From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Apr 18 14:42:47 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!newsfeed.tip.net!news.seinf.abb.se!inquo!in-news.erinet.com!bug.rahul.net!rahul.net!a2i!ns2.mainstreet.net!news.PBI.net!gw2.att.com!nntphub.cb.att.com!not-for-mail From: yamash01@dons.ac.usfca.edu (Yamamoto) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: GHOST IN THE SHELL (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 17 Apr 1996 21:26:37 GMT Organization: University of San Francisco Lines: 69 Sender: ecl@mtcts1.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: ecl@mtcts1.att.com Message-ID: <4l3nmd$dde@nntpb.cb.att.com> Reply-To: yamash01@dons.ac.usfca.edu (Yamamoto) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtcts2.mt.att.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05034 Keywords: author=Yamamoto Originator: ecl@mtcts2 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4282 rec.arts.sf.reviews:927 GHOST IN THE SHELL A film review by Yamamoto Copyright 1996 Yamamoto Why is it that whenever there's a woman with funky do which happens to stick straight up, they have to sit right in front of you at the movie theatres? It doesn't matter where you sit, and the movie may have just started. Out of nowhere, poof, they'll waltz right in and sit infront of you and block a good portion of the screen. I guess it's one of those life's unexplainable mysteries. Speaking of difficult concept to grasp, GHOST IN THE SHELL came out and I had to go check it out. It's a Japanese anime taking place in supposed future in the year 2029. Yes, it's loosely related to the comic book (which by the way 2 pages worth has been censored for the conservative American public). Anyhow, the secret service in this era tries to capture this super hacker and well, things don't ever the go the way you planned. 2 dozen nakkid cyber boobs. 9 doz bullets. 3 dead bodies. 42 on the vomit meter. No moon shots. What we got here are: long distance peeping tom-fu, killer briefcases-fu, transparent body-fu, garbage collectors from hell-fu, AP rounds in submachinegun-fu, dodging crowd-fu, attack of the invisible zombie-fu, one way water way-fu, runaway truck-fu, soul searching-fu, and of course your standard issue big gun-fu. Drive in academy award nominations to: Bateau for saying stuff like "If I lose contact, I'm pulling the plug", to Togusa for sayin' stuff like "set them up as a decoy" and to Aramaki "did you hear me?" And of course to lovely "Major" Motoko Kusanagi "have you ever seen your own brain?" Spoilers - Motoko Krsanagi is the top field agent of section 9, the secret service. And yes, most of her body is cybernetic and hear cloaking device only works when she's nakkid. hmmm. Anyhow, in the future, the 'net gets so enormous that without people's knowledge, one of the black ops programs acquired a "ghost" or a soul. It wants to be recognized as a sentient being and of course people don't want to do that. Then again, you can't really define real human's soul so they can't prove anything. The story revolves around this premesis of the artifical soul and such. Oh yeah, you get your usual share of the guns and explosions too. And the animations are to die for. Three and three quarter stars. Shaggy Bob says wicked! Alien Alert! Why do I get this feeling that whole country is wrapped up in Jessica Dubroff's death? And why is media making such a hype, not only after the accident but even before? Are we supposed to feel the way media wants us to feel? If you think about it, don't you feel like you've been manipulated? Ok, so I may be bit paranoid but isn't there more important news to cover? Just wonderin'. (c) 4/13/96 - Shaggy Bob Words to the Wise: > From: jfg115@psu.edu (John Gorzkowski) > not that I have an opinion on the death penalty or anything, but > just one argument that I heard was that after all the court costs > of appeals and shit like that, executions cost more than life in > prison--just something to think about.... That's why I believe in passing this new bill about the truth in sentencing. You can teach people who doesn't know better but you can't change people who just don't care. Heck, with arrest rate so low and conviction rate being dismal, the least you can do is limit the appeals to one and have it done with within a year. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Apr 22 16:03:49 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!paladin.american.edu!news.jhu.edu!aplcenmp!night.primate.wisc.edu!news.larc.nasa.gov!lll-winken.llnl.gov!fnnews.fnal.gov!gw1.att.com!nntphub.cb.att.com!not-for-mail From: docangst@mcs.com (Jeff Williamson) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: GHOST IN THE SHELL (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 19 Apr 1996 20:09:47 GMT Organization: ? Lines: 68 Sender: ecl@mtcts1.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: ecl@mtcts1.att.com Message-ID: <4l8rub$lk1@nntpb.cb.att.com> Reply-To: docangst@mcs.com (Jeff Williamson) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtcts2.mt.att.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05056 Keywords: author=Williamson Originator: ecl@mtcts2 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4315 rec.arts.sf.reviews:931 GHOST IN THE SHELL A film review by Jeff Williamson Copyright 1996 Jeff Williamson I've been a backer of anime on the big screen as far back as AKIRA (1989). To me, there's an incredible difference between watching a videotape or laserdisc on a small screen in your living room and sitting in a darkened theater, staring up at a gigantic movie screen. GHOST IN THE SHELL marks the first occasion on which I have seen anime on the big screen *first*; that is to say, before seeing it in a home video form. Is it worth it? Indeed. Over a year ago, I had occasion to see a remarkable fan-subtitle of the PATLABOR 2 movie. It was my first conscious exposure to Mamoru Oshii's work (I still haven't seen ANGEL'S EGG), though I've since realized I have seen other Oshii films. PATLABOR 2 may be the single best anime movie I have ever seen; one which is fully deserving of a big-screen treatment in America. It is a profound political, philosophical, and psychological statement. For similar reasons, GHOST IN THE SHELL is worth seeing. Initial reviews had me blase about seeing the film; some folk were apparently not too impressed. "Too talky," I heard. "The character designs aren't anything like Shirow's." "The story is nothing like the manga." All of these criticisms are true to one degree or another, but whether they detract from or enhance the viewing experience is up to the individual. GITS is a very Oshii-esque film. Replete with meaningful monologues and multi-layered symbolism, it weaves subtle imagery to expound upon Darwinian evolution, religion, the nature of life and sentience, and man's role in relation to technology. Oshii has taken Shirow's heavy cyberpunk backdrop and melded it into a philosophical film which owes more than a little nod to Ridley Scott's BLADE RUNNER. Gone are most of the one-liner interplays between the characters; instead, they make intense intellectual speeches. The dense city design is combined with fascinating pieces such as the stitches from a tank's cannon ripping up a mural which represents the evolutionary hierarchy...and stopping just short of "HOMINIS" at the top of the chart. Technically, the film is also excellent. Kenji Kawai's haunting score overlays the opening credits and an interior montage, recalling moments in AKIRA. The English voice actors deserve a great deal of credit for what is one of the five best anime dubs I've seen. The animation is nothing short of superb. The film has its flaws. In an early scene, Kusanagi's speech to Togusa on technology seems somewhat flat, or perhaps forced. The points Oshii has his characters make act as slower bridges between the action sequences. But each are entertaining to watch in their own right. Some notable points: o The English voice of the Puppetmaster is amazing. It gave me chills. o Bateau gets the best humorous lines. o Kusanagi's voice is potentially the weakest, although I found myself wondering if the flat delivery didn't fit the cyborg character better. This is another triumph of Japanese animated cinema. OVERALL GRADE: A- -- Jeff Williamson *** Lightfall Integrated Media *** Chicago, IL E-mail: docangst@mcs.com *@_@* http://www.mcs.net/~docangst/3w/ac/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed May 8 13:34:21 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!news.cis.okstate.edu!newsfeed.ksu.ksu.edu!news.physics.uiowa.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!fnnews.fnal.gov!gw1.att.com!nntphub.cb.att.com!not-for-mail From: ataraxus@u.washington.edu (Dean Gold) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: GHOST IN THE SHELL (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 6 May 1996 15:06:54 GMT Organization: University of Washington Lines: 64 Sender: ecl@mtcts1.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: ecl@mtcts1.att.com Message-ID: <4ml4ie$1fi@nntpb.cb.att.com> Reply-To: ataraxus@u.washington.edu (Dean Gold) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtcts2.mt.att.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05149 Keywords: author=Gold Originator: ecl@mtcts2 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:4411 rec.arts.sf.reviews:942 GHOST IN THE SHELL A film review by Dan Gold Copyright 1996 Dan Gold ** 1/2 out of **** GHOST IN THE SHELL (1995) is a manga based movie of a futuristic worldin which the electronic net and cities are as one and cybernetically enhanced people are the norm. The story revolves around Major Motoko Kusanagi, a woman cyborg agent of the Internal Bureau whose mission is to track down the mysterious hacker known as "The Puppet Master." She and her colleagues learn that the Puppet Master is in fact a creation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Furthermore, the MFA's Project 2501 (aka The Puppet Master) claims to be self aware and its objective becomes to find a host body in order to have physical existence. The Internal Bureu agents question their own existence and Motoko is forced to decide between forfilling her mission or aiding Project 2501 in accomplishing its own goal. More important to an anime feature than its story is its animation. The innovative use of computer rendered graphics is integrated well into the hand-drawn animated action of the story. Blending traditional anime style people in an environment (that sometimes resembles photorealism) as vast as the world it portrays. Thus, the animation of GHOST IN THE SHELL serves the purpose in immersing the audience into a completely different environment. The one aspect in which the animation fell short was the coloring; the shades of GHOST IN THE SHELL are just too gloomy. This does not serve to enhance the story or the setting. Some more brightness would have made this feature a more pleasant experience. The wonderful exaggerated dramatization of portions of the action (such as the opening in which we see the formation of our heroine's artificial body) serve as the most delightful scenes. Since animation of GHOST IN THE SHELL is of very high caliber, the rating would have been higher had it not taken its plot so seriously. The fact is that nothing is new about the technological, socialogical, or philosophical ideas that GHOST IN THE SHELL calls upon to give itself drama. The feature manages to use them without making them appear as tired as they might be in other science fiction stories, but it does not give the profound impact it would pretend to deserve. Like a lot of anime, the story is grand in scope and so it is written in a manner that gives it false complexity. What results is often nonsensical. The problem is perhaps worsened in the English version by some translation problems. This disregard for conventional methods of storytelling is nothing new to anime, but in GHOST IN THE SHELL. There are unnecessary scenes making the feature drag at times and overall the feature is too long. The ending of GHOST IN THE SHELL is pretty silly. In conclusion, GHOST IN THE SHELL has plenty of ups and downs to it. Overall GHOST is an enjoyable experience and for anime fans, it is a must see. Additional Information http://www.polygram.com/manga/ghost/ghost.html http://www.msstate.edu/M/title-exact?+=Ghost+in+the+shell This review and many more on Sci-Fi films and the WWW Science Fiction Film Page http://weber.u.washington.edu/~ataraxus/sfmenu.html From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Aug 22 15:25:52 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!newsfeed1.telia.com!borg.unix.edu.sollentuna.se!news5.transpac.net!oden.abc.se!dos.canit.se!seunet!mn7.swip.net!mn6.swip.net!nntp.uio.no!www.nntp.primenet.com!globalcenter0!news.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!wnfeed!204.127.130.5!worldnet.att.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: syegul@ix.netcom.com (Serdar Yegulalp) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Ghost In The Shell (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 19 Aug 1997 16:03:36 GMT Organization: Jackie Chan's Kung Fu Process Servers Lines: 66 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <5tcg4o$q4a@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer35.u.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #08641 Keywords: author=yegulalp X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer35.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8036 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1499 Ghost In The Shell (1996) A movie review by Serdar Yegulalp (C) 1997 by Serdar Yegulalp CAPSULE: Crack the shell and discover a real gem. Navigates its wilderness of high-tech philosophy without dropping the ball. When we first see Agent Kusanagi, she's squatting naked on the ledge of the topmost floor of a gigantic building, waiting for the right moment to strike. In the room below her, illegal deals are being transacted. Just as someone smells a rat, she dives like a suicidal bungee-jumper, takes out her target with a burst of hollow-point submachine-gun fire, and then vanishes in a haze of personal body-cloaking technology. Not exactly the opening for a very thought-provoking movie, we might think. We are wrong. GHOST IN THE SHELL -- a great title, by the way -- contains a barrage of ideas that are both engaging, AND played out on-screen in fascinating ways. It takes place in a heavily technologized future, where the human body itself can be turned into one gigantic cybernetic host for a mind -- the "ghost in the shell" of the title. The heroine of the film is the aforementioned Kusanagi, a cool and calculating policeman with a totally synthetic body, but with a very human mind. She knows from whence she came, sort of, but where is she going? Kusanagi and her cohorts run afoul of a clever and malicious hacker who calls himself the Puppet Master. His specialty is hacking human bodies and memories to perform crimes, and then leaving the hacked humans behind as saps for the police. Fortunately, Kusanagi catches on fast, and when she moves to trap the Puppet Master, she finds something even more startling -- not a hacker, but a new kind of life form, one that has been germinated in the web of information and technology encircling the planet. GITS gives this idea the workout it deserves, even though it's not a long movie -- less than 100 minutes -- but it's packed with movement and color, and never pauses for breath. It also has the right ending for its difficult material; a lesser movie would have a shootout and that would be the end of it, but GITS has a knowing coda that puts everything into perspective. GITS' biggest flaw, which is becoming an increasingly irritating caveat in many imported movies, is the shockingly bad dubbing job. This is a movie to watch subtitled if at all possible, since the dubbing is done with voices that often don't match the characters at all. Kusanagi's dub voice is the worst of the bunch -- static and uninvolving, despite the fact that she has one of the best speeches in the movie. The movie's greatest glory, however, is in its sleek and overpowering images. There is a moment where Kusanagi goes scuba-diving, and touches the reflection of her own face on the underside of the water. There is the final brutal showdown in a "museum of evolution" between Kusanagi and a death-dealing robot tank. There is the opening sequence, in which a human shell is assembled and deployed. And there is a moment in the middle of the movie where the camera stares and stares at rain-slickened streets with crowds peppering them in slow-motion, for no other reason than to revel in the glory of it all. Four out of four shells. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- syegul@ix.netcom.com EFNet IRC: GinRei http://www.io.com/~syegul another worldly device... you can crush me as I speak/write on rocks what you feel/now feel this truth UNMUTUAL: A Digital Art Collective - E-mail syegul@ix.netcom.com for details =smilin' in your face, all the time wanna take your place, the BACKSTABBERS= ----------------------------------------------------------------------------