THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 13, 1996 TAG: 9606130037
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: Mal Vincent
LENGTH: 57 lines
In THE MIDST of this summer's relentless parade of big-budget Hollywood explosions, one action flick takes on an examination of existentialism.
The very essence of what it means to be human is at the heart of the Japanese animation film ``Ghost in the Shell.''
The ``ghost'' of the title refers to false memories planted in cyborgs to provide the illusion of a past life - a life they never had. The setting is 2029 in Newport City, a world in which mechanical things have taken over.
Kusanagi, the heroine, is a ``shell,'' a robot who is mechanized except for a small part of her brain. That's what causes the trouble. She seemingly wants to be human, although she questions the real value of being human in a world in which cyborgs, or robots, prevail.
As a warning, ``Ghost in the Shell'' is more a show-off than it is actually involving. Directed by Mamoru Oshii, it is based on the popular comic books of Shirow Masamune. Masamune specializes in female protagonists who are soldiers, warriors and such. Kusangi is frequently topless - in an awesome perfectly shaped, but sexless, way. She has the detachment of a Las Vegas show girl coming down the steps.
Aided by Bateau, her brawny male accomplice, she's out to get a powerful hacker who has made all kinds of trouble with everything from politics to the stock market. The hacker, though, wants to have ``political asylum'' and become some body. In other words, he, she or it (he takes any form) wants to be human.
Given the somewhat kinky reputation of Japanese animation, the film is surprisingly primitive in look - although it purports to have made breakthroughs in combining regular cel animation with computers. People are the most difficult beings to animate (humans are always the stiffest, and least appealing, creatures in Disney films). In ``Ghost,'' the beings move particularly awkwardly.
The philosophical bent is talked more than shown, but, then, philosophy isn't very photogenic. A subtle music score by Kenjii Kawai adds much to the mood.
At one point, a character points out that it sees ``through a glass darkly.'' Indeed, Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, perhaps our greatest ``thinking'' director, could not have posed human problems as probing. Too much talk, though, may dissuade even the ``cult'' that this film claims to serve. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
[Box]
MOVIE REVIEW
``Ghost in the Shell''
Director: Mamoru Oshii
Music: Kenjii Kawai
MPAA rating: Not rated
Mal's rating: two stars
Location: Naro in Norfolk
by CNB