Mind Over Matter? Is The New 'The Ghost In The Shell' Movie The Best Philosophical Film Since The Matrix?
The Matrix Re-reloaded?
One of the deepest philosophical movies of the year is Scarlet Johannson's 'Ghost In The Shell' movie, and as well as some stunning effects like The Matrix, it wrestles to the ground many of the complex questions of human existence.
I want to take a quick philosophical look at extracting the ghost from the cybernetic body, so we can learn more about ourselves as we watch the movie.
The mind and brain separated
We are indeed back in Cartesian territory again just like The Matrix, as we question the difference between mind and the brain. Duality rears its head as the idea that the mind controls the brain. They can be seem as two distinct and separate entities.
The Cartesian concept of an invisible but controlling mind is plainly connected in the movie to the ghost in the machine, with the mind and the ghost being interchangeable terms. This effect has been explained by religion as the concept of the soul, the idea that something in our brains exists outside our physical form. Any down to earth atheist philosopher would call this our 'consciousness'.
In the movie, the director Oshii assimilates the denial of Cartesian dualism between mind and brain, and goes one step further by defining the ghost as having undergone multilayered evolution at both a mind and brain level. Truly staggering!
This all means that in the 'Ghost In The Shell', the ghost is what divides man and robot in pure form, no matter how many human biological organs we replace with robotic power. As long as the individual remains, then so does their mind/ghost form - therefore they also keep hold of their humanity, thus their identity.
But at last you may ask, is the movie any good? For me Johannson's role was a bit soul-less, but the message she delivered was very powerful indeed. Nothing can top The Matrix movies in a pure philosophical fist fight, but miss this movie at your peril.
I need to check the movie before a proper opinion. But from what I can read, yes, this triggers a good discussion about mind/soul (ghost? Still need to see the way he is defining it in the movie, as many philosophical groups, many countries, and many unique individuals define it in different ways as well).
Enjoy the movie dude!
The difference between the Hollywood version and the Anime is much bigger than the difference between Godzilla and Shin Godzilla. Everything good about the Hollywood version either comes from the source material or the excellent production design.
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:))
Glad to hear this.
As the original anime movie was deep and meaningful, it meant that this movie could go one of two ways, deep or meaningless.
I was afraid it would end up like so many super-hero movies... just blah and missing the entire character of what we know and love.
even the original before the remake was a master piece of philosophical intrigue that continued since then.
I've read the manga but never seen the original movie. I will be checking it out after seeing this @solarguy :)
"In the movie, the director Shirow"... Masamune Shirow is the author of the manga, not of the movie. The movie was directed by Mamoru Oshii. Have you seen it?
EDIT MADE: Apologies! My head was in my manga comics!! Yes, I've seen the movie. I really wish they'd cast an Asian actress instead to the lead role. The Wachowskis would have done that!
No worries. Well, even Mamoru Oshii said that this "scandal" is just a media storm in a tea cup : https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/mar/24/scarlett-johansson-ghost-in-the-shell-director-whitewashing
That is a very interesting opinion; though I'm sure for the amount that Paramount are paying him for the rights to the movie, he'd say anything ;)
such a pity a great story is getting fame for the wrong reasons. They should have used an asian lead for sure though.
I'm not so sure. Mangas are famous for representing supposedly Japanese characters with non-Japanese features. And its interesting that you say "asian lead": a Chinese actress would have been ok to portray Motoko Kusanagi? Now... I'd like to know what Shirow and Oshii would have thought about that.
Are mad? Uninformed? Or Both?
The character is not meant to look Asian. As a long time rabid fan of GitS your article gives me the vibe of some buzzfeed writer jotting down some stuff while being high on excitement of something he/she barely knows about.
GitS goes way deeper and you are already high on the shallowest levels.
I wanted to see a live action GitS starring Johannson since the day I saw Lucy (2014)
She was the perfect person to play the role and I haven't seen a single person from Japan complaining about the casting. There were some YouTube videos on that too.