On April the 10th 2017, I watched a movie called “GHOST IN THE SHELL”. This movie is originally a Japanese manga series by Masamune Shiro（士郎正宗）, expanded to animation movies/TV series by Mamoru Oshii/Kenji Kamiyama/Kazuchika Kise（押井守/神山健治/黄瀬和哉）(sorry this link is only for Japanese). The story of the present “GHOST IN THE SHELL” is a mixture of all the elements that constitute the previous series. However, the main theme is entirely different – the present version is for regaining humanity from the technological advance, while the Japanese versions are for sublimation from the fusion between humanity and technology. The difference is prominent in the character of the Major（少佐）. In the previous versions, she does in some parts stand as an investigator/researcher of the society. Especially in manga, she is a kind of drunken woman collapsed in a comical show. In the present movie, however, she has a gloomy character with hunchback (in Japanese, it is called Nekoze, a back that resembles that of cats). Some Japanese may not understand the shift of these themes, but also would be able to understand the beauty of live-action film that cannot be achieved without the help of huge budgets. It was so nice. Due to the penetration of the world views described in the series, I think the time for animating the 2nd volume of mange, “MANMACHINE INTERFACE” has come. The story is a mixture of technological advances and ancient mysticism. It may take a while to comprehend this volume, but one may gradually understand the background of this science fiction tale.
The name of the Major is Mira Killian in the present movie. Some Japanese people doubt the naming because the name of her is originally Motoko Kusanagi（草薙素子）. Kusanagi is the name of the ancient sword that is a symbol of the military power of Japanese emperor and also the sacred body of Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu-Omikami（天照大神） in Atsuta-Jingu Shrine（熱田神宮）. The kanji characters of Motoko can alternatively be read as ‘Soshi’, which means an element. Therefore Japanese people at first did not understand the English naming. However, if you watch through the movie, you can understand why this happened. Among the original section 9 members, Pazu was substituted by a woman named Ladriya for political correctness. Takeshi Kitano did a better job than I had expected as a role of Aramaki, a founder of the section 9.
