The race thing is not handled very well in this live-action adaptation of one of the greatest anime movies ever made, Ghost in the Shell. Both films are set in Hong Kong, but the central characters in the original are Asian and all but one of the core characters in the new version are white. And it is not explained why these white, English-speaking characters—the main baddies, the sidekick, the star—are in an Asian city. They are just there, and we are asked to accept that as a fact.
To make matters more puzzling, early in the film we encounter a happy group of Nigerian-looking Africans, who are clearly foreigners and are shopping for the latest wetware in the Asian city, in much the same way West African entrepreneurs of our times visit Guangzhou on business visas to get the best deals on hot products pumped out of Chinese factories. They seem not to notice or mind how this Asian city is dominated by a small group of white scientists, CEOs, and government officials.
Why wasn’t the American version of the original Shell set in Los Angeles or New York City or something? There was no real need for it to happen in the same place, Hong Kong. The story—which concerns a cyborg, the Major (played by the queen of science-fiction cinema, Scarlett Johansson), who, while investigating a hacker, learns more and more about her past and the deep secrets of the corporation that made her a machine/monster—could have survived the relocation to the United States with next to no damage.
But, no, they had to make it an Asian city, and the main character a white woman playing an Asian woman with an Asian mother. Enough of this dumb race shit. We live in the 21st century. If Black female rocket scientists can produce a box-office hit in the US, Hidden Figures, then surely Asian cyborgs, scientists, and CEOs can do the same.
Also, the live-action Ghost in the Shell is nowhere near as good as the original, which did for Hong Kong what Blade Runner did for Los Angeles, or The Matrix did for Sydney, or Her did for Shanghai (which plays LA in that superb work). The city in these films is not just stuck in the background but built into the plot. In the live-action Ghost in the Shell, the city is nothing but the background.
And, like the awful Autómata, the film’s big urban “idea” is a bunch of giant holograms that advertise products on top of and between buildings. Those holograms are not cool or convincing or as original as, to use the words of the great urban theorist Mike Davis, the “enormous neon images that float like clouds above fetid streets” in Blade Runner. Any mayor with half a mind would ban those hideous holograms. They have no future in advertising.
One more thing: Recall that there are almost no cars in Her (which stars the voice of Johansson). Public transportation in that future rules. You will find only two buses and not one train in the live-action Ghost in the Shell. It’s all cars and flying freeways in this world.
True, the movie makes one nod to the iconic building of Japanese metabolist architecture of the 1970s, the Nakagin Capsule Tower (in this live-action Ghost in the Shell, it turns up in Hong Kong and counts a white scientist played by Juliette Binoche as one of its residents), but it ain’t enough. We need more than that. The future of the world is not found in cars or whitewashing.
Um, dude, I’m sensing some seriously misdirected rage here. 98% of big budget movies have majority if not all-white casts, regardless of where they are set/filmed. It sucks but everybody knows this. Are you seriously that freaked out by a bunch of white people in Hong Kong?? So much that you spent seven paragraphs ranting about it? Then you write a couple paragraphs about how its not as good as the original, Bladerunner had better and more original special effects, and it wasn’t a realistic vision of the future. You didn’t say a single actual thing about the actual movie.
Dude, its a fucking SCI-FI MOVIE!! Anime remakes are never as good as the original (See: Aeon Flux, tho Ultraviolet was bad ass). They are always unrealistic and un-eco-friendly and racially unbalanced (big props to The Matrix for blasting that stereotype).
But you’re not doing anything for racial progress by pulling the race card from deep within your ass and making it the whole focus of your article. If it was an Asian cast set in LA you wouldn’t have blinked. What crusade will you pick next? Mexicans in Maryland? Uzbekistanis in Utah? Jews in Jersey? Ok that last one doesn’t really work but you get my point.
I grew up in NYC so I look forward to the time when more movies look like The Matrix. Thats what my world looked like then and that’s what I want the future to look like. But you gotta choose your battles man! All you’re doing is stirring the pot and reducing a serious issue down to a squabbling one-man protest, and you’re diluting and diverting the energy of the movement.
This Friday, April 7th, YOUR congresspeople are going to vote on a Supreme Court Justice nominee who is not only a racist misogynist corporate ass-licker, but also is squarely in the pocket of our psychopath Litigator-in-Chief. If he gets in you won’t be worried about bad sci-fi remakes, you’ll be shitting yourself because all the progress-oriented, equality-based activist organizations you love — including your favorite weekly paper — are getting sued out of existence.
So let’s channel that righteous rage of yours in a productive way instead of using obscure examples to painfully overstate the obvious. Call your reps and tell them to block Neil Gorsuch. Or tell them to fire Nunes for squealing to Trump about his own investigation. Or to demand single-payer health care. Tell them their job is on the line. Politicians don’t give a fuck about us, but they sure as shit hop to if they think their career is at stake. Let them feel that holy wrath of yours.
Don’t have the number? Call (202)225-3121 with your zip code and a live operator will give you their names and cheerfully connect you.
Now go re-watch Maleficent to remind yourself that some animated to live action remakes are way better than the first (spoiler alert: they’re all white).