IT FOUND A VOICE… NOW IT NEEDS A BODY.
In 2029, Major Motoko Kusanagi and her team are hunting a hacker known as the Puppet Master who’s infiltrating a vast electronic network that uses cybernetic bodies. The film that inspired the Wachowskis to make The Matrix (1999) is an impressively staged, creative thriller about a futuristic society where everybody’s using enhanced ”shells” instead of their bodies, leading to philosophical musings on identity. Intense action is counterbalanced by quieter moments that are effectively scored by Kenji Kawai’s brooding music. Interesting throughout, even if tension comes and goes.Â
1995-Japan-Britain. Animated. 83 min. Color. Directed by Mamoru Oshii. Comic Book: Masamune Shirow. Music: Kenji Kawai. Voices of Atsuko Tanaka (Motoko Kusanagi), Akio Otsuka (Batou), Iemasa Kayumi (The Puppet Master), Koichi Yamadera, Tamio Oki, Yutaka Nakano.
Trivia: Original title: Kôkaku kidôtai. Rereleased in 3D in 2008. Followed by Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004). The original manga was also adapted as an American live-action film, Ghost in the Shell (2017).
