A brief description
A science fiction
story set in a world where humans and "cyborgs" coexist. "Cyborgs"
being human-looking robots that have an artificial body, a "shell,"
controlled by their original organic brain or program, referred to as a
"ghost." Set in the year 2029 Maj. Motoko Kusanagi and her partner
Bateau are members of a government agency simply referred to as "section
9." Assigned to investigate technological espionage, they come across
a "hacking" program, that infiltrates the ghosts of cyborgs as
a result of their "net access." The hacking program is nicknamed
the "puppet master." Since every person in this society is interfaced
to the "net" with "cyber-implants" in their brains,
the threat of the "puppet master" becomes one of grave concern.
My impression
First the good news, then the bad. The good news, artistically this movie was awesome. Color, sound, and music was beautifully done. This movie is a good example of the potential of anime as a revered art form. Now the bad news, the story line was somewhat flawed. Maybe I'm being unfair, after all the story is based upon the Manga series by Shirow Masamune, and since I don't read Japanese I can't keep up with the current story line. If this is the case, the movie should have the disclaimer, STORY LINE HARD TO FOLLOW UNLESS YOU READ THE MANGA SERIES. In order for a movie to be good, it can't leave the audience behind! The sci-fi elements of the story were very imaginative, cyborgs that questioned their own validity in the world around them, questioning their human feelings, and the invasion of their own psychic by an unknown assailant known as the "puppet master." But sorry folks, a lot of loose ends in this movie.
This movie is definitely not for kids. There is a fair amount of violence that is extremely graphic. The dismemberment of cyborg bodies might disturb sensitive viewers even if they're only robots!
