A return to the seminal cyberpunk universe and an attempt to understand what it means to be human in a posthuman world. This anime was screened in the main competition at the 57th Cannes Film Festival.
A return to the seminal cyberpunk universe and an attempt to understand what it means to be human in a posthuman world. This anime was screened in the main competition at the 57th Cannes Film Festival.
In a dark future world permeated by cybertechnology and computer networks, cyborg detective Batou is investigating a series of crimes committed by gynoids, doll-like robots who have been killing their owners and self-destructing, thus breaking the laws of robotics. Working with other non-human creatures, Batou and his partner Togusa realise that the gynoids’ destructive behaviour is due to a conspiracy: somebody has been illegally copying human sentience and downloading human ghosts onto the dolls.
Mamoru Oshii’s visually rich Ghost in the Shell played an important part in bringing anime to Western cinemas, and its clever combination of cyberpunk aesthetics and philosophy made it a landmark in the history of the genre. In the sequel, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, the filmmaker continues to explore humanness in a posthuman world and outside of human bodies. The film’s protagonists are cyborgs, robots, machines, dolls, and puppets that bring to mind the mechanized Japanese karakuri puppets and the dolls of Hans Bellmer. Another nonhuman agent in the film is a dog based on and voiced over by Mamoru Oshii’s basset hound. Inviting us to overcome anthropocentrism, the filmmaker suggests we look at humans as creatures on par with artificial intelligence and animals.
The film will be screened in Japanese with Russian subtitles.
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
Director: Mamoru Oshii
Japan, 2004. 99 min.
18+