Wow. Seeing the two films Ghost in the Shell and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence back to back, one can really see how far the animation and storytelling has advanced in just one decade. Some years after the events narrated in the first film, Batou and his partner Togusa investigate a series of murders in which pleasure bots suddently and inexplicably murder their owners . . . .
Where Ghost in the Shell had depth, its sequel gains solidity. There is a feeling of mass, in both the animation and the writing. If one is to be the Neuromancer of the series, the other is its Blade Runner (or maybe its Mona Lisa Overdrive). There is a sequence in the middle of the film where the action loops back upon itself twice that is reminds me somehow of the Matrix, I don't know why.
Both a philosophical and lyrical film. (Something that I'd say is unusual in science fiction, except I have seen more of it lately in other works.) It speculates on the nature of humanity and artifice, of memory and souls, etc. It references Confucius, Psalms, Milton and Descartes. An intelligent, accomplished film that makes you think. Needles to say, highly recommended.
So this is a departure from the Studio Ghibli films I've been watching so far. It's an adult cyberpunk film in the William Gibson tradition. (By adult, I mean there's almost a soft porn aspect to it.) The premise is that there is a special ops department SECTION 9 that handles counter cyber-terrorism operations. (And all their agents are cybernetically enhanced.)
What is unusual is that people can be hacked; their memories and hence their identities, their "ghosts" in the parlance of the film, can be altered by outside agency. The agents are in pursuit of a mysterious agency known only as "the Puppeteer." What emerges is that the Puppeteer is a sapient digital entity, a "bug" that resulted from a secret project #2501. What it seeks is asylum to protect it from the agency that created it and to merge with one of the cyborg agents (Maj. Kusanagi).
On the whole, it's a good film. A little hard to understand, at first. The writing is intelligent, and the art is innovative. The level of detail at some points is impressive. My sense is that this is one of those movies that rewards repeated viewing. (I'm still not sure I follow it entirely.) My only problem is that I find that the music can be somewhat off-putting. (But this is probably more a matter of my Western ears, rather than the music itself.)
