Ghost in the Shell (live action film)
- Thread starter eyeresist
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The trailer song is a cover of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence".
I think that's just the way the trailer is cut. One shot shows her decloaking while walking toward the camera (this is taken directly from the 1st movie), but the next shot shows her punching a guy while completely cloaked.
Not HK as far as I know, but New Zealand cities with CG extensions.
That may just be incomplete CGI.
But not from extreme pretentiousness.
Thanks for the explanation.
Here is the trailer with a short intro by Scarlett Johansson:
Details on the plot (SPOILER warning):
http://www.slashfilm.com/ghost-in-the-shell-plot-details/
Details on the plot (SPOILER warning):
http://www.slashfilm.com/ghost-in-the-shell-plot-details/
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HOLY CRAP!!! The opening sequence is online. It was shown in Japan at a live event called "GITStokyo", with the composer adding live drums.
Here is the "clean" version of the visuals (with IGN stamp in corner). The sound is a bit weird because they've combined the original music with the live performance.
Here is the live version (i.e. shot with a phone at the event). You don't get a glimpse of the live drummer until about the 2 minute mark.
Here is the live version (shot from further back) with a two minute musical prelude, and at the end there's a brief message from the guy who posted it (recorded at the event). The whole thing feels a bit like a rave!
Finally, here is a version where you can see the musicians (but not the screen). Five drummers below the screen, some singers standing in front of them, and more visible in an overhead gallery. I think the string parts are a recording. It's intense!
Here is the "clean" version of the visuals (with IGN stamp in corner). The sound is a bit weird because they've combined the original music with the live performance.
Here is the live version (i.e. shot with a phone at the event). You don't get a glimpse of the live drummer until about the 2 minute mark.
Here is the live version (shot from further back) with a two minute musical prelude, and at the end there's a brief message from the guy who posted it (recorded at the event). The whole thing feels a bit like a rave!
Finally, here is a version where you can see the musicians (but not the screen). Five drummers below the screen, some singers standing in front of them, and more visible in an overhead gallery. I think the string parts are a recording. It's intense!
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I know it's splitting hairs since the end result is essentially the same, but I was always under the impression that (not counting the opening "building" scene) she wasn't naked in those scenes but wearing a (literally) skintight bodysuit of that therm-optic camouflage material. There's a definite seam at her neck and a difference in colour clearly visible after the post chase fight. You even see a little curtain of the material under her visor to cover her face.
Don't ask how she make her hair, visor of weapon invisible too, that never quite made sense to me either. I think you even see it tear and peal away in the scene where she rips her own arms off trying to get inside the tank at the end.
Regardless, all the respect in the world for Scarlett Johansson. These days, not many actors of her calibre (male or female) would be willing to expose themselves like this. Whatever my misgivings of the action scene direction may be, they clearly care that this at least look and feel like Ghost in the Shell.
As for the issue of whitewashing...I don't know.
On the one hand it's a manufactured cyborg body so technically ethnicity is irrelevant. But from a real world perspective, there are already so few good roles for Asian actors in western movies that it does take the piss a bit when a classic Japanese movie is remade with a largely white cast but still actually set in Japan.
Would it *really* be that hard for western audiences to accept an all or mostly Asian cast? It's not like there aren't plenty of American Asian actors who would jump at the chance to play the Major. If the issue is the lack of "star power" then they're just compounding the issue.
That's a suit too. You can see the neck seam, and folds in the fabric during a close-up of her thigh. And most tellingly, when she drops her outer coat the black collar of the suit underneath can be seen to adapt to match her flesh-tone.
I think you misunderstand. I meant the opening scene where you see her body being constructed, not the next scene when she's on top of the building.
A best as I can remember most of the cast (main characters) in the animated series did not look Asian
By the conventions of the anime art style, yes they did. Plus, in that very same style, Caucasians are also drawn in a distinctly different way from the Asian characters.
Oh and most of their names were decidedly Japanese. Unless of course you're going to suggest that it's purely coincidental that a group of people who live in Japan, who work for the Japanese government, several of which had previously served in the Japanese Self Defence Force, just so happen to have names like Kusanagi, Batou, Togusa, Ishikawa and Saito...and yet they're not Japanese *how* exactly?
Not getting into the name thing at all- just going by what I see on the screen. I like Anime but I have not seen the same magnitude others have so if it is a special rendering convention I have not known it.
I'm pretty sure her body in the building scene there is pretty much all CGI.
Does the Barbie doll anatomy come from original anime or is that something they did here so they could do the scene without making ScarJo do a full nude scene?
I thought she at least had realistic breasts in the anime.
Oh I wasn't suggesting she was fully nude (though I believe she has done so in the past), just that what's going on here leaves next to nothing to the imagination. Not the kind of thing one often sees A-list performers do in action sci-fi blockbusters.
See for yourself. It's kind of ambiguous since anime in general will occasionally depict actual human nudity like this (below the belt at least) in order to get around censorship. The rules for such things in Japan are a bit different that in some western countries.
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Masamune Shirow's original manga from the early 90s never depicted an assembly sequence, not for Motoko, anyway. Though other cyber bodies were depicted in various states of assembly and repair. Motoko's assembly (upgrade, whatever) was first presented in the now iconic theatrical release anime. When "whole" in the both the manga and various animes, the only telltale signs she was "different" were data access ports or "jacks" at the nape of her neck. However, she and other cyborgs were occasionally shown with various "panels" open or outright removed to reveal the inner hardware, often with a massive tangle of power and data cables with "capacitor" like cylinders scattered along their lengths. There's one particular poster that was part of the theatrical anime's promotion showing Motoko "nude" from a three quarter back view sitting upon her heels with an octopus knot of wires plugged into various open regions of her back. The poster read "In 2073 (or some other mid 21st century date) people love machines."
In short, access panel seams were, in effect, "invisible" until they were opened. But personally, I like the notion of depicting "subtle" panel seams. It helps to remind the average movie viewer Motoko is the result of very sophisticated medical engineering.
Now, Gally from "Gunnm", aka "Battle Angel Alita", on the other hand, about the only region looking "organic" upon her is her face, the rest of her frame, while femininely shaped, is purely mechanical. even her ears are obviously composed of artificial materials (with amusingly cute screws positioned upon the lobes like ear studs). And let's not forget that distinctive feature of hers, those semi crescent shaped strips of metal under her eyes. (Yes, I know in the one shot anime it was dog's blood and in the earlier issues of the manga it was swipes of mud worn as warpaint, but with the MotorBall plot onwards, those patterns became strips of metal.
But as for Motoko, in the original manga, the theatrical anime and the "Stand Alone Complex" TV series, he looked indistinguishable from a fully organic human, except for the data jacks. But agin, this is a new detail I personally rather like. (I guess I have a "thing" for women with robotic attributes.)
In short, access panel seams were, in effect, "invisible" until they were opened. But personally, I like the notion of depicting "subtle" panel seams. It helps to remind the average movie viewer Motoko is the result of very sophisticated medical engineering.
Now, Gally from "Gunnm", aka "Battle Angel Alita", on the other hand, about the only region looking "organic" upon her is her face, the rest of her frame, while femininely shaped, is purely mechanical. even her ears are obviously composed of artificial materials (with amusingly cute screws positioned upon the lobes like ear studs). And let's not forget that distinctive feature of hers, those semi crescent shaped strips of metal under her eyes. (Yes, I know in the one shot anime it was dog's blood and in the earlier issues of the manga it was swipes of mud worn as warpaint, but with the MotorBall plot onwards, those patterns became strips of metal.
But as for Motoko, in the original manga, the theatrical anime and the "Stand Alone Complex" TV series, he looked indistinguishable from a fully organic human, except for the data jacks. But agin, this is a new detail I personally rather like. (I guess I have a "thing" for women with robotic attributes.)
I've been very impressed with all the footage we've seen in the past few days, I just hope they're giving us these familiar scenes now to remind us how the world looks and build on our nostalgia. As far as the story goes, I don't want this film to just be a live action scene-for-scene remake. Give us something new, but inspired by the original.
As far as the ethnicity of the actors, I tend to believe that in some of the scifi animes like Ghost in the Shell and others, the human race has intermingling more and many people don't look entirely Asian, Caucasian, etc, which is why some people may have a Japanese name, but look a bit European. That's how I tend to justify the character designs verse names in anime in general. Add to that all the cyborgs running around, and who knows the ethnicity of anyone in that world. Maybe that's the point?
As far as the ethnicity of the actors, I tend to believe that in some of the scifi animes like Ghost in the Shell and others, the human race has intermingling more and many people don't look entirely Asian, Caucasian, etc, which is why some people may have a Japanese name, but look a bit European. That's how I tend to justify the character designs verse names in anime in general. Add to that all the cyborgs running around, and who knows the ethnicity of anyone in that world. Maybe that's the point?
Ah, thanks. That was what I thought, upper body realistic, but lower body Barbie doll.
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