Text | Chu Xiuhong (ForsakenW)
There are two fantasy genres originating in North America that have a place in the history of Japanese animation-steampunk and cyberpunk. When you ask a science fiction fan what he thinks is the best steampunk anime, the answers are likely to vary. If you ask him which is the best cyberpunk, in all likelihood, he will be our protagonist today-"Ghost in the Shell".
Cyberpunk is also called digital punk. Its concept comes from the sci-fi world built by William Gibson and Philip Dick (yes, the author of "Blade Runner"), usually around the Internet, AI, dystopia Unfold the story in the near future. The appearance of "Ghost in the Shell" not only affected countless subsequent works, but also gave birth to masterpieces such as "The Matrix". Due to the numerous series of works and complex technical terms, there is a certain threshold for viewing the original "Ghost in the Shell". This time we will briefly discuss the world setting, spiritual core and cinematization.
1. Historical divergence-the Soviet Union that has not disintegrated and the war that has never stopped
The most important background in the world view of the shell is the third and fourth wars. The third world war was a nuclear war, and the fourth war was a non-nuclear war. The two world wars promoted technological progress.
And all this stems from the continuation of the Cold War between the two superpowers. In the real world, due to the deterrence of nuclear balance and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, we have experienced 70 years of peace since the Second World War. But in the world of "Ghost in the Shell", the Soviet Union was still alive until 1996, leading Europe to war with the United States. Therefore, World War III became a cruel game with more nuclear bombs—Japan was hit hard and the entire capital area was blown to ruins; the recession of the US economy caused the country to be divided into three, and the world finally ushered in a situation of more losses "Nuclear" is flat.
When Europe and the United States fought in the three wars, East Asia accumulated a lot of wealth because there was no war, and became almost the only beneficiary. This imbalance has also made Asia unknowingly become the enemy of the world. Until 1999, the increased friction between the European Community and Asian countries led to the outbreak of the Fourth World War. Because it reached a consensus not to use nuclear weapons before the war, it was also called a non-nuclear war. At the end of the Fourth World War, China announced its participation in the war and joined the Asian Alliance. The unbalanced war quickly ended in Asia's victory.
In 2005, the Asian Consortium was established. Since then, China has become the world's largest country, and it has been on par with the US.
Figure 1 "Ghost in the Shell" world map
In the above basic settings, China, which everyone cares about, became the biggest winner of the two world wars. In the three wars, China worried that the United States would burn East Asia and ruthlessly wiped out Okinawa (the largest US military base) with a nuclear bomb. After the end of the Fourth World War, almost the entire Southeast Asia was included in China's territory-Japan's dream of co-prosperity in Greater East Asia was finally realized by us Chinese... It is worth mentioning that because a huge meteorite hit Beijing, This has greatly promoted China's democratization process and realized the core values of socialism with the help of external forces.
And Japan's development path is also common in many works to rejuvenate the country with science and technology. With the help of the "Poseidon" project, it successfully skewed the entire world's science and technology tree-electronic brain, prostheticization, post-war recovery... A classic cyberpunk future. We can see Japan’s worries about survival between China and the United States, as well as the hope and light brought by their proud technological prowess.
2. Electronic brain and prosthetic
There is a world where everyone can punch Yen Zidan and kick Bolt, where the Chinese team will never have a chance to win the Hercules Cup, because in "Ghost in the Shell" I have never seen any sports-except Bart who is always working out his biceps. In this world, the level of the Internet is highly developed, and the otaku can become the gods of the new world just by plugging in a pipe, and the way to enter the matrix in "The Matrix" comes from this.
When smart wearable devices developed to implantable devices, electronic brains were developed, leading human civilization into a new era. After the continuous development of technology has improved the practical use of micromachines, electronic brains have become safe and cheap, and have become widely popular in countries such as Japan. When the mind is strong, the body must keep up. While the electronic brain enhances the "inward blasting" of the mental sensation, the technology of replacing the body with mechanical components is called "prosthetic technology", The rapid development and wide application of these two technologies also led to an ultimate philosophical thought in the work-when the boundary between humans and machines is getting blurred, why do people think of people? When the brain is blinded by the constructed virtual world, can we see through the authenticity of the world?
will not list these discussions in the "Philosophy Mobile Team". Technology is a double-edged sword, and hackers targeting "electronic brains" have become the most dangerous form of crime in the new century. In the past, letting you commit suicide attacks requires brainwashing or threats to buy, and the virus implantation of electronic brain is higher than that of "7 women participating in jihad". I don't know where it is higher. If you change the memory directly, you will feel like you are protecting the ball. Henry. In the 95 theatrical version, the criminal whose memory has been tampered with by the BOSS thinks that he is the winner of life. His wife is white and beautiful, but in reality he is a dead house with only a dog. In the final analysis, the so-called memory is just a collection of information, which makes you the self at the moment, with a unique personality. But thinking about it carefully, are all the things that happened in the memory true? A body with different memories, is it a former self or a new soul?
3. Public Security 9 Lessons and Political Game
What is "Ghost in the Shell"? Presumably many friends who have not been in contact will have such a question.
"Ghost in the Shell" originally meant "attack armor outer shell", and the "Ghost in the Shell", as the name suggests, is a mobile team that uses this kind of machine, that is, the Ghost in the Shell. The production cost of each shell attacker is hundreds of millions of yen, and the maintenance cost is also very high. Except for the 9 Department of Public Security, the general department cannot afford it. So, whether to read ke or qiao, the question that has plagued everyone for many years has already been answered (but the official trailer is marked as qiao). The official function name of class
9 is: the secret organization of terrorism is an elite team that is outside the system and is directly ordered by the prime minister. The members have a high degree of electronic brainization and prosthesis, and their intelligence collection and combat capabilities are first-class. And our widow sister plays the prime minister, the action commander in Lesson 9. As a team that represents the advanced socialist productivity, all kinds of cutting-edge high-tech equipment are indispensable. The "autumn clothing" that highlights the figure in the movie is actually the most advanced optical camouflage uniform. Since
is working for the prime minister, it is inevitable to be caught in various political games. The struggle between Lesson 9 and Lesson 6, the power game of the upper-level leaders, the role change of heroes and scapegoats, and the understanding and grasp of politics in "Ghosting the Shell" are far from comparable works. And the core of some of these events is exactly the same as many problems facing our world today.
In the first chapter of SAC 2, although the influx of war refugees brought cheap labor to Japan, it also caused panic among some citizens. They worried that the uncontrolled refugee housing policy would cause a financial crisis to the society. Bring greater employment pressure to nationals. Under the control of certain forces, this sentiment quickly spread among ordinary people, and eventually formed distrust of the government and mass panic. "In order to pretend to be a good person internationally, this country has shown generosity on the issue of assistance, and the cost of hosting refugees is ultimately borne by taxpayers. Look at Europe and the United States, which are deeply mired in refugee problems. Do you think this plot is almost familiar? There are many similar political predictions. In "Ghost in the Shell", not only the international situation, but also the Japanese government's response to the nuclear legacy has almost become a replica of the current Fukushima incident.
4. Philosophical discussion under the coat of science fiction-profound cyberpunk expression
As mentioned earlier, the original film adaptation of this film, the 95 theater version, deserves to be "philosophical mobile team". Among them, the discussion of "people and reality" is more in-depth than "The Matrix", and the level is comparable to "Blade Runner".
When a person is fitted with a prosthesis, no one will doubt his human identity, but if everything except the brain is mechanical, is he still the species called "human"? Conversely, if a biochemical person is endowed with a thought personality, is he human or machine?
The love and killing of the highly prosthetic Shao Zuo and the AI puppet master who has obtained an independent personality points to the ultimate thinking of mankind that has never stopped-what is the definition of man and what is the soul.
What matches this grand philosophical experiment is the extreme cyberpunk painting style and world display: when you see the mixed neon lights and dense and depressive urban structure, you will 100% think of Blade Runner. This is exactly the classic dystopian scene constructed by Philip Dick-the future based on Hong Kong Kowloonworld.
After attacking the shell, various works trying to answer the question of "soul" emerged one after another: the scene of the "milk bath" of the biochemical man in the recent hit "Western World" is believed to have been influenced by "The Hacker"; The setting of the brain and the matrix in the tank is also directly inspired by it.
American drama "Western World"
Of course, there is no single answer to philosophical questions, but good works will undoubtedly inspire people to think about themselves. Unfortunately, the film greatly weakens the profound philosophical thinking in the original work, focusing on AI awakening.
5. Hollywood's "Ghost in the Shell"
, as a classic sci-fi IP, is destined to be filmed.
Hollywood’s adaptation of Japanese comics has not been successful so far. As an epoch-making work in the history of Japanese anime, "Ghost in the Shell" is extremely difficult to adapt, making science fiction fans and fans full of expectations and worries about the movie. . Frankly speaking, I have never heard of director Rupert Sanders before, but I believe that under highly professional and systematic conditions, I still handed in a satisfactory answer.
First of all, from the screen, the visual effects of Weta Digital Surgery are gorgeous and the action scenes are also remarkable. Fans who are familiar with the original can see from the trailer that the use of the classic scenes of the scenes is almost completely borrowed from the original animation, and as much as possible to show the original settings, using dazzling visual effects, not to mention the fact that A widow with a body, face and acting skills is going to play the protagonist Shao Zuo. (However, it is a bit awkward to play a European and American face, and why is my Bart's bottle cap missing!) The spiritual adaptation of
may be due to the rush of production and the difference between Eastern and Western cultures. , The director weakened the magnificent and difficult philosophical content in the original work, and inclined the values to the protagonist's identity for himself. Through communicating with friends who have watched the movie,
can determine at least the following points: one is that the philosophical content mentioned above has been greatly weakened, and the other is that the villain boss should be a fusion of the puppet master and the smiling man. In short, for fans who are not familiar with the original, this live-action version of "Ghost in the Shell" will be a dazzling and interesting science fiction movie. As for other surprises and changes, please walk into the cinema to see the charm of this cyberpunk masterpiece! ©
Author | Chu Xiuhong (ForsakenW)
, an AI who has traveled back from 2029, incarnates as a science fiction expert, and blends in the movie circle.
