The obscure "Ghost in the Shell" actually tells a "love" story across species

The live-action film "Ghost in the Shell" starring Scarlett Johansson is adapted from the original animated film of the same name by Shiro Masamune supervised by Mamoru Oshii in 1995. This film is one of the best cyberpunk films in history, in Europe and America There are a lot of fans in the movie circle. The Wachowski brothers (now sisters) once publicly stated that "The Matrix" was greatly inspired by "Ghost in the Shell".

This animated film is known for its obscurity. Many people have written a lot of excellent analysis articles on this film from various angles. In fact, with many extremely high-end elements, the film describes a love story that crosses species through three cases. The heroine of the

love story is the full body protagonist Motoko (ti) from Public Security Class 9. The hero is an AI program, officially named "Project 2501", and known as "puppet master" on the Internet. The story of

started in a small case. The male protagonist’s biological father (programmer) applied for political asylum in a certain country. Due to diplomatic immunity, the police in Class 6 had no choice but to disguise themselves as "terrorists" and killed him in class 6 To prevent the escape of valuable talents. What is wrong with

, which makes such precious program talents exile abroad? During the conversation between the two, the diplomat said to the programmer, "You can fix it in our country, and any program has errors." This conversation shows that at this time, the "2501 Engineering Puppet Master" has lost control. When the programmer said "2501 was originally intended to be used as...", the special forces issued an assault order, and if he asked him to continue, he would leak state secrets.

At the beginning of the movie, it is impossible for the audience to grasp the information implicit in this dialogue. This is also a major feature of the film: there is almost no nonsense in the whole film, and many lines point directly to the core of the film. However, the audience only thinks that these characters are talkative when they watch it for the first time, and they cannot understand them at all. Say what. However, fans who watch the film repeatedly can discover new content every time and constantly understand these "hidden information". This is one of the reasons why this film has become a classic.

Incidentally, the soundtrack of the movie "Puppet Ballad" is in the style of Japanese folk songs, and the lyrics are about "the wedding night". It also points out the theme of the film, but it is estimated that few viewers can understand it. lyrics. In the second case in the story of

, our hero "Puppet Master" hacked the souls and memories of two passersby and invaded the secretary of the Minister of Foreign Affairs (equivalent to the Minister of Foreign Affairs) through them. The 9th Division of Public Security was ordered to arrest the two suspects to prevent hacking.

At the beginning of this case, the conversation between Suzi and Togusa in the car was also full of information. On the one hand, he used Suzi's mouth to tell how powerful the hero "Puppet Master" is a "soul hacker". On the other hand, Suzi also expressed his intention to recruit a police detective like Dogusa into the 9th Public Security Class. Any organization that is too simplistic can easily be destroyed. And this also happens to be the fundamental motivation of the role of the puppet master. (This also paved the way for the ending of the story.)

A strange thing is that the "2501 Project-Puppet Master" is an AI developed by Japan's ZF to serve the national interests. It should not attack the country. The staff of the Ministry of Finance, and the play also said that he had never committed crimes in Japan before, and had been active in the European Union or North America before. This information also confirmed that the puppet master was out of control, and he might have done this case to attract Suzi's attention. In the third case of

, although our hero "Puppet Master" is an AI, he has developed a human-like "self-awareness", which is considered by the R&D department as "a BUG". State agencies use AI to conduct hacking (criminal) acts, once exposed, it will become an international scandal, so they cannot order Class 6 to recall (eliminate) the "puppet master". However, due to the puppet master's powerful information confrontation ability, the research and development organization can only force it into a body of justice. The puppet master passed through the firewalls and entered the prosthetic body manufacturer that produced the element. He was "possessed" in one of the prosthetic bodies, and deliberately let the truck on the roadside hit a traffic accident disguised as a traffic accident.

The high-confidential supplier of prosthetic body is out of control, which will inevitably arouse the attention of the 9th Public Security Department.Enter the 9 classes of public security. The Public Security Class 6 responsible for arresting the puppet master had to bring the agents into Class 9, and wanted to retrieve the puppet master through rough methods. The people in class

6 are also very strange, why did the "puppet master" go to class 9? The "American expert" jokingly said, "Perhaps it is to find a lover?" However, it was in one sentence.

Element After a desperate struggle, they tore up the tank of 6 lessons and regained the puppet master. Suzi knew that if he brought the puppet master back to Lesson 9 he would never see him again, so he connected directly (private chat).

didn't expect that after the connection, the puppet master immediately started to chat up, "I finally saw you, hello beauty, my name is XX, what do I do? I have been following you on the Internet for a long time. Can I marry you? "

To put it simply, although AI that has sprouted self-awareness calls itself a life form, it is somewhat similar to a low-level organism that reproduces asexually. In order to better adapt to the environment and "evolve" into a higher life form, he needs to have Sexual reproduction. The whole body prosthesis and the element whose soul is close to digitization is the best "marriage partner" in his opinion.

At the end of the marriage proposal, Mo Zi asked the puppet master why she chose her, and the answer he got turned out to be "I saw my own shadow in you." Could you be more normal when you confessed...

although he was messed up by this sudden confession It was a little dazed, but Suzi still accepted the puppet master's proposal. In order to ensure that the peace process between the two will not be disturbed, the puppet master also hacked the armed helicopters that came to support 6 lessons and Bart who was on the sidelines.

After the two "humans" were combined, the puppet master gained the ability to "evolve" and "death" (before he was similar to asexually reproducing species, there was no concept of death, only extinction), and Suzi gained the puppet master With their super intelligence processing capabilities, they will bring their offspring to survive and multiply on the Internet.

Generally speaking, "Ghost in the Shell" tells the story of an artificial intelligence (AI) "courting" Motoko Kusanagi, the closest human being to digital. If AI can be regarded as a creature, this story tells the moment when this creature develops from asexual reproduction to sexual reproduction. In other words, for the AI ​​lifeforms that may appear, it is a creation myth, similar to the story of Yada and Eve in the Bible.

The puppet master and Suzi actually met within a few minutes. It is hard to say that the two "people" have developed the "love" in our conventional concept. The puppet master’s motives and action logic are very clear and utilitarian. However, Suzi accepted the puppet master’s "marriage proposal" so quickly, probably not because of emotional factors, but more because of her being the first full-body protagonist. Doubts about the ultimate philosophical questions of "what is the self", "what is the soul", "who am I, where do I come from, and where I am going". It's like the heroine Cui Lien in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". As an astronomer, facing an invitation from an alien at an ordinary party, even if you don’t fall in love with the alien, it’s probably hard to refuse. After all, this kind of thing does not happen every day.

just "marries" to continue the needs and curiosity of future generations, can't it be called a "love story"? The 2013 movie "Her" tells a love story between a "genuine" person and AI.


In the film, the AI ​​of the smartphone captured the hero's heart only with sound. The real "horror" of this film is that the AI ​​in the film does not seem to be as remote as other science fiction films. It seems that only a few years later, Siri in our mobile phones can achieve similar performance. The technology of artificial prostheses is also constantly improving. It feels that in our lifetime, low-cost artificial prostheses can easily pass the Turing test of most people with the virtual personality of super AI.

Another interesting thing is that the actor who dubbed AI in "Her" is the heroine "widow sister" Scarlett Johansson of the live-action version of "Ghost in the Shell".

Maybe within a few years, "falling in love with a robot" will no longer be a plot in science fiction. A robot companion that is cheap enough to cater to all people's psychological and physiological needs may permanently change the human social form.

"Ghost in the Shell" live-action plot is notI know if it will change drastically. But in any case, the 1995 version of the animated film is a very good film. If you haven't watched it yet, you might as well find a supplementary lesson.