‘Ghost in the Shell’

IF YOU’RE going to wade through the media minefield that is cultural appropriation, at least make sure the film is worth the trouble.

Not so in the case of ‘Ghost in the Shell’ (2017), the cyberpunk science fiction film based on Masamune Shirow’s manga series of the same name.

Impressive in its aesthetic that dots a Hong Kong’esque skyline with larger than life holograms in a future world, this year’s Hollywood hack job looks good, kind of like ‘Blade Runner’ (1982), but plays nothing like the philosophical masterpiece by Mamoru Oshii.

Swopping rumination for action with Scarlett Johansson assuming the role of the originally Japanese Major Motoko Kusanagi, ‘Ghost in the Shell’ presents a future in which humans can be enhanced with cybernetics.

With the line blurring between man and machine as people upgrade their vision, strength and livers in seedy cybernetic chop shops, Major, an entirely synthetic body housing a human brain, attempts to remember her past and make sense of her existence.

She also hunts down a terrorist hacker named Kuze with much brilliantly breaking glass, shimmery disappearing and elegant jumping off roof.

Directed by Rupert Sanders and co-starring Michael Pitt, Pilou Asbæk, Chin Han and Juliette Binoche with Scarjo once again playing an enhanced being a la ‘Lucy’ (2014), ‘Ghost in the Shell’ jettisons depth and feels insipidly familiar and not because of its seminal source material.

See this to satisfy your curiosity or skip the whitewashing entirely because, for a movie about the soul, it has fair little.

– martha@namibian.com.na; Martha Mukaiwa on Twitter and Instagram

Want to watch ‘Ghost in the Shell’ (2017) or a movie of your choice at Ster-Kinekor? Win a double movie ticket by simply answering the following question: What type of Japanese art form is ‘Ghost in the Shell’ based on? Send your full name and your answer via SMS to 45045, using the key word MOVIE. Competition closes Friday at 17h00.