Ghost in the Shell (film)

This article is about the first film adaptation. For other adaptations and other media, see Ghost in the Shell (disambiguation).

Ghost in the Shell
Japanese promotional film poster
Directed by	Mamoru Oshii
Produced by	Yoshimasa Mizuo Ken Matsumoto Ken Iyadomi Mitsuhisa Ishikawa
Screenplay by	Kazunori Itō
Based on	Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow
Starring	Atsuko Tanaka Akio Ōtsuka Iemasa Kayumi
Music by	Kenji Kawai
Cinematography	Hisao Shirai
Editing by	Shūichi Kakesu Shigeyuki Yamamori
Studio	Production I.G
Distributed by	Japan: Shochiku International: Manga Entertainment
Release date(s)	October 18, 1995 (1995-10-18)
Running time	82 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Budget	US$ 10 million

Ghost in the Shell (GHOST IN THE SHELL／攻殻機動隊, Gōsuto In Za Sheru/Kōkaku Kidōtai, lit. Ghost in the Shell/Mobile Armoured Riot Police) is a 1995 Japanese anime science fiction film directed by Mamoru Oshii; an adaptation of the manga Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow, produced by Production I.G, and written by Kazunori Itō. A sequel, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, was released in 2004.

Plot

Major Motoko Kusanagi (Atsuko Tanaka), lead operator of Section 9, is tasked with locating an elusive hacker known as "The Puppet Master," whom they have managed to track to a small area. The hacker turns out to be a garbageman, who is going through a divorce and thinks he is ghost-hacking his wife using a program provided to him by an individual who met him in a bar to find his daughter. Batou (Akio Ōtsuka) and Ishikawa (Yutaka Nakano) capture him and his supplier, but both are revealed to have also been ghost hacked by the Puppet Master (Iemasa Kayumi), and neither remembers their real identities.

One night, a female cybernetic body is suddenly assembled at Megatech without approval, and the cyborg escapes into the city where it is run over. Section 9 gets the body to try and determine why it was built. Batou relates a strange fact: the body has not even one brain cell as it is completely robotic, yet there are indications that there is a ghost within it. Kusanagi expresses a wish to 'dive in' to the body and contact the ghost. During this, Section 9 is ambushed by Section 6, who they allow to capture the cyborg.

Ishikawa speaks with Daisuke Aramaki (Tamio Ōki) after investigating further into Project 2501 — it turns out that the project was initiated before the Puppet Master showed up, even though it was claimed by some officials that the project was created in order to capture the Puppet Master. He hints that the Puppet Master was a tool of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to do its dirty work. The escape of the Puppet Master would be a threat to Section 6 and the ministry would risk having secrets leaked out to the public.

Soon, the getaway car carrying the Puppet Master meets up with another and they split off in different directions. Batou follows the original car and Kusanagi chooses to follow the second one. With the help of a road block and additional police, Batou stops the car and discovers it is a decoy. He then rushes to support Kusanagi.

Kusanagi follows the car to an abandoned building. There, she runs into a spider tank which overpowers her but is destroyed by Batou arriving with much needed heavy weaponry. Kusanagi interfaces with the Puppet Master's body and the Puppet Master introduces himself once again. It confirms that it is Project 2501, a Section 6 project that has hacked ghosts to serve various interests.

It considers itself a sentient being because it can recognize its own existence but lacks two experiences that are granted to all living organisms: reproduction and death. As a solution the Puppet Master finally expresses its wish to merge its ghost with Kusanagi's in order to give birth to a new single entity. Batou attempts to disconnect the dive, but The Puppet Master has also hacked him and prevents the disconnection.

Meanwhile, helicopters from Section 6 approach the abandoned building with orders to destroy the Puppet Master and Kusanagi to cover up the project. The snipers are initially unable to fire because their targeting systems have been hacked by the Puppet Master, but eventually manage to take the shot. Batou sees red dots on both bodies and covers Motoko with his arm, but this fails to prevent the bullet from striking her. The heads of both bodies and Batou's arm are blown off.

Kusanagi wakes at Batou's safehouse — in a child-sized cyborg body (Maaya Sakamoto). Batou enters and informs her of what transpired since her original body was destroyed (approximately twenty hours earlier): the Foreign Minister resigned as a result of the conspiracy, and Nakamura is being questioned. Batou put her mind into a new child-sized body as it was the best he could get on short notice on the black market. Motoko decides to leave, and reveals that she is no longer Kusanagi nor is she the Puppet Master, but rather some combination of the two. The new Motoko/2501 entity gazes at the city (which resembles a Portuguese Man o' War), wondering on what it should do next.

Adaptation

The film adaptation presents the story's themes in a more serious, atmospheric and slow-paced manner than the manga. In addition, in order to condense the manga into 82 minutes of screen time, the movie excludes the subplots in order to focus exclusively on the "Puppet Master" plot.

Reception

Ghost in the Shell received very positive reviews since its release in 1995. It was applauded as one of the first anime films to seamlessly blend computer and cel animation (after Macross Plus Movie Edition). It was one of the first anime features to cross over to non-anime fans in North America. It currently holds a rare 94% 'Fresh' approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The critical consensus reads, "A stunning feat of modern animation, Ghost in the Shell offers a thoughtful, complex treat for anime fans, as well as a perfect introduction for viewers new to the genre."

Ghost in the Shell made an impression on a number of filmmakers. Larry and Andy Wachowski, the creators of The Matrix and its sequels, showed it to producer Joel Silver, saying "we wanna do that for real." Director James Cameron has called it "the first truly adult animation film to reach a level of literary and visual excellence."

The film ranked 35 on Total Film's top 50 Animated Films list.

Soundtrack

Ghost in the Shell
Soundtrack album by Kenji Kawai
Released	1995
Genre	New Age, Ambient
Length	45:25
Producer	Kenji Kawai

"See You Everyday" is different from the rest of the soundtrack, being a pop song sung in Cantonese by Fang Ka Wing. It can be faintly heard playing in the marketplace scene, when Batou is hunting the ghost-hacked puppet.

The song played at the end credits is "One Minute Warning" off the album Original Soundtracks 1 by Passengers, a collaborative effort between Brian Eno and U2. It is one of only three tracks on the album to come from an actual film, the remainder of the tracks are from non-existent films.

Choral song

According to the soundtrack's liner notes, the haunting choral song that plays throughout the film is a wedding song, sung to get rid of all evil influences that are about to follow. The lyrics of the song itself seems to reflect the union between Kusanagi and Project 2501 which takes place towards the end of the movie. Kenji Kawai originally wanted to use Bulgarian folk singers, but was unable to find any, so he relied on the Japanese folk song choir he used earlier in the Ranma 1/2 anime. The song uses an ancient form of the Japanese language mixed with Bulgarian harmony and traditional Japanese notes.

Track listing
No.	Title	Length
1.	"M01 Chant I - Making of Cyborg"	4:31
2.	"M02 Ghosthack"	5:16
3.	"EXM Puppetmaster"	4:23
4.	"M04 Virtual Crime"	2:44
5.	"M05 Chant II - Ghost City"	3:37
6.	"M06 Access"	3:18
7.	"M07 Nightstalker"	1:47
8.	"M08 Floating Museum"	5:07
9.	"M09 Ghostdive"	5:55
10.	"M10 Chant III - Reincarnation"	5:47
11.	"See You Everyday(Bonus track)"	3:26

(2.0 Ver.)
No.	Title	Length
1.	"M01 Chant I - Making of Cyborg (2.0 Ver.)"	4:31
2.	"M02 Ghosthack (2.0 Ver.)"	5:16
3.	"EXM Puppetmaster (2.0 Ver.)"	4:23
4.	"M04 Virtual Crime (2.0 Ver.)"	2:44
5.	"M05 Chant II - Ghost City (2.0 Ver.)"	3:37
6.	"M06 Access (2.0 Ver.)"	3:18
7.	"M07 Nightstalker (2.0 Ver.)"	1:47
8.	"M08 Floating Museum (2.0 Ver.)"	5:07
9.	"M09 Ghostdive (2.0 Ver.)"	5:55
10.	"M10 Chant III - Reincarnation (2.0 Ver.)"	5:47
11.	"See You Everyday (2.0 Ver.)" (毎天見一見!(2.0Ver.))	3:26
12.	"Osamu Kara Kidou Tai Yokoku BGM" (攻殻機動隊予 ＢＧＭ)

Ghost in the Shell 2.0

Not to be confused with Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

Ghost in the Shell 2.0 (GHOST IN THE SHELL／攻殻機動隊 2.0, Gōsuto In Za Sheru/Kōkaku Kidōtai 2.0) is a reproduced version of its original 1995 counterpart. It was produced in celebration for the release of The Sky Crawlers in 2008. For the film's Version 2.0 release, all the original animations were re-produced with latest digital film and animation technologies, such as 3D-CGI. The original soundtrack was also re-organized and re-recorded.

Japanese music composer Kenji Kawai, who orchestrated the score for the original 1995 production, remixed the Version 2.0 soundtrack in 6.1 Channel Surround. Academy Award Winner Randy Thom of Skywalker Sound reprised his role as Sound Designer, after previously working on Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, and whose credits also include work on Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

To complement the new soundtrack, Japanese voice dialogue was also re-recorded, with some variation from the original script to make use of more recent colloquial phrases in modern speech. Notably, the original male voice actor for the character of the "Puppet Master", Iemasa Kayumi, has been replaced by the female voice actor Yoshiko Sakakibara (Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence 's Harraway, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 's Prime Minister Yoko Kayabuki).

The North American release for the film was scheduled to be distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on the DVD and Blu-ray format. The Special Edition release was scheduled to include the original 1995 release alongside the Version 2.0 on a Double Layer Blu-ray, and complimented with the inclusion of a soundtrack CD and booklet with commentary detailing the Version 2.0 production. This has since changed and Manga Entertainment will actually be releasing the film on Blu-ray. Early copies leaked to Best Buy shelves before the November 24th, 2009 street date. The original version of the movie is included on the disc in HD. The original English dub was used for the new 2.0 version with the new sound effects.

External links

• Official website Requires Adobe Flash Player at Manga.com
• Official page at Production I.G English website
• Ghost in the Shell at the Internet Movie Database
• Ghost in the Shell at Rotten Tomatoes
• Ghost in the Shell 2.0 at the Internet Movie Database
• Ghost in the Shell at AllRovi
• Ghost in the Shell at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Ghost in the Shell at the Japanese Movie Database (Japanese)