Onyx
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- Apr 24, 2018
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Given the lackluster reviews I put off seeing this film until recently (free library DVD). The film was disappointing, but mainly because it (like most SF adaptations) dumbed down its source material to make it "accessible" to a broader audience than people conversant in "sci fi talk".
The film is not an adaptation of the GitS manga by author Masamune Shirow as much as a pastiche of the first anime film of that name directed by Mamoru Oishii. Major plot points, characterization, scenes and style are largely lifted from the 1995 film in a very obvious way, which causes the audience to make very direct comparison between the methodical pace and confident main character of the anime vs the Hollywood pacing and unsure Johansson version of the Major. Functionally, events in the 2017 film and its final scene set it up as the prequel to the 1995 film - both explaining the background and appearance of some of the charaters (why the Major is the hottest cyborg, where Batou's eyes come from), but also puts the final scene in the live action as the first scene in the 1995 anime. The 2017 film also borrows vehicle designs directly from 1995 and also oddball references - Mamoru Oishii loves basset hounds and frequently includes them in his works as 'extras', while the 2017 film goes as far as making one a character. The 2017 film is very much an act of love acknowledging the 1995 film.
The "dumbing down" is largely the explicitness of the technology shown and the level of exposition attached to it. In the most Ghost material, it is unclear to what degree the Major and other characters are cyborged. In the source material, it is taken for granted that everyone has a "cyberbrain" implant, and in the 2017 film the only people that obviously have them are heavily cyborged characters and those with technology glued to their temples. The 2017 film even shows the Major's organic brain - something the other versions avoid to allow both character and audience to truly wonder if she is human at all, and to allow the possibility that some characters aren't chained to a specific brain at all. The 2017 film attempts to remove any confusion and makes heavy cyborgs like Batou into synthetic limb and organ recipients - even slightly unwilling ones, like when Batou loses his eyes.
Whitewashing: This is both a fair claim and somewhat off-base, IMO. The film is definitely a "Westernized" adaptation of a Japanese story, and the characters speak mostly in English and live in a city that is not Tokyo. This is not really shocking as this is not a Japanese film but one designed to appeal to American audiences and the international market in general, capitalizing on a famous action film star.
Internal to the film itself, I don't see the whitewashing. Reviewers claimed the Major had lost her Japanese name and look, and both are factually untrue. The 2017 film depicts all the Japanese named characters with Asian actors - some speaking Japanese. More minor characters have been adapted to be more inclusive, like the knife-wielding Paz being replaced with a middle eastern female version, and the Caucasian character Borma and Ishikawa combined into one character portrayed as an African man.
Most controversially, the 1995 Major is also a Caucasian appearing woman. Some Ghost material refers to how the Major prefers to use a highly modified off-shelf-female body rather than the the more obviously cyborged frames of many of her coworkers, and the 1995 film takes that a step further by showing the Major with another cyberbody that seems to be the same model, and is depicted as a blonde Caucasian. The 1995 depiction of the Major has the build and facial features of a Caucasian woman, and the 2017 film just appears to be following this lead. By the end of the film it is very clear that Johansson is playing a Japanese woman whose real name is Motoko Kusanagi who has a Japanese mother named Hairi. Being drawn animation, the Major's 1995 body's apparent race isn't so explicit, but here you can see Motoko and her factory made twin as the white chicks Oishii designed them:
The major fault of 2017 GitS is that it doesn't boldly immerse itself in its world as films like the commercial flop Bladerunner do, and in hedging its bets turned the film into an origin story with too much exposition of the wrong kind. The primary damage done by that process is to take the main character - a hyper competent veteran - and transform her into an unsure and often scared newbie that makes little sense as the leader of a clandestine group or someone who has earned the rank of major. So instead of revealing a 22nd century female Ethan Hunt, we are forced to watch a much weaker and less nuanced coming of age story that is more like YA material than a sophisticated and philosophical thriller. We lose the close familial camaraderie of Batou and Motoko, replaced with something more like protective puppy-love.
Like Dune, the material seems to be too much to adapt to the non-connoisseur, non-otaku audience, and ends up being a much more benign guide to cybernetics rather than being set in a world that has long worked out its technological phobias and is starting to ask deeper questions. The plot suffers as well for not being based on a more complex back story. The filmmaker's slavish devotion to the 1995 film also did them no favors, chaining the design to a blend of aesthetics that didn't really work together - everything seems small and claustrophobic rather than the large spaces and huge city of the original. And something fails in the action scenes - the cyborgs' brutal strength and attendant violence got lost in the softly tinkling glass of slow motion and CGI physics.
I'm not surprised that the film did little for fans or regular movie-goers. There just isn't that much wonder or action there to sustain it.
The film is not an adaptation of the GitS manga by author Masamune Shirow as much as a pastiche of the first anime film of that name directed by Mamoru Oishii. Major plot points, characterization, scenes and style are largely lifted from the 1995 film in a very obvious way, which causes the audience to make very direct comparison between the methodical pace and confident main character of the anime vs the Hollywood pacing and unsure Johansson version of the Major. Functionally, events in the 2017 film and its final scene set it up as the prequel to the 1995 film - both explaining the background and appearance of some of the charaters (why the Major is the hottest cyborg, where Batou's eyes come from), but also puts the final scene in the live action as the first scene in the 1995 anime. The 2017 film also borrows vehicle designs directly from 1995 and also oddball references - Mamoru Oishii loves basset hounds and frequently includes them in his works as 'extras', while the 2017 film goes as far as making one a character. The 2017 film is very much an act of love acknowledging the 1995 film.
The "dumbing down" is largely the explicitness of the technology shown and the level of exposition attached to it. In the most Ghost material, it is unclear to what degree the Major and other characters are cyborged. In the source material, it is taken for granted that everyone has a "cyberbrain" implant, and in the 2017 film the only people that obviously have them are heavily cyborged characters and those with technology glued to their temples. The 2017 film even shows the Major's organic brain - something the other versions avoid to allow both character and audience to truly wonder if she is human at all, and to allow the possibility that some characters aren't chained to a specific brain at all. The 2017 film attempts to remove any confusion and makes heavy cyborgs like Batou into synthetic limb and organ recipients - even slightly unwilling ones, like when Batou loses his eyes.
Whitewashing: This is both a fair claim and somewhat off-base, IMO. The film is definitely a "Westernized" adaptation of a Japanese story, and the characters speak mostly in English and live in a city that is not Tokyo. This is not really shocking as this is not a Japanese film but one designed to appeal to American audiences and the international market in general, capitalizing on a famous action film star.
Internal to the film itself, I don't see the whitewashing. Reviewers claimed the Major had lost her Japanese name and look, and both are factually untrue. The 2017 film depicts all the Japanese named characters with Asian actors - some speaking Japanese. More minor characters have been adapted to be more inclusive, like the knife-wielding Paz being replaced with a middle eastern female version, and the Caucasian character Borma and Ishikawa combined into one character portrayed as an African man.
Most controversially, the 1995 Major is also a Caucasian appearing woman. Some Ghost material refers to how the Major prefers to use a highly modified off-shelf-female body rather than the the more obviously cyborged frames of many of her coworkers, and the 1995 film takes that a step further by showing the Major with another cyberbody that seems to be the same model, and is depicted as a blonde Caucasian. The 1995 depiction of the Major has the build and facial features of a Caucasian woman, and the 2017 film just appears to be following this lead. By the end of the film it is very clear that Johansson is playing a Japanese woman whose real name is Motoko Kusanagi who has a Japanese mother named Hairi. Being drawn animation, the Major's 1995 body's apparent race isn't so explicit, but here you can see Motoko and her factory made twin as the white chicks Oishii designed them:
The major fault of 2017 GitS is that it doesn't boldly immerse itself in its world as films like the commercial flop Bladerunner do, and in hedging its bets turned the film into an origin story with too much exposition of the wrong kind. The primary damage done by that process is to take the main character - a hyper competent veteran - and transform her into an unsure and often scared newbie that makes little sense as the leader of a clandestine group or someone who has earned the rank of major. So instead of revealing a 22nd century female Ethan Hunt, we are forced to watch a much weaker and less nuanced coming of age story that is more like YA material than a sophisticated and philosophical thriller. We lose the close familial camaraderie of Batou and Motoko, replaced with something more like protective puppy-love.
Like Dune, the material seems to be too much to adapt to the non-connoisseur, non-otaku audience, and ends up being a much more benign guide to cybernetics rather than being set in a world that has long worked out its technological phobias and is starting to ask deeper questions. The plot suffers as well for not being based on a more complex back story. The filmmaker's slavish devotion to the 1995 film also did them no favors, chaining the design to a blend of aesthetics that didn't really work together - everything seems small and claustrophobic rather than the large spaces and huge city of the original. And something fails in the action scenes - the cyborgs' brutal strength and attendant violence got lost in the softly tinkling glass of slow motion and CGI physics.
I'm not surprised that the film did little for fans or regular movie-goers. There just isn't that much wonder or action there to sustain it.
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