Ghost in the Shell (1995)

Ghost in the Shell is a highly influential and critically acclaimed anime film that was released in 1995. And I didn’t like it all that much.

It’s a film set in the possibly-not-too-distant future where cybernetics and The ‘Net have become commonplace up to the point where brainhacking is a real and persistent threat–a thing where some asshole can hack into your brain and erase your memories and your personality, then make you do things under newly assumed motivations. Just such a thing happens right as the film starts when an incredibly powerful entity known only as “The Puppetmaster” manifests in a nameless metropolis with the implied threat that his mere existence could wreak havoc on international relations. A really hot cyberchick is dispatched to investigate and cull this threat and she discovers some things about life, the universe, and everything along the way.

So, before I “dive in” and discuss the things I didn’t like about the film I would first like to say that I’m pretty sure I made a mistake in watching the English-dubbed version of this film. The voice acting is by and large completely fucking terrible. I suppose if enough people look at the grade and say ‘WTF dude this is the best movie EVAR’ I might give it another go using the Japanese dub instead. However, I was able to get used to it; this allowed me to concentrate on what was happening much better.

In spite of the amazing visuals and setting, I had enormous difficulty with Ghost in the Shell’s story. I just could not find my feelings for any of these characters whatsoever. Perhaps this was the point since everyone is a robot. The cold and logical tone actually made Blade Runner pop up in my mind more often than not: something I’m vaguely aware could have been done on purpose. While I liked the film’s thesis regarding life, spirit, consciousness, and what it means to truly exist, I wasn’t able to appreciate it principally because the plot was so profound and distant to me that I was unable to connect with it. What were the stakes in the Puppetmaster’s little gambit, anyway? What was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs actually working on? What’s humanity’s ultimate position in the midst of all this?  I still don’t know.  Or care.

I understand that we are gravitating towards a world where Ghost in the Shell presents an unnerving possible reality. However, instead of really focusing on just what it means to hack into a person’s brain and live out a dual life or perform some action for some nefarious purpose, I’m treated instead to international robot politics and crude existential philosophy. I want to know how dangerous and unethical it is having such power. I want to see the guy pulling the strings and I want to see how he could be defeated. Most importantly, I want to see how the future of humanity hangs in the balance. I just feel if I tried to fill in the gaps myself, I’d just get it wrong.  And get called an idiot for trying.

C+

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2001)

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is the long awaited sequel to the original Vampire Hunter D that was released in 1985.  It continues the adventures of the half-human, half-vampire, erm, vampire hunter D.  D is called upon to save the day by the father of a girl who was kidnapped by a vampire nobleman.  This time, though, he has some worthy competition that can be found in the bounty hunter troupe known as the Marcus Brothers and some considerably powerful new enemies in a mutant tribe who call themselves the Barbarois.  D must race against the Marcus Brothers to retrieve the girl before she is ‘changed’ into a vampire so he may collect a sizable reward and rid the world of yet another vampire menace.

As sequels go, this film is much, much better than the original.  The art direction has vastly improved: visually, the post-apocalyptic Victorian landscape is stark and detailed.  The voice-acting is also top notch with heavy hitters like John DiMaggio and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (two of my faves).  Also, D actually looks and sounds every part the badass hero!  He’s so cool, calm, and collected; one of the many thorough improvements to every aspect of this series.

The better production values really shine through in this movie.  Better facial animations enable D to show broader emotions and rare moments of weakness that resonate in ways the first movie could barely scrape together.  Additionally, by giving him a supporting cast of the Marcus Brothers, this crapsack world actually has some depth and resonance along with being amazing visually.  Overall, the enormous strides in plot fluidity and character dynamics help keep everything on the rails; the end result is that we know what the fuck is happening and they didn’t even have to spell anything out for us this time.

So a question you might have is this: “Do I need to watch the first movie to enjoy the second?”  The answer is simply “No.”  Very little continuity is addressed here and what questions may have popped up in the first movie are actually asked again in this one.  The writers understood that nearly 20 years of time between films can do a lot of damage to one’s memories of a franchise, but they resolve everything simply and subtly.  This is how sequels should be done.

A

Vampire Hunter D (1985)

Vampire Hunter D is a Japanimation (anime) film set in the super-distant future, where the world is or isn’t sometimes a wasteland and motion is reduced to about 10 frames per second.  In this fairly well-realized world we see vampires, werewolves, and mutants terrorize neo-Victorian villages regularly.  People who are ‘bitten’ are ostracized from society unless they join the ranks of the vampire noble elite through marriage or servitude… or both.

This is a movie about D, a half-human, half-vampire hybrid warrior with an extra face on his hand.  He is given the task of killing a super old, super powerful vampire MegaBoss for a girl in a village who was bitten recently and doesn’t want to be a totally awesome vampire noble.  A lot of the movie is spent exploring this world and describing through some pretty nice visuals how things work in this distant apocalyptic future.  I liked the Victorian aesthetic. It meshes well with this style of animation.  I’m also a fanboy of Yoshitaka Amano, the character designer for D, and have no real complaints regarding that aspect.

They try their best to make D one super badass mofo while also going to great lengths to show that he sometimes has difficulty surmounting his problems.  This film takes the lazy route concluding these scenarios by conveniently having him have some kind of flash of brilliance that relieves tension a little too quickly.  What ends up playing out is some kind of DBZ knock-off (or inspiration?) where the situation is instantaneously resolved by lobbing off a head, an arm, or any other sliceable body part. I guess what I wanted was D having to think very critically about solving his problems instead of immediately knowing the answers or just brute forcing his way through.

C+