Ghost In The Shell 2 : Innocence

In 2032, will we be able to download soul? What is soul, anyway?

Cry for help uttered by deviant pleasure-model robots? Program from e-world? There is NO soul?

So many questions within this most complex piece of Mamoru Oshii’s work overload the viewer’s brain constantly. In form of questions, quotations of Bible, Milton and Shakespeare, proverbs, dialogues. So much complexity that it is burdensome. Add UNSEEN visual quality and INSANE musical score, and you’re close to giving up.
But no, story continues, and you’re still watching the screen. I don’t remember breathing.

With so many underlying contrasts embedded in seemingly ordinary dialogues, this script has painful resemblance to Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?” As much as this book is different from Scott’s “Blade Runner”, this second installment is from it’s predecessor. Action scenes are limited and substituted by standard detective work. Every word counts and every sentence has deeper meaning. Uttered by human, android or cyborg - no difference. Puzzle after puzzle, question answers the question. Be ready.

Surreal visual composition and immaculate execution easily put this film among the most striking long feature creations. It seems so natural, in contrast to super sci-fi genre. Ordinary-looking props are directly opposite to dialogues and superbly complement the overall “humane” sensibility of the film. Scene of creation in the beginning is the best example: so simple, so natural, so perfect. With all implants and cybernetic changes.

"Groundbreaking work”? “Pushing boundaries”? All overstatements, so overused and abused constantly. All "thumbs up” and “one of the best works ever (or this year, or this Christmas season, or…)” cannot prepare you for this film. Any quote would be inapropriate and any comparison might give you wrong picture about the whole experience that “Ghost In The Shell 2” brings. Scale is so delicate here… Word of advice: BE READY for this film! Any distractions might ruin it, it is so difficult to follow strings of thought while trying to get the big picture. Watching part 1 is huge plus, it will prepare you for the world of e-brains, androids and humans of the future. Masamune Shirow and Mamoru Oshii have been there and their story is brutally strong and complex. Like life, death, soul and what hey mean, represent and reflect. I forgot the Guardian Angel. She is there as well.

I couldn’t have wished a better subject of Electromeda’s final review. I couldn’t have desired better reason to put this project to rest – there is a new life being developed, the one my wife and I conceived. Ironic, isn’t it? But somehow also, strangely, wonderfully spectacular.

Watch the film. It is also strangely, wonderfully spectacular.

AD ASTRA, dear comrades and comradettes!