Kôkaku kidôtai (1995)

Director:

Mamoru Oshii

Writers:

Kazunori Itô (writer)
Masamune Shirow (comic)

Release Date:

29 March 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Sci-Fi | Fantasy | Thriller

Tagline:

It Found A Voice... Now It Needs A Body

Plot:

A female cyborg cop and her partner hunt a mysterious and powerful hacker called the Puppet Master.

Plot Keywords:

Cyborg | Hacker | Helicopter | Soldier | Market

Awards:

5 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Atsuko Tanaka	...	Major Motoko Kusanagi (voice)
Richard Epcar	...	Bateau (voice: English version) (as Richard George)
Akio Ôtsuka	...	Batô (voice)
Tamio Ôki	...	Section 9 Department Chief Aramaki (JPN) (voice)
Iemasa Kayumi	...	Project 2501 aka 'The Puppet Master' (voice)
Kôichi Yamadera	...	Togusa (voice)
Tesshô Genda	...	Section 6 Department Chief Nakamura (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Richard Barnes	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version) (as Murray Williams)
Steve Blum	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version) (as Roger Canfield)
Steve Bulen	...	Section 9 Staff Cyberneticist / Coroner (voice: English version)
Toni Burke	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Richard Cansino	...	Diplomat (voice: English version) (as Steve Davis)
Tom Carlton	...	Garbage Collector A (voice: English version)
George Celik	...	Old Man (voice: English version)
Shigeru Chiba	...	Garbage Collector B (voice)
Gina Connell	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Stephen Davis	...	Diplomat (voice: English version)
Dorothy Gabriel	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Dougary Grant	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version) (as Michael Porter)
Leo Gray	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Meg Hamilton	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Christopher Joyce	...	Togusa (voice: English version)
William Knight	...	Section 9 Department Chief Aramaki (voice: English version) (as William Frederick)
Namaki Masakazu	...	Dr.Willis (voice)
Joan Mason	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Takashi Matsuyama	...	Terrorist (voice)
Joe Michael	...	(voice: English version)
Mitsuru Miyamoto	...	Daita Mizuho (voice)
Gilbert Navarro	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Shinji Ogawa	...	Notorious Diplomat (voice)
Gloria Oldman	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Ben Parks	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Scott Prensor	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Simon Prescott	...	Section 6 Department Chief Nakamura (voice: English version) (as Ben Isaacson)
Debra Rogers	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version) (as S.J. Charvin)
Joe Romersa	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version) (as Joe Michaels)
Maaya Sakamoto	...	Motoko (Girl) (voice)
Donald Salin	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Lia Sargent	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Sam Sheffer	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Michael Sorich	...	Ishikawa (voice: English version) (as Mike Sorich)
Peter Spellos	...	Bad Guy (voice: English version) (as David Conrad)
Skip Stellrecht	...	Minister (voice: English version) (as Hank Smith)
Doug Stone	...	Garbage Collector B (voice: English version)
Jimmy Theodore	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version) (as Stephen Platt)
Yûji Ueda	...	Assault-Unit Operator (voice)
Phil Williams	...	Dr. Willis (voice: English version)
Amy Wong	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version) (as Amy Wong)
Mimi Woods	...	Major Motoko Kusanagi (voice: English version)
Tom Wyner	...	Project 2501 / Puppet Master (voice: English version) (as Abe Lasser)
Kazuhiro Yamaji	...	Garbage Collector A (voice)
Masato Yamanouchi	...	Foreign Minister (voice)

Also Known As:

Ghost in the Shell (International: English title) (UK) (USA)
Shell Mobile Force

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

Japan | USA

Language:

Japanese | English | Spanish

Color:

Color | Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Italy:VM14 (video rating) | South Korea:12 | Italy:T (re-rated) (video rating) | Canada:14+ (TV rating) | Japan:PG-12 | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Brazil:14 | Canada:14A | Finland:K-11 (re-rating) | Finland:K-12 (video rating) | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Singapore:M18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | Netherlands:12 | Germany:16 (video rating)

Company:

Bandai Visual Company

Trivia:

In ordinary anime, characters would at least blink to create the feeling of "being animated", but in this movie, Motoko's eyes intentionally stayed unblinking many times. Director Mamoru Oshii's intention was to portray her as a "doll".

Quotes:

Project 2501: As a sentient lifeform, I hereby demand political asylum.
Section 9 Department Chief Aramaki: Is this a joke?

Movie Connections:

Remade as Kôkaku kidôtai 2.0 (2008)

Soundtrack:

One Minute Warning

It found a voice... and a following

"Ghost in the Shell" is an intricate masterpiece of cyber-punk fiction and storytelling, successfully melding intriguing philosophical ideas with a coherent, well thought-out (albeit) confusing plot.

Even more, it's a nightmarish vision of a society that's dominated by cyberspace and looking back now, is eerily prescient of today's computerized times. Many of the characters in the film are enhanced, someway or another by machines, to help them get the advantage in a vastly changing society.

I'll avoid going real deep into the plot simply because there's a whole lot to grasp and even I got more than a little confused trying to follow it. The story is that a team of high-level government operatives are hot on the trail of a notorious computer hacker called the "Puppet Master," who is wanted for various crimes in cyberspace and has taken a particularly fond interest in the team's tough, female cyborg leader.

Not surprisingly, as with the stigmas surrounding Anime', "Ghost in the Shell" is not short of nudity and graphic violence. But it's far from being gratuitous, and does not slow down the movie at all.

"Ghost in the Shell" was one of the first Anime' films to skillfully blend traditional drawn animation with computerized imagery. This helps to give the film a surreal, yet beautiful look. And the dialogue helps sometimes too, with helping to sort out the confusing plot and many of its mythical ideas about personal identity and human evolution.

This film is also even more revered today, in 2004, since some of this film's core themes helped to develop the plot basis of the insanely popular "Matrix" films, and some scenes from "Ghost in the Shell" were even homaged to in the first "Matrix" movie. The Wachowski Brothers certainly do owe a lot to this movie for the success of their work in America.

I think that to understand "Ghost in the Shell," it would help to accept that Anime' is much more complex and daring than traditional American animation. Most Japanese animation films, like this one, "Akira," or Mayazaki's "Spirited Away," are on a level of sophistication that will never be matched in America.

It has been said that the majority of American audiences would be afraid of Anime' because of the many stereotypes surrounding it, but that's why it's boundless - it's been given free reign to use those stigmas to its advantage in developing truly remarkable pieces of art that have gone largely ignored here in the U.S. "Ghost in the Shell" could very well be a mere reflection or a parable of a doomed society that's probably already accepted its dark fate. Most American animation would never touch up on this sort of subject matter.

"Ghost in the Shell" is my #3 choice Anime' film (behind "Spirited Away" and "Akira") because it's so full of ideas and is masterful in telling a dark story about our times.

10/10