AKA Ghost in the Shell: The Rising
Starring Maaya Sakamoto, Kenichiro Matsuda, Mayumi Asano, Kazuya Nakai, Ikkyuu Juku, Miyuki Sawashiro, Shunsuke Sakuya, Takurou Nakakuni, Tarusuke Shingaki
Directed by Kazuya Nomura
A few years back I did a rundown of all the Ghost in the Shell films. Since then there have been a few more releases in the franchise, and I figured I would give them a glance before checking out the new live-action film slated to release at the end of March. Now it’s never a good idea to call your new movie in a long running franchise “The New Movie.” It just means that a couple of years later when a newer, higher profile production starring Scarlett Johansson comes out your no-longer-new movie just sounds dumb, and probably confusing for the audience. But I can’t stop some idiot without a scrap of originality from doing just that, so unfortunately we’re stuck with it.
In another really confusing move for a film so concerned about its timeliness, Ghost in the Shell: The It Was New a Couple Years Ago Movie is actually a prequel to the original story, showcasing how Major Motoko Kusanagi put together the team of operatives that work for Section 9. This far into the series we have only heard small bits about her past, mostly that she has been a cyborg since childhood, so I was a bit unconvinced that exploring her background was a good idea. We’ve gone this far without it. Why do we need it now? But the film does go a good way toward establishing some of the motivation for her decisions at the end of the first film, so I think they actually did find a pretty good reason to go back and examine her history.
To some extent, this is just letting the audience do the thinking rather than treating us like idiots, and that’s great. But it often left me at a loss for following the plot. It’s a tricky balancing act, no doubt, but I think the film went a bit too far in the obscurity direction. This is at odds with the fact that I saw the true villain coming from a mile away. It’s strange that with all the confusion surrounding the finer points, the most important thing to keep hidden from the audience was the most obvious part of the plot.
Overall, the film has a solid mix of action, intrigue, and philosophizing, which is important for a Ghost in the Shell film. It doesn’t look quite as good as the original, but it still looks pretty good, and the action scenes are the thoughtful outwit and outflank the bad guy kind of stuff that I wish had been more prevalent in the various Appleseed films. If I have a complaint about the visuals, it is that there aren’t enough good establishing shots to get a sense of the film’s setting, which in an intellectual action scene is pretty useful for understanding what’s going on.
Kusangi is a law enforcement officer, and in this film she expressly coaches her team not to make kill shots. They’re supposed to be arresting people and trying them in court. So why is she performing a blatant political assassination? I never noticed before because it’s the first event in the series. We have no context to place it in until we’ve forgotten about it. But seeing it in context now has made me question the whole thing.
So I’m having a hard time deciding how much I like the film. It’s just a big, confusing fog in my head at the moment. But I can say that it feels like a worthy successor to the franchise, even if Ghost in the Shell: It Used to be the New Movie will soon be every bit as obsolete and incompatible with new versions as the cyborgs in its story. (And if it turns out that highlighting the theme of new technology becoming outdated was the whole point of calling it The New Movie in the first place, then well played, unidentified title creator. Well played, indeed.)