Movies

Ghost In a Shell – Review by FattyCat

On April 11, 2017 by

For those of you who don’t know Ghost in a Shell was a Japanese manga series of books first published in 1989 and then made into a cartoon film in 1995. It follows the story of ‘Major’ , a female who’s body was seriously injured in a boating accident. Her brain is saved and transplanted into a cybernetic shell body.

The movie basically asks the viewer questions:

Do we have a soul or as they call it  a ghost – which will make us always better than an android?

How far is it ok to go with ‘enhancing’ our bodies by adding synthetic parts?

Major struggles through the film with having lost her sense of touch and because of this her sense of attachment. Does the act of touching a person, an animal or an object draw us closer? Think about the hand that you hand brushed last time you were in the pub – I bet if it was a person of the opposite sex you looked at your hand and then smiled at the person and that fleeting touch and glimpse of a face stayed with you long afterwards.

The film has a similar affect too, whereas the cartoon was excellent and followed the story and the manga imagery it didn’t have the sense of atmosphere that you feel with this version of the story. There is also sense of a deep emotional connection on screen between Major and Batou (Pilou Asbaek) and the relationship between Major and Dr Ouelet (Juliette Binoche). There were times in this version that tears filled my eyes and yet in the cartoon this never occured.

The movie is beautiful and so true to the manga imagery it is hard to believe that more films won\’t follow.