Media: Cyberpunk 2077 Movies

[Decatonkeil]

So apparently Scarlett Johansson is officially set to portray Major Motoko Kusanagi(?) in the long-gestating live-action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell:

Margot Robbie, from the Wolf of Wall Street, was also rumored at some point not long ago. I'm angry at the whitewashing, but that's to be expected. Johansson could do it well, I don't know, but I fear that when casting superstars like her, everything else will take a back seat, and it won't be the Major Motoko Kusanagi (I can't even imagine how they would justify naming her a japanese name... maybe prosthetic body but... nah... nor any substitute for the name) but "Scarlett Johansson plays a cyborg cop in a future that blah, blah, blah...". I think that the only good way in which they could have done this movie in Hollywood and kinda making it more western, would be that the movie was set in GITS' version of North America with the American Empire's government needing the services of a bunch of the Japanese Section 9 agents. Kinda like the standalone episodes in which members of the Section 9 visit London or Berlin. They would just need to cast japanese actors for Motoko, Batou and Aramaki, and then they could make an american stand-in for Togusa, an almost completely human character which can serve as a bridge between an audience which knows nothing about the world of GITS and the line of work of the Section 9 cyborg agents.

 

[Poet_and_Gentleman.598]

Sounds horrible.

They also are trying to make an American Akira.

Ugh.

 

[lv-426]

Margot Robbie, from the Wolf of Wall Street, was also rumored at some point not long ago. I'm angry at the whitewashing, but that's to be expected. Johansson could do it well, I don't know, but I fear that when casting superstars like her, everything else will take a back seat, and it won't be the Major Motoko Kusanagi (I can't even imagine how they would justify naming her a japanese name... maybe prosthetic body but... nah... nor any substitute for the name) but "Scarlett Johansson plays a cyborg cop in a future that blah, blah, blah...". I think that the only good way in which they could have done this movie in Hollywood and kinda making it more western, would be that the movie was set in GITS' version of North America with the American Empire's government needing the services of a bunch of the Japanese Section 9 agents. Kinda like the standalone episodes in which members of the Section 9 visit London or Berlin. They would just need to cast Motoko, Batou and Aramaki, and then they could make an american stand-in for Togusa, an almost completely human character which can serve as a bridge between an audience which knows nothing about the world of GITS and the line of work of the Section 9 cyborg agents.

Yup, basically kind of like another Stand Alone Complex offshoot, only this time live-action rather than animated.
Too bad none of us are board members of DreamWorks and could steer it into that direction and leave the original alone, at least until Cameron is done with Avatar 27, AliensS and Terminator X: The Day after Judgment Day.

Not that Johansson apparently would mind some full frontal nudity (Under the Skin by Jonathan Glazer) which is kind of pivotal to the "Making of a Cyborg" sequence, the parts involving thermoptic camouflage and the final battle against the walking tank but what are the chances of DreamWorks going for a true 1-to-1 translation of the R-rated anime including all the iconic camera angles and shots?
Not to mention that Johansson really is a terrible casting choice for the Major.

This has "westernization" written all over it and those responsible should feel very bad.

 

[lv-426]

The legendary science-fiction work that caused a revolution around the world.

Original Work [by] Masamune Shirow

A work in celebration of 25 years

The awakened ghost whispers...

Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie

Opens in early summer 2015

By the same people responsible for the not too shabby Arise trilogy.

​

 

[Maelcom404]

Spoiler:

Spoiler

hollywood's adaptations sucks everytime, it'll not be different this time, Johansson or not.
Expect free nude scene, gun fight, explosion, dumbed down story, big cars and usual love-story with a scrit written in "auto-pilot" mode

 

[Tramp-Graphics]

Armitage III, Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, Cyber City Oedo 808... man the list goes on! If it wasn't for anime, I would've had a hard time getting my cyberpunk fix during the last decade lol

IF you're going to talk about Bubblegum Crisis, you have to go with the original, Bubblegum Crisis 2032-2033, not that hatchet job "reboot".

 

[Decatonkeil]

By the same people responsible for the not too shabby Arise trilogy.

​

Hmmm... not sure how I feel about it. Arise was quite a disappointment for me. I was hoping for another Mamoru Oshii movie (I liked them), the next best thing to more SAC which is probably never going to happen. Arise was really 4 OVAs. That's like saying a miniseries of direct to DVD movies, although they had theatrical premieres in Japan. The thing is that to me they felt like they beat the purpose of trying to make GITS more accessible: the plots were much simpler than in other incarnations, but they were told in needlessly convoluted ways. There was some semblance of an overarching story (much like the Puppet Master in the manga or the Laughing man or Individual Eleven in SAC), that of the Fire Starter, but it didn't seem to go anywhere. Some of the action, animation and designs were pretty great (Raizo vs Motoko, the opening action scenes of 2 and 4...) the cyborg "villains" in 3 and 4), others not so much (those "landmines" which looked like dolls for some reason, mechas that belonged on Code Geass, those judges that belonged in a space opera, the action in general being too much of the Shonen type not that sleek procedural action from SAC).

Maybe this will make it work out for me. I'm rewatching all of SAC for what must be the 100th time and man it's so fucking genius. So carefully constructed, so many layers, such ever-current themes. Do you have a thing that you wish you had done? Something you like so much you're even jealous of. That's SAC for me.

 

[Hoplite_22]

Yup, basically kind of like another Stand Alone Complex offshoot, only this time live-action rather than animated.
Too bad none of us are board members of DreamWorks and could steer it into that direction and leave the original alone, at least until Cameron is done with Avatar 27, AliensS and Terminator X: The Day after Judgment Day.

Not that Johansson apparently would mind some full frontal nudity (Under the Skin by Jonathan Glazer) which is kind of pivotal to the "Making of a Cyborg" sequence, the parts involving thermoptic camouflage and the final battle against the walking tank but what are the chances of DreamWorks going for a true 1-to-1 translation of the R-rated anime including all the iconic camera angles and shots?
Not to mention that Johansson really is a terrible casting choice for the Major.

This has "westernization" written all over it and those responsible should feel very bad.

I have had the privilege of reading the script for the live action film, it's an adaptation of the Masamune Shirow manga, not the Mamoru Oshii film, thank Christ. weather or not that is the version that makes it to screen, damn i hope so, it's a shit load better than anything else since that first film (flawed as it is)

 

[Decatonkeil]

I have had the privilege of reading the script for the live action film, it's an adaptation of the Masamune Shirow manga, not the Mamoru Oshii film, thank Christ. weather or not that is the version that makes it to screen, damn i hope so, it's a shit load better than anything else since that first film (flawed as it is)

Did I understand you well? For you, everything that came after the first Mamoru Oshii film is not only bad, but worse than a preliminary script for the live action film?

 

[Hoplite_22]

Did I understand you well? For you, everything that came after the first Mamoru Oshii film is not only bad, but worse than a preliminary script for the live action film?

not so much worse than as much an i have massive issues with. certainly better than innocence (which was dog shit) haven't bothered trying to watch any other series since i never get more than a couple eps in before giving up. not a reflection on quality, but on me finding them unwatchable.

 

[Decatonkeil]

not so much worse than as much an i have massive issues with. certainly better than innocence (which was dog shit) haven't bothered trying to watch any other series since i never get more than a couple eps in before giving up. not a reflection on quality, but on me finding them unwatchable.

When did you try watching those? For a lot of people is they not being the right age at the time, and when they came back to it they loved it. I was just expecting something more like: this is the problem I have with it. SAC is not perfect, but then again nothing is. I have issues with it, I have them with all of my favorite things. With SAC I think it doesn't have a really spectacular start, the begining episodes are good but they could be better introductions to the world. I also have a problem with Motoko's initial design, which is good, iconic, it works for the promo art and it's a good homage to the original manga, and it's not just the pervert in me saying that cosplayers like Omi Gibson or Crystal Graziano look good in it, it's just that I think that it clashed a little with the mostly realistic, unstylized approach they took for SAC. In the manga you saw doctors with blue tattoos on their faces, men wearing eyeshadow... SAC is mostly people wearing normal clothes, and I think the cosplays work because they exist in their own encapsulated world, they don't need to blend with people. But they fixed that and it shouldn't be such a major issue as to prevent anyone from enjoying the series.

The sensation I get from other people is that they decided that it was GITS selling out, being comercial, because they put cutesy in it with the Tachikomas... but that's both being a hipster and failing at it at the same time, as the Fuchikomas appeared in the manga. They're not just there to be cute merchandise, their point in GITS is, apart from having an iconic mecha for the action scenes, is to provide comic relief in the form of erratic insight on serious issues (like politics, including class war: like when they "empathise" with AI helicopters, but ultimately being forced to pick a fight that isn't theirs) or things the author dismissed from traditional sci-fi, like a rebellion of the machines. Still, I'm assuming here, don't know if these are the problems you have with it.

It's a dense series, and it makes me sad that It isn't as easy to recommend as say Cowboy Bebop. I'd like to share it with more people as I love talking about it. Being as inaccessible is, in a sense, a flaw, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I wouldn't have liked it as much if it weren't, and I'm no intellectual.

Saying that Innocence was dog shit... is not a very friendly and pleasant thing to say, but oh, well. I like it. I think it's a beautiful movie and I think it touches some topics that may not be as elevated as those in the first film, but they are very dark and touchy.

I thought I'd recommend anyone with enough interest in the franchise as to "waste" hafl an hour of his life in watching a quite complete and to the point analysis of it, as this guy really gets it.

 

[wisdom000]

Fuck Mamouro Oshii.... Fuck him to death...

 

[Suhiira]

Fuck Mamouro Oshii.... Fuck him to death...

Stop being coy and tell us what you really think.

 

[Sardukhar]

Stop being coy and tell us what you really think.

Indeed! I am all ears.

 

[Decatonkeil]

Fuck Mamouro Oshii.... Fuck him to death...

At least you wish him a good death, fucked to death. Well it depends on who fucks him to death.

 

[Maelcom404]

I quite liked the 95' GITS, but everything going after was utterly boring and "Zzzzz, I don't give a f***", I had more fun reading some cyberpunk books than staying almost sleepy in front of people exchanging pseudo-intelligent and uninteresting dialogues for 6hours as nothing happens for hours (Tho, I watched the two OAV out of the series).
I tried to give it a new chance, but still, didn't liked it, and by so never wanted to try it episode by episode, so can't say much about it, but from what I hear, the OAV pretty much get it all.

I rather stay on Akira / first GITS, which mix the entertainment and intelligent story better IMO.
SAC, etc... weren't "bad", but boring, and more "look at those beautifull birdies" oriented.
I do prefer my Cyberpunk ugly, violent and hardcore, matter of taste I figure.

My main problem with GITS, is pretty much how "big" it is that it almost killed every other "way" of doing cyberpunk.
Once you say "Cyberpunk" everyone is "GITS", when there are so many other "Cyberpunk-way" that haven't been pulled on film/anime (or just underrated, like Strange Days).
Just like how Cyberpunk 2020 is a totally different kind of Cyberpunk than GITS, and I do hope that excepted on some "design" things, CP77 will stay far away from GITS when it comes to depicting their Cyberpunk world, I don't want street punks talking like philosophers exchanging deep line about the beauty of the world as they dive in a polluted river.

Just like vampires in some movies can get out in the sun when they wear sunglasses and in other, they will burn no matter what.

 

[wisdom000]

Stop being coy and tell us what you really think.

Indeed! I am all ears.

He is fucking boring, pretentious, and has a teenagers grasp of philosophy. His films make The Russia House seem exciting.

 

[Sardukhar]

He is fucking boring, pretentious, and has a teenagers grasp of philosophy. His films make The Russia House seem exciting.

It was exciting? I mean, Sean Connery!

Also, Ghost in the Shell was deservedly well-loved. It's a great, interesting, exciting film. The director of the GitS SAC series considers Oshii his mentor.

Oshii also scripted Jin-Roh, another great anime.

Not everything cyberpunk has to be exciting, exciting, exciting!

Hell, Blade Runner is slower than GitS. Also lacks Batou.

 

[Suhiira]

Bit more on "Ghost in the Shell" (starts at 3:27)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8JlIbUc0iw

 

[Decatonkeil]

I find Mamoru Oshii's films thought provoking and beautiful. Also, I don't find boring anything that goes by so fast for me as those movies, I find them way too short. They have a fair share of action, an action that was influential to you-know-what-films. SAC is also often critizised of being of the talking heads type, which is kind of true, but when it comes from say, typical shonen anime viewers, as it usually does... it doesn't sound valid in any case. Both incarnations make heavy use of procedural and scenario heavy action scenes with some degree of realism, but they're being compared to 300+ episode series in which characters throw spells from static positions, flail their arms while they run through Flintstones' sets, transform into their "not final form" seven trillion times, charge spiritual energy, announce techniques, move so fast that you don't need to animate a coreography... seriously, it gets tiring. SAC can be one of those series that demands attention, in my case, it commands it. I can watch 5 episodes in a row and not dozing off on a single sentence. Sure a lot of meanings still go over my head, when they make reference to Japanese history for example, but that's a frustration that is easy to solve, I just draw a parallel with something that is more familiar to me that the writers didn't intend to. That's similar to the "death of the author".

Mamoru Oshii's film have scenes as famous as the pursuit in the market, the fight against the tank, the raid at the Yakuza bar which included this kind of cyborg cage fighter and the assault on Locus Solus. They're not to be written off like that, I think. I also appreciate the moody, depressing tone, as much as I like the super-suave techno-thriller in SAC. Also, neither of them is a treaty on philosophy, nor should they be. They should just provide food for thought. I think Wisdom is doing to the movies what Maelcom is doing to the series, writing them off as pretentious and pseudo-intellectual. And that makes me a sad panda.