Film ► Ghost in the Shell (2017) - New Trailer

[Lonbilly]

Another post no one asked for in here but I decided to give it to y'all anyway.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

So, the debate is over. I read a spoiler and it pretty much confirmed they intentionally white wash the Major.

Ending spoilers The Major visits the grave of herself, Matoko Kusanagi.

So this film can fuck right on off.

 

[Grizzly]

So, the debate is over. I read a spoiler and it pretty much confirmed they intentionally white wash the Major.

Ending spoilers The Major visits the grave of herself, Matoko Kusanagi.

So this film can diddly right on off.

This is absolutely ridiculous, and is in no way acceptable. This movie can shove it.

 

[alexis.anagram]

RIP $20 mil opening, didn't even manage to make the most meager of industry expectations. Another winning example of how casting a popular white lead at the expense of PoC is a surefire way to turn a profit.

Also gotta love that 30% drop on Rotten Tomatoes, overnight.

 

[rawpower]

So I saw it, and it really wasn't terrible. It was pretty predictable, not because I've seen the original but because they kind of outright explained the main themes of the movie, and even though it kinda had its own direction separate from all the other Ghost in the Shell incarnations you could still see what was coming. Visuals were amazing, probably the best part of the movie. The dialogue starts out pretty bad but gets better as the movie goes on.

Now as for the casting, I can definitely see where everyone is coming from on that. It was kind of weird seeing a bunch of non-Japanese people in what was supposed to be Japan (and it wasn't like they were all white, either). I could tell they were going for a more globalized world but it was still odd. THAT BEING SAID, I still thought the casting was good, in particular for Aramaki and Batou. I also thought ScarJo did well as the Major.

Now to give full context of what's going on with the Major and how racist it is or isn't. Here come the spoiler tags

Spoiler Show

If you're familiar with Ghost in the Shell you would know that the Major's entire body is cybernetic except for her brain. Pretty much everyone else has a only a handful of cybernetic enhancements. This brings up one of the themes in Ghost of the Shell and the dilemma the Major has which is, what does it mean to be human? On top of that, it's possible to upload consciousness and memories as data, and it's possible to "edit" and "delete" memories. Even adding new ones. In the case of the Major, she was originally a Japanese runaway named Motoko Kusanagi. She was abducted along with her other runaway friends by the Hanka Robotics Corporation. They removed her brain as part of an experiment to make cyborg soldiers. They changed her memories so that she thought her name was Mira Killian, that she and her parents were refugees whose boat was attacked by terrorists and that her parents died and that only her brain was saved from the carnage. This memory change was to try and make her a terrorist-fighting machine with the intellect of a human.

Anyway the point is that she's a Japanese girl who had here memories changed and given a synthetic body that looks like a white person.

Many people think that making her cyborg body appear to be a white woman is white washing. The counter argument is that within the context of the story, the race and appearance of the Major's cyborg body doesn't matter, because what this is really about is the human condition, what it means to be a person and where that line is drawn when it comes to human transcendentalism. Now I can see both sides to this argument. Obviously, Hollywood was trying to generate interest in this movie by casting a huge name like Scarlett Johansson. I can see that this was mostly motivated by a desire/need for profit. I can't really name any big time Japanese actresses, but I'm never going to be able to unless they get cast right? Still, I don't think ScarJo was a bad pick either if they really needed that star power and if they were going for a more international cast.

I think this a rather particular case where race doesn't entirely matter in this adaptation. I mean if the Major was cast as a black person would that be black washing the character? Does it matter if the body is synthetic anyway? I don't know, I don't really think so. But I guess if you're going to have a Japanese setting you might as well make most of the characters Japanese/look Japanese even if you are going for a more globalized world.

I think for future anime adaptations they ought to try harder to keep with a Japanese setting of the story, especially if they ever do something like Akira or Yu Yu Hakusho. Unless they try to adapt those stories to an American/international setting. This movie could have executed that better.

 

[Lonbilly]

Spoiler Show

I mean if the Major was cast as a black person would that be black washing the character?

Yes .

 

[Ophan]

Thoroughly enjoyed the movie in its own perspective of GITS. 👍👍👍

 

[Max]

I still need to see it. Not sure if I want to catch it in theaters though or wait until it gets a home release.

 

[Ophan]

I try to get the most out of movies at the theater. I watched this movie in 4d...Which was kind of a weird experience, lol. Visually beautiful, and probably one of the better adaptations to an anime I've seen. Probably hard to make a good story, so they stuck with a feasible origin and didn't drag it out too much.

I think the movie deserved a lot more credit, than the criticism it was given..Especially in America. I live in Japan, so it was a different experience. They actually liked the movie, so I dunno lol

 

[catcake]

I've heard really different opinions on it, some people found it enjoyable while some completely horrible. It's nice to know it wasn't hated by all, gives some hope that it might be worth watching. Probably won't go to a theater though, way too expensive for a movie that might still disappoint. Hoping it'll come on TV in a few years xD Don't like spending money on movies.

 

[Ophan]

It's very strong for sequel purposes...but it probably won't get one which is sad, because of the criticism of fans, toppled by whitewashing whiners (yup i said it, lol). It's a shame really....because it's been tried for anime adaptations to successfully work with western audiences, and it usually never turns out well. A lot of live action films are literally changed or cut short from their original anime's such as Rurouni Kenshin, Attack on Titan, Death Note...some successful more than others, but not garnering the same attention as this movie did. About everyone who's complained about these movies to me have choked on their own hypocrisy. Just finding reasons to hate stuff...it's truly silly...i'm as diverse as they come, and i'm looking at the amount of ridiculousness of this thread about why no one should watch it at all because a few characters are white (2 are white, 2 are asian, one is black, one is hispanic, the rest of the world is a melting pot)....i mean really, There's a lot of europeans, and quite a few africans in tokyo folks,unless you move to the country side of course, but you don't know jack squat about how anything should be in any country, ya'll can save that fora trip around the world, then come back and discuss this

My thing is, i can't watch a movie without someone saying Annie shouldn't be black, James Bond is not black, Egyptians aren't white, The characters are supposed to be asian....

man cry me a river. A good movie is a good movie, ya'll just ruin everything these days, smh.