Very few movies even approach what is, for me, the gold standard of science fiction: Blade Runner. One of those is Ghost in the Shell.
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Unlike the other films I’ve talked about in this 10-day movie challenge series, I don’t have a very clear memory of when or where I first saw Ghost in the Shell. I know it wasn’t in a theater, so it must have been on DVD. And it was probably during my stint at UCI—though that doesn’t narrow it by much, as I was there for a long time.
All I remember is that I loved it.
Like Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell explores questions of the “posthuman”—questions of what makes humans human ( is it intelligence? memory? emotion? the body?); questions of how far we can go (in cybernetics, in uploaded consciousness) and still remain human; questions of how much humanity, or some simulacrum thereof, machines can develop (in androids, or artificial intelligence).
In Blade Runner, it’s the question of whether replicants are close enough to being human that they deserve the same rights—or, even more, the same empathy—that we do.
In Ghost in the Shell, it’s a range of questions, many of them summed up by its main character, Major Motoko Kusanagi: “What if a cyber brain could possibly generate its own ghost, and create a soul all by itself? And if it did, just what would be the importance of being human then?”
On top of that, the film is simply gorgeous. I especially loved the montage in near the middle of the film, with haunting music (a traditional Japanese wedding song, according to the Ghost in the Shell wiki) that floats above breathtaking images of the fictional New Port City.
Ghost in the Shell is my favorite anime film, though I’ll admit I’ve only seen a few. But it’s also one of my favorite films, period.
This is part of a series, echoing the “10 Day Movie Challenge” that I got sucked into on Facebook:
Every day I must select an image from a film that has impacted me in some way, present it without a single explanation and nominate somebody to take the challenge by starting his/her own post and selecting someone to continue.
Without a single explanation? Nice try.
Previous posts:
- #day1 – For your eyes only
- #day2 – Wait until dark
- #day3 – Blade runner
- #day4 – Flashdance
- #day5 – Star wars
- #day6 – The aristocats
- #day7 – Life of Brian