Somewhat tangential but this recalls some recent articles about preservation of HK's neon signage/neon signage industry
https://hongkongfp.com/2023/04/16/its-disappearing-very-fast...
Hong Kong Locations in Ghost in the Shell
21–30 of 51 posts
Re: Hong Kong Locations in Ghost in the Shell
#22The article doesn't mention Kowloon Walled City (though one of the comments does), a more specific inspiration for some shots, which is why the shot they have of the person walking through an alley looks like it's an enclosed space. See the picture of the alley in the Wikipedia article ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowloon_Walled_City ).
It does mention Kowloon: > [...] in nearly every other respect both the imagery and soulful mood depicted in the film mirror reality very closely – especially when contrasting the modern skyscrapers of Central with some of the older neighbourhoods in Sheung Wan and Kowloon.
The Kowloon District is much bigger than the (former) Kowloon Walled City.
Re: Hong Kong Locations in Ghost in the Shell
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah but the dialog sure is a bit bookish and dry, talking a lot about weird theory.
I mean it's cool and all that they throw Deleuze and Guattari references at you (especially in stand alone complex), but unfortunately we have wised up to how much that stuff was fashionable nonsense since then...
I think the reason that it's so philosophical, and the reason that it mentions Deleuze and Guattari specifically, is due to their emphasis on "the virtual," and in the context of Ghost in the Shell, this "virtual" is explored conceptually, especially as it relates to systems of control, such as cybernetics.
Edit:
> Like Kant, Deleuze considers traditional notions of space and time as unifying forms imposed by the subject. He, therefore, concludes that pure difference is non-spatiotemporal; it is an idea, what Deleuze calls "the virtual". (The coinage refers to Proust's definition of what is constant in both the past and the present: "real without being actual, ideal without being abstract.") While Deleuze's virtual ideas superficially resemble Plato's forms and Kant's ideas of pure reason, they are not originals or models, nor do they transcend possible experience; instead they are the conditions of actual experience, the internal difference in itself. "The concept they [the conditions] form is identical to its object." A Deleuzean idea or concept of difference is therefore not a wraith-like abstraction of an experienced thing, it is a real system of differential relations that creates actual spaces, times, and sensations.[0]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_Deleuze
> Cybernetics: a reactionary pseudoscience that appeared in the U.S.A. after World War II and also spread through other capitalist countries. Cybernetics clearly reflects one of the basic features of the bourgeois worldview—its inhumanity, striving to transform workers into an extension of the machine, into a tool of production, and an instrument of war. At the same time, for cybernetics an imperialistic utopia is characteristic—replacing living, thinking man, fighting for his interests, by a machine, both in industry and in war. The instigators of a new world war use cybernetics in their dirty, practical affairs.[1][2]
[1] "Cybernetics" in the Short Philosophical Dictionary, 1954
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetics_in_the_Soviet_Unio...
Re: Hong Kong Locations in Ghost in the Shell
#24The article doesn't mention Kowloon Walled City (though one of the comments does), a more specific inspiration for some shots, which is why the shot they have of the person walking through an alley looks like it's an enclosed space. See the picture of the alley in the Wikipedia article ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowloon_Walled_City ).
It does mention Kowloon: > [...] in nearly every other respect both the imagery and soulful mood depicted in the film mirror reality very closely – especially when contrasting the modern skyscrapers of Central with some of the older neighbourhoods in Sheung Wan and Kowloon.
[deleted]
Re: Hong Kong Locations in Ghost in the Shell
#25Does ghost in the shell still hold up as a movie?
Yeah but the dialog sure is a bit bookish and dry, talking a lot about weird theory.
I always felt like it had a bit too much "otaku" type of flavor to the writing...not that I dislike the movie, but I would agree, it doesn't really flow as well as it should. The strengths are the visuals and the conceptual elements, I think.
Re: Hong Kong Locations in Ghost in the Shell
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
AFAIK Sac is not a sequel nor a closer adaptation, but an alternative timeline. I grew up with the original movie that I watched at the cinema and never developed a strong attachment to Sac for that reason, it is good, but IMO it's not better than Oshii's version, on the contrary it lacks the poetics and the dreamlike aspects of the 1995 work. p.s. Oshii also directed "Urusei Yatsura Onrī Yū?" which is IMO the best U…
I like SAC (and to a lesser extent SAC:2) as much as the Movie, but they are very different. They are some of the best cyberpunk in any medium. I think the manga, while decent, is inferior to both. Edit: and yes, they are all separate universes.
Agree. My impression is that the anime movies are more about the philosophy of “self”, while SAC is more about sociology and politics. I like SAC slightly more than the movies, but it was the first Ghost in the Shell movie that transcended the manga to a masterpiece.
Re: Hong Kong Locations in Ghost in the Shell
#27Oshii is just way too good at that sort of scene. A similar one from Patlabor 2 also always gives me chills: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dmlwhaEEgE
It also has very real dialogue: https://taskandpurpose.com/culture/realistic-aerial-combat-m...
Re: Hong Kong Locations in Ghost in the Shell
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ghost in the Shell is a franchise with many different movies, like Star Wars . the 95 movie is good but the 2002-2005 Stand Alone Complex TV series is much better. more exciting, more coherent, and closer to the original manga.
Is that available for streaming in the US?
It's free on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHil4Y4r3Wk
Re: Hong Kong Locations in Ghost in the Shell
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
That would depend on what you mean, but I'm pretty sure the answer is yes in any regard. From an artistic perspective it is still beautiful and might be even more beautiful than some modern more digital animated movies. From a science fiction perspective it is still as fictional as it was upon release. I don't believe we are any closer to cyber brains and thus not any closer to showing how ridiculous the interpretati…
I like the conversation the major has where she mentions if the augmented humans had to give back all their enhancements there wouldn’t be much left over. I know many people who take adderall and vyvanse as a performance enhancing drug without an rx. If they had to stop they wouldn’t be much of anything.
I don't think it's comparable. Cybernetic parts replace biological parts wholesale. The Major is mostly cyborg. The only biological part left is parts of her brain and brain stem.
Unless adderall and vyvanse has some unknown side effect that damages the brain, when you stop taking you just return to your baseline self.
Re: Hong Kong Locations in Ghost in the Shell
#30Does ghost in the shell still hold up as a movie?
Ghost in the Shell is a franchise with many different movies, like Star Wars . the 95 movie is good but the 2002-2005 Stand Alone Complex TV series is much better. more exciting, more coherent, and closer to the original manga.
From a direction and production values point of view though, the 1995 movie is head and shoulders above the TV series. If I could only watch one, I would choose the 1995 movie hands down.