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Amph Ghost in the Shell

Discussion in 'Community' started by Lord Vivec, Jan 5, 2015.

  1. Lord Vivec

    Lord Vivec Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Apr 17, 2006
    So, my hopes that all the director/writer changes meant that this was going to stay in development hell forever have been squashed as today ScarJo was announced to star as Motoko Kusanagi.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...r-in-live-action-Ghost-in-the-Shell-film.html

    I can't wait to find out how this takes place in America and how it'll be a bay-esque action flick ignoring the themes of the source material.
     
  2. GenAntilles

    GenAntilles Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 24, 2007
    Edge of Tomorow was still good after being heavily adapted though.
     
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  3. Diggy

    Diggy Chosen One star 8

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    Feb 27, 2013
    Thanks for raising awareness! Consider my ticket bought!
     
  4. Jabba-wocky

    Jabba-wocky Chosen One star 10

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    May 4, 2003
    Nothing like a white woman to play a convincing Japanese national.
     
  5. Lord Vivec

    Lord Vivec Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Apr 17, 2006
    But they need someone good looking!
     
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  6. Jabba-wocky

    Jabba-wocky Chosen One star 10

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    May 4, 2003
    In that case, I could name at least one other person of the appropriate age to play the role.
     
  7. DarthMane2

    DarthMane2 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Sep 20, 2003
    Don't know if the whitewashing arguement really works here. India did an Oldboy adaption too, you know. If America is adapting a Japanese property, wouldn't logically be Americanized? Scarjo has proven a profitable actress, and thus was cast as the lead. I would rather have had Emily blunt myself.

    Marion Cotillard..mmmm yes yes. She can play the robot women who's hooked up to all the machinary. [face_blush]

    Of course Gibson would have given us our more Japanese situated movie.

    Neither writer or director impress me here, but who knows. I've seen Ghost in the Shell onced. I liked it because other people like it too. I don't remember what it's about or what happened. I saw stuff happening, but the Japanese way of telling stories is either boring or completely confusing. Sometimes both.

    My eyes saw it, I know that much.
     
  8. Jabba-wocky

    Jabba-wocky Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    May 4, 2003
    You can adapt a story when its essentials can be transferred from one setting to another without changing the content of the story. Oldboy, for instance, is from what I understand a bizarre story about revenge and incest. These themes aren't confined to one cultural context, so the story can be told and re-told many places. Ghost in The Shell, by contrast, is about a branch of the Japanese government. It's bureaucratic interactions with other parts of said government, and Japan's place in world geopolitics figure prominently into all the tales in this series, across several genres. Removing the particular sense of Japanese nationhood and history would alter all this dramatically.
     
  9. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
  10. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    Oldboy didn't work because Americans lack any form of subtlety and must do everything with the heaviest of hands. A British remake would not have been a thousand percent ****.

    (See also: the grace of Infernal Affairs versus the pompous bull**** of The Departed)

    As for this; I understand the argument in favour of Westernising a Japanese IP and you have to consider in some part the English language dubs of these anime films do that. But I think it's fair to say Wocky is right; it's inherently a Japanese tale. Westernising it makes no sense.

    [​IMG]
     
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  11. Lord Vivec

    Lord Vivec Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Apr 17, 2006
    What Wocky said.

    Ghost in the Shell is a very Japanese story. The context of Japanese history is important, as well as culture and themes. Americanizing it would not work. You'd get something called Ghost in the Shell but it wouldn't be Ghost in the Shell.
     
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  12. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

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    Apr 3, 2002
    Akira is overrated.
     
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  13. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

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    Feb 18, 2001

    I love this so, so much.
     
  14. Diggy

    Diggy Chosen One star 8

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    Feb 27, 2013
    Knowing abs nothing about this, can you post a pic of the character?
     
  15. Jabba-wocky

    Jabba-wocky Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    May 4, 2003
    [​IMG]

    It's not even so much about the one single character, though. It's a story with Japanese sensibilities about Japanese people that work in the Japanese government. For Johanson to fit in that world, they either have to bend backwards with explanations about how she got there, or more likely alter the entire setting. Neither of which leaves the integrity of the story very much intact.
     
  16. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

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    Feb 18, 2001
    Yeah I think you need to at least see the anime film, Diggy, before it'll really hit home. GITS (lol): Stand Alone Complex is a good series, but the film's an easier starting point.
     
  17. GenAntilles

    GenAntilles Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 24, 2007
    I doubt the movie will take place in Japan or follow the source very closely. At best it'll have some of the themes, and a similar plot, but ultimately it's an adaptation.

    I mean a Fist Full of Dollars is still a good movie even if it's just a Westernized version of Yojimbo.

    Isn't that the same with Godzilla though? Yet the latest Godzilla movie took place mostly in the US and still hit all the major themes?
     
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  18. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

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    Feb 18, 2001
    Yeah they'll focus on the whole cybercrime part of it. Which is why I have to ask why they just don't do an original story instead of calling it Ghost in the Shell? [face_flag]
     
  19. GenAntilles

    GenAntilles Jedi Grand Master star 5

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    Jul 24, 2007
    Easier to market if it's a famous property already.
     
  20. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

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    Aug 16, 2002
    something something Kate Beckinsale
     
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  21. Lord Vivec

    Lord Vivec Chosen One star 9

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    Apr 17, 2006
    Yeah, they totally hit on the horrors of the Atomic Bombings of Japan in the latest Godzilla film.

    ...
     
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  22. GenAntilles

    GenAntilles Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 24, 2007
    Isn't Godzilla supposed to be more of a good guy now in Japanese culture? I mean 90% of all the Godzilla movies I saw as a kid was him saving Japan from some monster.
     
  23. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    Are you one of those people, GenAntilles, who thinks American values are fairly universal and most things can apply to said values? It feels like, yes, yes you are.
     
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  24. GenAntilles

    GenAntilles Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 24, 2007
    Eh, more like human values are fairly universal. I mean that's why stories resonant, they are universal. You don't have to be a particular race or nationality to understand or empathize or get the message. Acting like a story is locked into one setting and can't be adapted to something else is silly. The characters, setting, etc... all of it isn't needed. All you need is the message the story is telling, that's the heart of it.
     
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  25. Penguinator

    Penguinator Former Mod star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 23, 2005

    Perhaps nowadays, but in the original film he was very much an unstoppable force of nature. Literally everyone who comes into contact with him (before his big reveal) winds up dead, and not just because they get squished; incidental and coincidental meetings meant they were doomed too, which is very deliberately done to invoke the idea of contact with radioactive material and subsequent death. He's decidedly not a good guy on his first outing.
     
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