Ghost in the Shell Suffers Not From White Washing, but of Lack of Faith in Source Material's Marketability

Welcome to another edition of Comic Relief! where I talk about the goings on in the world of nerd!

One of the biggest controversies from the past year has been the casting of Scarlett Johansson as Motoko Kusanagi (The Major) in the live action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. Accusations on Hollywood White Washing have been thrown at the film. However, with the film having been released here in the past month or so, I feel it's time to set the record straight. There are some problems with the live action rendition of Ghost in the Shell, but it is very clear that Scarlet Johanson's casting is NOT one of them.

I know that this is a topic of IMMENSE controversy, however, this is something that I feel needs to be explained. Ghost in the Shell, the animated film from the 1990's, was a film that delved into the deeper meanings of what it means to be human. It takes place in Japan in the "near future" where the world has kind of united as one universal entity culturally where everyone has some cybernetic implant or another for the most part. The main character: Motoko Kusanagi, is a purely synthetic being and the only part of her that is "human" is her mind. This is the whole point of the film, for if in a society that is striving so hard to become more and more synthetic, where does one draw the line of what it means to be human. However, to go back and reiterate, Motoko Kusanagi is PURELY synthetic, meaning that her race is a non issue. She may carry the identity of a Japanese person, however, that is not necessarily how her new body is designed. In fact if you look at the other characters of the film she is one of the few characters distinctly NOT Japanese looking (pale skin, wide blue eyes, almost Blue hair). This was done intentionally to strengthen the whole message of the film: What truly constitutes the Human soul?

Sorry for the crude job on paint, but just to juxtapose: Motoko is in the top left, Togusa on top right, and the Old Man at the Bottom. The last two have a distinct Japanese look whereas Motoko looks fairly European

All this being said, the most recent adaptation of Ghost in the Shell does have it's issues. While, when the film adapts straight from the original it tends to be stellar (barring them butchering the diving scene and the dialogue between Batou and Kusanagi), and the character portrayals being very solid, especially by Michael Pitt as the villain (even though Togusa was criminally underused), the film suffers primarily from what is clearly studio fears of a lack of marketability of it's source material. To be fair, the 1995 Ghost in the Shell is a fairly dense film that pushes a lot out and takes multiple viewings to appreciate fully due to it's complex and deep nature, however, that does not mean that you have to use dialogue to force it's messages down the throats of your audience and dumb it down.

After the success of films like The Matrix (that exist solely due to the success of the original Ghost in the Shell) the biggest shame is that the studios had a lack of faith in it's audience to a. understand the original message of the film so they dumb it down to an identity piece rather than the broader realm of humanity and b. that they thought the overall theme presented in the original movie and it's spin offs would not resonate and sell. I have read a lot of things about people enjoying the shift to it being more of an identity piece, however, it results in ultimately my least favorite thing of the film, which goes back to the initial controversy of the film: justifying Scarlett Johansson's casting choice.

In the film The Major does not know herself as Motoko, instead she is Mira Killian, but throughout the events of the film she discovers that before she was Motoko. This whole side plot honestly disgusted me. First off, once again it assumes ineptitude on the audience and tries to hold our hands through the narrative dragging us along rather than allowing us to piece these things together for ourselves, but secondly and chiefly, it is faltering to the whims of, and I use this term here in risk of some flack back, weeaboos who have missed the point entirely and foam at the mouth for it solely because it's Japanese or people who just assume that because it's Japanese made that all the characters in it have to be. I realize that these are generalizations, I have had many discussions with people that have valid points about the casting, however, ultimately Scarlett Johanson was the pick of even the series creator, and that alone should make the argument a moot point.

All in all 2017's adaptation of Ghost in the Shell is an okay film that doesn't quite hit the mark of it's legacy, but still burns a lot brighter than previous anime adaptations (I'm glaring at you Dragon Ball: Evolution). As a silver lining, to those fans of the original anime, this film is a very good introduction point to your friends who you want to get into the series. It presents enough of the original material to compel the audience to go seek out the original and better understand the film.

This has been another edition of Comic Relief! Next time I will be talking a bit on Netflix's Iron Fist. See you then!