#GhostInTheShell: Of PSA short, Steve Aoki Remixes & Memories of GITS
While posted as separate pieces on my PopcornX and GhostInTheShellFan blogs, I’d thought to present them “together” in a single post here on TOYSREVIL, as both somehow connect via the notion of “memory”, in relation to the upcoming “live”-action GHOST IN THE SHELL feature film, starring Scarlet Johansson as “Mira / The Major” … and yes, you read that right, her name was “MIRA”, and not “Motoko Kusanagi”.
Featured above is an “Ghost In The Shell PSA” (*PSA = “Public Service Announcement”) - whereby the notion of “white-washing” (that has plagued the film since the onset of the announcement of Scarlet Johansson as the Japanese character in the original source manga+anime) is effectively shown affecting a person of Asian-heritage, where once as a child she searched thru American/Caucasian-focused heroines and discovered and identified with “Motoko Kusanagi” in a GITS manga … only to be faced with a Caucasian-casted character played in the live-action film, in her adult years, leaving her feeling bewildered, like a child again.
“Movies aren't real, but they affect real people” - Created by Chewy May & Jes Tom, directed and filmed by Christine Shaw, with a score by Jen Kwok - the POV (*Point-of-View) is one held by many fans of the original anime, something which non-fans might not understand nor necessarily identify with, IMHO.
And while the video up-top was independently-made, the next is a promotional clip highlighting Steve Aoki’s remixed theme of the 1995 anime, to suit the current times of EDM. The track is named “Making A Cyborg”, BTW :)
Love it or Hate it, that perhaps is the price for change and advancement - which I have since learnt to reconcile with, simply by telling myself I have my beloved anime to go back to viewing, of the upcoming live action film disappoints me - be it in the casting choices or musical decisions.
To me personally, the casting is “balanced” out in “Eren Yeager” or “Mikasa Ackerman”, or even “Eric Alphonso” being cast with Japanese actors (*Unless you want to argue the source material being Japanese in the first place, hence “first dibs” concept lol), and the fight between “commercial consumerism” versus the “entitlement of a fanboy” whose childhood is in held the grip of people with money to fund out said-fanboy-dreams? LOL
My teenhood memories remain intact, and they are mine alone to have, as everyone else out there might have too. Nothing at all wrong with whatever uproar, displeasure or praise we might have - as long as it keeps the project on everyone’s lips and attention, especially in such a media-saturated wwworld we live in these days LOL
I am both “appalled” and “excited” at the prospect of this latest incarnation of a unashamedly admitted life-altering anime I cherish in my own memories, truth be told, and look forward to enjoy this film, and am trying my darkest not to be bummed over it before I had seen it in full, IMHO.
What about YOU? Do you feel the same? Feel differently? Excited for the film? Boycotting the film? Feel free to leave your comments below, if you so please :)
Also consider, while it may well have been “well intentions” to “pay homage to the fans”, consider as well that this incarnation might well aim to cater to a new generation of fans, who did not grow up with either the manga or anime … I remembered distinctly a filmmaking student saying he’d never watched an anime before … and if even this GITS might perhaps lead him to anime subsequently after viewing, then that perhaps balances out my own personal need/desire to have my beloved anime presented in front of my eyes, ears and heart, exactly the way I remembered it to be.
1995 (the year of the anime films’ release) is over decades ago now, and a human child might well have grown to adulthood since then and not having read the manga, or even the anime (I remembered in that era, we had hardly any access to foreign media, much less an animated film) … just like how the PSA shows up top, innit?
Different time periods, different experiences, perhaps? On the same token, “different generations” might well also mean a singular admiration and adoration, now “altered” by Hollywood - not necessarily for OUR benefit, out to be friends with our wallets and bank-accounts LOL
Cheers
Andy TOYSREVIL
