Ghost in The Shell is about a cyborg spy woman (Major Makoto Kusanagi) working for the intelligence agency Section 9 to track down The Puppetmaster who hacks into people’s brains making them commit terrorist actions they can’t remember through their “ghosts” or computer brains. While it is uniquely 90s in its presentation of tech, with wires and virtual realities galore, its philosophy is both uniquely Japanese, and timeless. In the first scene we see The Major taking down some terrorist separatists negotiating with the gov’t. She guns them down and jumps out the window naked, before disappearing. This establishes her as a badass.
Every action scene is really well done. When she’s tracking down the Puppetmaster she has to jump from a truck to tracking down the puppet masters victims by foot and using martial arts, again while naked and invisible. It would be easy to dismiss Ghost in the Shell as eroge were not the rest of the story so good. Every intense action scene is followed by philosophy.
Typically, in the West we have the theme of Man vs. Machine, and we have the idea that punks are lowlifes, bad people. Ghost in the Shell purposes that man and machine are inseparable, that they improve each other. Kusanagi wonders aloud throughout the movie if she was ever human, and what that would mean, while drinking beer, and smoking. Which is typically not what we see in the West. Her vices humanize her, even if she is a machine.
After discovering that The Puppetmaster was designed by another intelligence team (Section 6) she meets with the Puppetmaster who blows up the place and announces that he is a living AI named Kaze. Think of a living internet. Kusanagi followed Kaze to the Kyoto docks, but is ambushed by a Section 6 spider tank with machine guns. She is able to hold her own for a while, but is torn apart by the tank. During this time, Kaze suggests that they merge into one new digital body. Kusanagi’s partner Batou destroys the tank, and Section 6 stands down, since the Puppetmaster has been subdued/vanished. He has merged into a new body with The Major.
Overall, I think the original Ghost in The Shell is a classic. Easily 8/10. Great fight scenes, great art, serious subjects…my only complaint about the original is that with all the heavy philosophy some scenes do drag. Particularly, after the great action scenes. But, it is nice to see the movie say something beyond Man vs. Machine. That mankind would exist with machines. The answer to The Major’s question seems to be in my opinion that it wouldn’t matter who she was before she was a cyborg. She drinks, and smokes, and kills just like humans. Most humans don’t really live anyway.
It’s never really answered, but the fact that she merges into a new body plays into this idea, as well as Buddhist ideas of reincarnation and impermanence, which I think are really Japanese. It’s just a shame that each series after the classic movie has diminishing returns, and only looks more dated each time. The Netflix 2020 series is very action heavy, but still good if you like seeing The Major and Section 9 in action. Then, there’s the series which has tiny talking spider tanks, as sort of comic relief. The Scarlett Johansson Hollywood movie, while good on action, both completely avoids philosophy and answers the question if she was ever human. It’s all very silly.
In conclusion, the original Ghost in the Shell is a classic which takes time to appreciate and savor its plot. Its message is as timely as ever. Technology is here. It’s not good or evil. It’s part of us. Who hasn’t zoned out in front of a computer? But, who’s to say that life would be any different without it? In the end, it’s up to us and what we do with it.
