Storyline
In the near future, Major (Scarlett Johansson) is the first of her kind: A human saved from a terrible crash, who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals. When terrorism reaches a new level that includes the ability to hack into people's minds and control them, Major is uniquely qualified to stop it. As she prepares to face a new enemy, Major discovers that she has been lied to: her life was not saved, it was stolen. She will stop at nothing to recover her past, find out who did this to her and stop them before they do it to others. Based on the internationally acclaimed Japanese Manga, "The Ghost in the Shell."
Cast: Scarlett Johansson -
Major
Pilou Asbæk -
Batou
Takeshi Kitano -
Aramaki
(as 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano)
Juliette Binoche -
Dr. Ouelet
Michael Pitt -
Kuze
(as Michael Carmen Pitt)
Chin Han -
Han
Danusia Samal -
Ladriya
Lasarus Ratuere -
Ishikawa
Yutaka Izumihara -
Saito
Tawanda Manyimo -
Borma
Peter Ferdinando -
Cutter
Anamaria Marinca -
Dr. Dahlin
Daniel Henshall -
Skinny Man
Mana Hira Davis -
Bearded Man
(as Mana Davis)
Erroll Anderson -
Hanka Security Agent
Trivia: Scarlett Johansson worked on this film between Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018). See more »
Quotes:
User Review
Author:
Rating: 5/10
Maybe I had my hopes too high for this one. Like many other fans of the
original material, this adaptation has intrigued me since the first
trailers were available online, because it really looked nice visually,
but, Is this movie worth to be part of the GitS universe?
- Short answer: Not really. Not even nice try.
- Long answer: The cinematography its truly remarkable, it somehow
reproduce the atmosphere of the original anime, the decaying,
depressing, dark megalopolis is correctly reproduced here (despite the
giant weird advertisements that are spread around, that doesn't really
make any sense, and didn't appear in the anime, what are they trying to
sell?), the costumes, robots, and the general look and feel of the
characters are quite satisfying and solid. The music is not bad at all,
includes some of the original score and it work towards creating a
dense and dark environment. The acting is standard, not bad at all. The
script is.... ohhh boy, let me breath... to use nice words, the script
seems to be written addressed to children or to very 'slow' people. All
the rich complexity, all the mature and philosophical themes, all the
sides of the story that the original material let out to be imagined by
the viewer, all that is gone here. Here you can find a bland, generic
script, that explain a generic origin story, that never tries to get
into the philosophical or ethical implications of human body
enhancements or AI. Where the characters are one-sided, good vs bad
people. We are use to that over-simplification of a movie plot, since
we sadly live in a world conquered by the 'marvel'/'batman' method of
making a movie, where the plot should be simple and thin, the
characters shouldn't have any grays and the action should be convoluted
and confusing, full of minions to destroy for the sake of fill 100
minutes (well at least this adaptation has correct action scenes, that
are easy to follow and most of the time are not annoying). To wrap up,
a correct movie, that shines in the visual and action sides, but has a
forgettable script and characters. It will probably perform good in the
box office, and that worries me because what could come next, it will
be really sad to see how they reduce Akira, Jin-roh, Evangelion or
Cowboy bebbop to a generic action blockbuster without any of the things
that made those stories great.
Plot
A female cyborg cop and her partner hunt a mysterious and powerful hacker called the Puppet Master.
Release Year: 1995
Rating: 7.8/10 (36,931 voted)
Director:
Mamoru Oshii
Stars: Atsuko Tanaka, Iemasa Kayumi, Richard Epcar
Storyline The year is 2029. The world has become intensively information oriented and humans are well-connected to the network. Crime has developed into a sophisticated stage by hacking into the interactive network. To prevent this, Section 9 is formed. These are cyborgs with incredible strengths and abilities that can access any network on Earth.
Writers: Kazunori Itô, Masamune Shirow
Cast: Atsuko Tanaka
-
Major Motoko Kusanagi
(voice)
Richard Epcar
-
Bateau
(voice: English version)
(as Richard George)
Akio Ohtsuka
-
Batô
(voice)
Tamio Ôki
-
Section 9 Department Chief Aramaki (JPN)
(voice)
Iemasa Kayumi
-
Project 2501 aka 'The Puppet Master'
(voice)
Kôichi Yamadera
-
Togusa
(voice)
Tesshô Genda
-
Section 6 Department Chief Nakamura
(voice)
Richard Barnes
-
Additional Voices
(voice: English version)
(as Murray Williams)
Steve Blum
-
Additional Voices
(voice: English version)
(as Roger Canfield)
Steve Bulen
-
Section 9 Staff Cyberneticist
/
Coroner
(voice: English version)
Toni Burke
-
Additional Voices
(voice: English version)
Richard Cansino
-
Diplomat
(voice: English version)
(as Steve Davis)
Tom Carlton
-
Garbage Collector A
(voice: English version)
George Celik
-
Old Man
(voice: English version)
Shigeru Chiba
-
Garbage Collector B
(voice)
Taglines:
It Found A Voice... Now It Needs A Body
Release Date: 29 March 1996
Opening Weekend: £7,493
(UK)
(14 December 1995)
(10 Screens)
Gross: $583,393
(Worldwide)
(21 December 1995)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
The lyrics to the title song "Making of a Cyborg" were written in ancient Japanese. The romanized Japanese lyrics are as follows: A ga maeba, kuwashime yoini keri A ga maeba, teru tsuki toyomu nari Yobai ni kami amakudarite Yoha ake, nuedori naku. Tôkamiemitame (x4). English translation: When you are dancing, a beautiful lady becomes drunken. When you are dancing, a shining moon rings. A god descends for a wedding And dawn approaches while the night bird sings. God bless you (x4).
Quotes: Batô:
Chief, you ever question the ethics of the neurosurgeons who monkey around inside your brain? Section 9 Department Chief Aramaki:
They undergo psychiatric evaluations, especially those in security. They're subjected to a stringent screening of their personal lives. Of course, the ones who check are only human. Batô:
I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it.
User Review
Important science fiction
Rating: 10/10
Ghost in the Shell is a visually stunning animated masterpiece.
Japanese animation has always been in a class of its own, so I won't
even attempt to describe the incredible attention to detail and
beautiful imagery in this movie. In this case the animation is merely
icing for what is one of the most important works of science fiction in
recent years.
Every generation has had books and movies that have contributed to our
collective understanding of reality. Prior to World War II this
included books like Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We" and Huxley's "Brave New
World", and later Orwell's "1984". Today most warnings about the future
fall into the category of science fiction. Science fiction began to
fill this role when Arthur C. Clarke's "2001" warned us of the
potential for humanity to create intelligent, even sentient computers
that could murder their human creators. "2001" envisioned computer
intelligence imprisoned in the physical body of a computer. Where
"2001" left off, Ghost in the Shell begins.
Ghost in the Shell tells the story of a future in which a computer
program, Project 2501, becomes self-aware and begins a quest to fill
basic needs it feels are qualifiers of being alive by controlling
computers and people to achieve its ultimate goals. Whereas the
HAL-9000 computer was relatively harmless, owing to its confinement in
the Odyssey space ship, Project 2501 is a recognition that the global
internet could have dire consequences for all of us. By comparison,
this new villain is virtually invincible. But is Project 2501 a
villain?
Most people who have told me that they didn't like this move said that
they didn't understand it. Indeed, the story and concepts are very
complicated. I have watched it several times and still get new things
out of it every time. Roger Ebert called Ghost in the Shell, "Unusually
intelligent and challenging science fiction, aimed at smart audiences".
Ghost in the Shell is full of fascinating dialog, such as this diatribe
about the cycle of life and death by Project 2501. "A copy is just an
identical image. There is the possibility that a single virus could
destroy an entire set of systems, and copies do not give rise to
variety and originality. Life perpetuates itself through diversity, and
this includes the ability to sacrifice itself when necessary. Cells
repeat the process of degeneration and regeneration until one day they
die, obliterating an entire set of memory and information. Only genes
remain. Why continually repeat this cycle? Simply to survive by
avoiding the weaknesses of an unchanging system."
Thus Ghost in the Shell goes beyond simply a prediction or warning for
the future: it attempts to contribute to our understanding of reality
by breaking existence down into biological terms and making us
question, along with the characters in the movie, whether or not any of
us has a soul. The characters in Ghost in the Shell are unusually deep
and are a refreshing change from the one-dimensional stereotypes we've
become numbed by in modern media. Ghost in the Shell would be required
reading in many high school and university courses if it weren't for
the fortuitous fact that it can be enjoyed in this beautifully animated
feature film. This is one of the few movies ever made that everyone
should watch at least once.
0