The opening scene to Ghost in the Shell is one familiar to anyone who has seen a trailer for the live action film, when the Major gets naked and jumps off a roof. It's surprising how well this scene sets up the film, with nudity, violence, philosophy, and diplomacy, lots of diplomacy. It was funny to me how, at least on the two languages available on my DVD, the conversation between the Major and Batou is quite different. The film's intro titles are very funky to look at, as it runs through the assembly process of what this film calls a shell, an artificial body built to house a person's soul, known in this film as a ghost. The music's funky too, got to be honest, it's not a piece of music I'm familiar with, but it was good, and it suits this film. Where Ghost in the Shell does kind of lose me is the Diplomacy, because the opening act has a fair bit of it, I do however get that this is to set the stage for the Puppet master, an elusive cyber criminal who apparently wants to cause political and economic havoc, and as such the film does lean away from that aspect as it progresses, instead delving into its more philosophical elements. Something I did like about this film's opening act was the cop element, as the Major and Batou hunt someone trying to hack a government official, it's a fun little sequence, with a foot chase through alleys and a market that was very entertaining, followed by a faceoff between the hacker and an invisible Major, which was also very entertaining. It's here though that you realise that this film is a slow burn, Slow burn films can still be good if they're not boring, but that's going to be subjective. At this point the film has already hinted at one of its core themes, that being the idea of Humanity; the Major is a cyborg, but in this film she constantly ponders whether or not she can call herself human, she ponders individuality, and what, if anything, makes her unique; this is arguably the film's core theme, since it's also explored in the Puppet Master, but we'll get to that. There's a scene soon after this when the Major goes diving, and has a conversation with Batou about her questions of life, and it really does make you think; what about a person makes them a person, and what makes that person different from other people. The film blurs the line even more with the garbage man, who's been hacked and given fake memories of a wife and kid he's never had, is it memories that make someone unique, because his memories were hacked and altered, his reality was never real. Is it sexuality that makes a person unique, this is an idea extensively explored in the Major; who has no shame in getting naked in front of her colleagues, and in one scene, stares at a shop window mannequin, something symbolic of her sexuality and identity, or lack thereof. Meanwhile batou is more in tune with his identity and sexuality, and will sometimes cover the naked Major with his coat, or look away when she's changing out of a diving suit. Is it biology that makes someone human, can they die, can they have children, do they experience sexual desire? The film explores these ideas in a way I really liked, and it makes the Major a very interesting character, as she asks herself these questions.
These themes are also explored in the Puppet Master, who, like the Major, is questioning what he is, and whether or not what he is can be called human. I found this really weird, since I played this a few years ago in Black Ops III, going up against an intelligence that doesn't know if it's alive or not, of course this film predates Black Ops III by two decades, but it was funny to me to see how much this film's ideas have affected western media. I really liked the Puppet Master in this film, again going back to the theme of sexuality, it's a male voice inside a female robotic body, and it is referred to by section 6 as a he, while he refers to himself as a life-form, it's a very nice reflection of the Major. The Puppet Master is an AI program that became self aware, it never had a physical, biological form, but is it still a living thing. When the film ends, it's revealed that the Major and the Puppet Master merged ghosts, but the resulting ghost is neither the Major or the Puppet Master, in typical philosophical fashion, the film ends on the question; is this new thing more human than before, and is it even a human at all? Something the Major talks about near the beginning of the film is the value of individuality in a system, that there's always multiple ways of looking at things, which is very symbolic of this film's more mind fucky ideas. When the film's not asking such heavy questions however, you still have a very entertaining police thriller. Bringing up Black Ops III again, similar to the AI in that game, the Puppet Master is the result of a secret program that was covered up, though while the Black Ops III AI came from a much more fucked up place, you can tell where it's inspiration came from. This secret program gone wrong and covered up story isn't new now, but it's entertaining nonetheless, and it does something I always love in movies, which is blur the line between good and bad. This film doesn't have a conventional bad guy, there's no evil villain for fight throughout, there's the chase for the Puppet Master, then the chase for the Puppet Master again, this time with the knowledge that he's not some elusive super genius hacker, but an AI seeking to answer it's questions about life. In a funny way, the film is little more than a Shell to harbour its more meaningful ideas, and weave them together in an enjoyable enough thriller about a manhunt and secret government programs. Like I said that the beginning, this is a slow burn, there is action throughout, but it's not an action film; even the final showdown with the Puppet Master sets ups what looks like a huge fight with mean looking spider tank, and then boils down to a conversation between the Major and the Puppet Master. It'll be interesting to see how well that is reflected in the new film, or if it goes for a more action heavy story, and how that will be received by a more action hungry audience, again, I tend to enjoy slower films if they're interesting or engaging, Ghost in the Shell is both.
When I was watching it last night, I was enjoying the film as a thriller with more philosophical elements, but on reflection, Ghost in the Shell has much more to offer than that. It's a similar feeling I got the first time I played Bioshock, I had fun playing it, but it took time for me to truly appreciate what made it great, it took a day or two to digest that game's ideas of philosophy, society and free will, Ghost in the Shell is the same. And that's what I like most about the film, those more challenging ideas, and the questions it poses. I appreciate that it's not everyone's cup of tea, some people might prefer a simpler, more action heavy film, and the original Ghost in the Shell is not that, but I like films with substance, and Ghost in the Shell is definitely that. There's a few more Ghost in the Shell movies out there, and I don't know if I'll ever sniff them out, but I suppose there's no excuse not to now, because I really like Ghost in the Shell.
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