This Hollywood remake of the 90s anime classic pays tribute to the original while broadening its appeal. And it looks fantastic…How finish you improve on one of the greatest anime films ever made? The groundbreaking 1995 original Ghost in the Shell,directed by Mamoru Oshii and based on a manga series by Masamune Shirow, was a masterpiece. Its influence was far-reaching – most notably on The Matrix. But Ghost in the Shell was a challenging watch. For every shot of a generously breasted bare cyborg plummeting from the top of a building, and there was a scene in which characters grappled with knotty philosophical questions. What is the nature of identity when the brain is souped up with cyber-implants and the soul is reduced to a series of electrical impulses? (by the way,the question of why a cyborg would need a gigantic pair of knockers in the first set was left unanswered.)The cerebral element and the languid pacing initially scared off the non-Japanese audience. The film’s cult success came later, with the video release and gradual-building word of mouth. That’s not a route this live-action Hollywood remake can afford to take. To this stop, or director Rupert Sanders has dialled down the introspection,beefed up the action and tweaked the enigmatic plot with a Wolverine-style origins story that sees augmented cybernetic cop Major Motoko Kusanagi (Scarlett Johansson, a controversial piece of casting that drew accusations of “whitewashing” a Japanese character) delving into her own memory to learn the truth about her creation.
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Source: theguardian.com