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Controversial Opinion: the Live-Action Ghost in the Shell is the most Cyberpunk movie ever

Vagabond Elf

Lieutenant
Red Shirt
So, look, I'm not saying the 2017 live-action GitS is the best movie ever. I mean, it's absolutely beautiful, but even if one divorces it from the rest of the GitS franchise and tries to take it on its own merits, it's a pretty simplistic plot, the villain is a caricature, the ensemble cast is too large and doesn't do anything, and the way it tries to ask big questions at first and then wrap them all up super neatly feels saccharine at best.

I also don't think it deserves the hate it gets. No, it doesn't move the franchise forward at all; the questions it asks about the nature of being human are re-treads of other forms of the story and the answer it offers is too neat and simplistic. But it's such a love letter to all the elements of GitS. There are references to the original manga, to Man-Machine Interface, to the 1995 movie, to Stand-Alone Complex, even to Arise. Some of these are recreating iconic visuals or scenes; some are using those moments and twisting them (like the stealth helo with the sniper team at the end of the film being flipped to be a Hanaka team instead of JSDF), some are simple nods like Saito's eye-socket smartlink, Togusa's revolver, or Kusanagi's red outfit from Arise. I honestly don't think there's a single frame that doesn't have some kind of reference or nod or easter egg in it.

Heck, even the much-protested white-washing of Kusanagi (by casting Johansen in the role) can be seen as reinforcing one of GitS' actual central messages, which is a protest against the Americanization of Japan during the 80s and 90s - a detail that I know a lot of western fans don't pick up on, because of localization problems.

Anyway. No, it's not a great movie, but it is beautiful, and if you're a serious fan of the series there's a lot of pleasure to be had in the fan-wankery of it all.

But I would argue that it's much more Cyberpunk than most versions of Ghost in the Shell. Think about it. What are the tropes of Cyberpunk?

  • Cybernetic transhumanism and huge questions about the line between human and machine
  • Comically evil transnational corporations that can defy governments and operate their own armies.
  • Actual Punks waging street-level resistance to the corps, screaming the truth through music or manifestos at an indifferent, complacent public
  • A collapse of law and order, resulting in "no-go" zones where governments can't function and corps can't be bothered to.
  • And, most importantly Style over Substance.
Most versions of Ghost in the Shell only hit that first checkbox. Some of them get the corporation, to a secondary extent. Others get the collapse of law and order, though that's rare.

None of them favour Style over Substance

This last element is so very, very present in the 2017 movie. It's arguably the entire point of the film. It's certainly why the GitS fanbase in general wasn't all that impressed and fair enough.

But... GitS isn't normally a clean match to the Cyberpunk genre. It has elements in common, but GitS is more part of the broader transhumanism genre rather than the specific subset that is Cyberpunk.

And yet, the 2017 movie is very, very Cyberpunk. At least in my opinion. And it seemed worth typing this up and sharing that opinion.
 
Vagabond Elf said:
There are references to the original manga, to Man-Machine Interface, to the 1995 movie, to Stand-Alone Complex, even to Arise.
Don't forget the 2004 film.

Dr.-Dahlin-and-Dr.-Harraway.jpg


The-Geishas.jpg


Gabriel.jpg
 
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