
a new lease of life.
For serious science fiction fans, Ghost in the Shell is some
kind of revelation: The film is full of wonderful (if conventional)
futuristic designs, offers (si-fi-)action aplenty, is as fast paced as can
be - and at the same time it features a very intelligent (if a tad
convoluted) script that gives the film's narrative a philosophical
background that goes far beyond your usual sci-fi-actioner.
In a word, this film's a must-see and is definitely recommended.
|