Ghost in the Shell

Director - Mamoru Oshii
Writers - Kazunori Ito and Masamune Shirow

Cast Character
Atsuko Tanaka ...Major Motoko Kusanagi
Richard Epcar ... Bateau
Akio Otsuka ... Bato
Tamio Oki ... Cheif Aramaki
Iemasa Kayumi ... The Puppet Master
Koichi Yamadera ... Togusa



The beginning of Ghost in the Shell warns of advancement in computerization that could wipe out nations and ethnic groups. Its heroes Major Kusanagi and Bateau are cyborgs working for Section 9 in an anti-terrorism task-force. Their nemesis is the infamous Puppet Master who can hijack into people's ghosts or consciousness in order to control them. As they progress further Major Kusanagi battles her reliance on her robotic parts and whether she is fully human outside of her ghost. There is also an aspect of these police that overly rely on their ghost rather than instinct. Or are the two one and the same?

The film begins with Major Kusanagi who listens in on a politician with possible ties to the ghost hacker AKA The Puppet Master. Section 9 is the like the FBI who is the muscle whereas Section 6 in the film is like the CIA investigating matters before they are pulled off. The man being investigated has taken a classified programmer outside the country which a serious violation in international laws. Before he finishes hearing his rights being read to him Kusanagi blows his head up through the window.

The Section 9 Chief Aramaki meets the head of Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is protecting a man seeking political asylum because of his connections to funding he helped with before. Section 9 finds the Minister's interpreter whose brain was ghost hacked by the Puppet Master. He is most likely trying to get classified information from the Republic of Gavel's meeting that will take place and assassinate key delegates.

Kusanagi explains to Bato she picked him because he is honest, never stepped out of line and is a family man and is almost completely human save for the brain augmentation. She doesn't want a predictable task-force to take down criminals. A garbage man hacks into many terminals on the garbage route that has raised suspicion to the task-force. He has been ghost hacked by the Puppet Master. The Puppet Master is revealed as he leaves a chip under the phone for the brainwashed garbage man to pick up. He uses high velocity bullets to tear the police van in shreds.

On top of that he uses an invisibility camouflage/therm-optics just as Major Kusanagi did earlier. The manhunt scene is one of the best in the movie. Bateau chases the Puppet Master on the boats while Kusanagi fires at him from the rooftops. Kusanagi finds him as he thinks he is free and uses her invisibility cloak to finish him off. As he lies there he says he won't give up any information to which Kusanagi says, "Can you remember your mother's name or what she looks like? Or how about where you were born? Do you even know who you are?" He looks blank as his mind has been ghost hacked. They realize he in fact is not the Puppet Master but a puppet himself.

They interrogate the garbage man and explain all his memories are simulated experiences. None of them are real. They were created in order to execute jobs ordered by the Puppet Master. They cannot fully repair his old memories. Because most of the characters in the film are cyborg their memories are fragile like files on a computer. Ghost hacking is similar to brain damage as seen in trauma. So even though you can make multiple copies of a file, a bad file can only be copied as a bad file. This is why the Puppet Master is such an enormous threat to Section 9. A way to deal with memory issues is to reinforce them with external things and experiences in order for them to be more believable and stronger such as one's employment, surroundings and day to day activities. These concrete places validate that their environment and experiences are real and not simulated. So they in fact are as human as possible even with their robotic parts.

Kusanagi after having a long talk with Bateau explains how she feels lucky to be a cyborg - having enhanced brains, cybernetic bodies and controlled metabolism. Even though she is a machine her thoughts ad memories are unique to her with a sense of her own destiny. When asked about what it is like to scuba dive as a cyborg she says, "I feel like I am becoming someone else." Here she alludes to the future entity in the story she merges to create a new being - one that is connected with everything around her. She has a new computerized DNA because of it. Now she is no longer a lonely individual but an equal part of the community and net. This gives her a stronger equanimity and freedom to create herself as a new entity in the net to go anywhere and have a true purpose about her.

A truck hits a cyborg which Section 9 recovers. They run tests to find it was most likely ghost hacked that came from Megatech. The body took off on its own. Even though this cyborg is completely synthetic it shows trace remnants of having a ghost. The strongest concern for the group is that the body they recover is the same make and model of Kusanagi's.

Aramaki and a man talk about the Puppet Master and he explains to Aramaki he is the most dangerous and brilliant hacker in cyber-crime. Kusanagi looks at him and is attracted to the possibilities. They lure him to a body and capture him. The Puppet Master awakens and explains himself to be sentient life form and demands political asylum. After his polite and detailed explanation on how he gave self birth to himself in a sea of information he escapes by overloading the computer systems.

Bato fires an electronic tracker bullet to follow the car. Later Aramaki's inside guy tells him that Dr. Willis was a top researcher of a company that researched in Artificial Intelligence. Section 6 tried to stop Mr. Daito from defecting explains Aramaki's investigator. He tells Aramaki the Puppet Master most likely is connected to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is used to get his way with things. If the Puppet Master explains this to the world there would be a huge international outcry over this. Official heads would be convicted. This is why they are so hellbent on finding Project 2501, The Puppet Master.

Bateau drops off Kusanagi to the empty building the Puppet Master is believed to be in. A camo cloaked tank shoots at her in one of the most explosive finales in an anime movie. Kusanagi tells the helicopter to back off because she will dive into it. She does so not because she wants power but because she needs freedom. She needs to be more than a shell inhabiting a ghost. She wants to merge with a collective whole. She dodges the bullets long enough for it to run out of ammo.

She tries unsuccessfully to rip out the head of the tank ripping her arms off. Bateau shoots at the head off the tank enough to stall it rescuing Kusanagi life. They find the Puppet Master's body in the car inactivated. Kusanagi tells Bateau she will jack into him. As they communicate The Puppet Master reveals the whole time he was looking for her. He says he wants to meet her because although he is a sentient being he lacks the ability to give birth and die. Kusangi argues he can copy himself to which he counters that a copy does not have the ability to have organized ideas or diversity. On top of that a virus could make a copy.

He wants to unify with Kusanagi to create a new being one that is stronger and can provide survival for his electronic DNA. He explains he chooses her as she is his counterpart in psyche. They are mirror images of one another. They create a new being on the net which is indestructible. Her new ghost is put in a younger body representing rebirth and a new start. She says she is no longer Kusanagi or The Puppet Master. She is a new being - choosing to be called 2501.

The film deals with many issues such as the increasing inter-connectivity and advancement in evolution because of technology. Such themes are further explored in Spielberg's A.I.

The Spirit of the Beehive

Director/Writer - Victor Erice

Cast Character
Fernando Feran Gomez ... Fernando
Teresa Gimpera ... Teresa
Ana Torrent ... Ana
Isabel Telleria ... Isabel
Ketty de la Camara ... Milagros, la criada


The Spirit of the Beehive is about the spirit of the people in a country of unknown future. It captures the innocence of youth, the bleakness of the unknown and the toil of the working class. The movie starts in the Castilian plain around 1940. A truck comes in bringing reels of film to which children all dance in excitement to. The man tells the kids it's the best film to come to their town and it's a horror film- Frankenstein. As everyone comes in they are all excited as this small town doesn't have much. They load the film and the character on the movie projector warns the audience of the film's theme of life and death and it's horrifying images in the film. He tells them not to take it too seriously.

A beekeeper takes the honeysheets out and places them inside a box. He looks at the bees which symbolize the people all doing their assigned tasks as he symbolically is the fascist government. The bees have order and are organized but they lack creativity and imagination. Most importantly though they lack freedom because they know no other way to be.

The movie Frankenstein which is screened for the villagers is a warning for the justification of killing a godless thing, Frankenstein, in order to protect the people. This is the government's way of justifying their takeover by the Franco regime. As the beekeeper walks by he looks tentatively at the theater as it reveals these secrets. He is afraid of the knowledge it will reveal to the people.

Recalling the symbolism of the beehive before we see inside Fernando's room which has a window that looks very much like the inside of one with its hexagonal shapes. He symbolizes power and knowledge with many books in his room. He opens the window to hear people outside talking like that of government listening in on its people. They say, "What if we never went beyond the limits of the unknown?" This is a threat to the Fernando, the beekeeper, as the people start asking questions and realizing they are oppressed. They are fighting against fascism and the nationalism it protects itself under. The camera dollies in to the beekeeper outside behind the honeycomb door. He is hiding behind his power while pretending to listen the people.

In the next scene they watch the clip from the film Frankenstein. The girl in the film offers him a flower and Ana from the audience is terrified. The monster is innocent yet powerful. Ana is scared because Frankenstein kills the girl and he is killed in return. Isabel, her sister, tells her it's all a trick because it's a movie.

The beekeeper writes in his diary of the toils, work and repetition of the bees only to die. Each day they work and undo the progress from the previous day. They are hardwired and slaves to their DNA. He describes them as a main gear of a clock - toiling, pointlessly for others. In his mind he thinks, "Someone who observed these things, after the initial astonishment had passed, quickly looked away with an expression of indescribable sadness and horror." He realizes that a person's place outside this world is meaningless outside the collective whole.

The next scene has the teacher showing her students the internal parts of the body and asking them what they do. The mannequin name they use is Don Jose to which the teacher asks, "Ana, what is he missing?" She tells her, "his eyes." Ana is the purity and untarnished observation of Spain. She gives vision to the people.

Later Ana and Isabel tread to an abandoned house. It is empty, barren and stark. It holds uncertainty as Spain did after the Civil War. Ana looks into the well which is her quest for knowledge. She then sees a big footprint reminding her of the Frankenstein movie which terrified her. At home she talks to Isabel in bed.

Many times in the film the two girls wait for the train to come. They place their ears to the rail to sense the vibrations. Ana is slightly braver as she waits longer with her head to the tracks in order to face her fears. Isabel is the distant protector. She likes to annoy her sister in good fun. Ana is more somber and wise.

Building on this a girl in class reads a poem. "Now neither malice nor hatred, nor even the fear of change. I only fear thirst, a thirst for I know not what. Rivers of life, where have you gone?Air, I need air. What makes you see in the darkness that makes you silently tremble? I see not but only stare like a blind man facing straight into the sun. I shall fall where the fallen never rise." This girl and the poem she reads represents the desire to break free from Fascist rule and influence. The people want to break free from pre-packaged beliefs and ideologies fed to them in order to keep them subservient and docile. Furthermore the barren fields in the film show little hope for what these people went through.

Ana plays around in the well again in the film showing her desire for knowledge. The water sustains life and she no longer wants to be imprisoned. Her sister plays a prank on her pretending to be hurt while Ana runs for help. She uses fear to control her similar to what government will do when there is economic problems and bleak foresight. Ana represents the innocence and younger republic of Spain. Isabel and her lies are the Nationalists obsessed with wealth and power.

A soldier jumps out the train and stays in the abandoned house Ana visited before. He has a gun and Ana gives him an apple. She later brings him some honey, bread and a jacket. She is the love of the people protecting their soldiers. Her innocence and purity bring truth and wisdom to those who can see it. Like the girl in the movie she is unafraid of the monster, Frankenstein, because she is incapable of sin. The man she helps protect is the spirit of the republic she wished to return. He is later shot dead where he stayed. The police call in the beekeeper and show the jacket and watch that belonged to him which Ana gave him. Fernando looks at his daughter, Ana, and knows she gave the soldier these things. Ana revisits the sight and sees the blood of the soldier. Fernando follows her to the place the soldier was but she runs away. They look after her as she goes into the forest. She looks in the water and behind her emerges Frankenstein in her mind. He frightens her to faint.

Her family finds her and returns her home. As she awakens she walks to the window, closes her eyes and summons the spirit by saying, "It's me Ana." She hears the sound of a horse and knows all is well.