General Movies Thread

[Arashi_Leonhart]

Yamatos too polite to say otherwise.

you could say its lost in translation

...my most sincere apologies I need decontamination

[RoydGolden]

Yamatos too polite to say otherwise.

you could say its lost in translation

...my most sincere apologies I need decontamination

Well yeah, there's always ye olde Asian politeness to consider.

Also, never doubt the ability of even the work's creator to have the most baffling opinions on how to adapt their material. Like the author of Attack On Titan who insisted on leaving Lev- one of the franchise's most wildly popular characters- out of the film adaptions because he felt viewers would get confused on having a character whose name doesn't sound Japanese. As opposed to such traditionally Japanese names as "Erin" and "Ackermann", I suppose.

[SeiKeo]

Which I guess is one of the biggest flaw in the film, you can tell Major is pretty disaffected in how she relates to others and world, but everything feels flat. The only time I felt some kind of emotion was when

Spoiler:

she finally meets her real mom. Felt good she has that and a happy ending with her.

Spoiler:

This is tricky. 'Flat' is a hard word to use in this case because it doesn't really say much, it's hard to pin down: understated, maybe? Most of her performance is body language, which is probably a good thing, not the best script ever. But I'm somewhat surprised that I haven't seen other people getting hit quite as hard by the bit off the Major and the prostitute, asking/forcing her to take off everything on her face; for me, it worked as both her desire for contact, but also deeply uncomfortable in how she prys, forcing her partner to be intensely vulnerable.

[Arashi_Leonhart]

Well yeah, there's always ye olde Asian politeness to consider.

Also, never doubt the ability of even the work's creator to have the most baffling opinions on how to adapt their material. Like the author of Attack On Titan who insisted on leaving Lev- one of the franchise's most wildly popular characters- out of the film adaptions because he felt viewers would get confused on having a character whose name doesn't sound Japanese. As opposed to such traditionally Japanese names as "Erin" and "Ackermann", I suppose.

Eren is a Japanese name.

[Trubo]

Spoiler:

This is tricky. 'Flat' is a hard word to use in this case because it doesn't really say much, it's hard to pin down: understated, maybe? Most of her performance is body language, which is probably a good thing, not the best script ever. But I'm somewhat surprised that I haven't seen other people getting hit quite as hard by the bit off the Major and the prostitute, asking/forcing her to take off everything on her face; for me, it worked as both her desire for contact, but also deeply uncomfortable in how she prys, forcing her partner to be intensely vulnerable.

I was surprised that my dad liked the movie as much as he did, and it was for things like that. Also, the Blade Runner and general superhero references, as well as her posture in general.

But yeah, the story as a whole was kind of eh. Wish Batou or Togusa had more screentime.

[LJ3]

Spoiler:

This is tricky. 'Flat' is a hard word to use in this case because it doesn't really say much, it's hard to pin down: understated, maybe? Most of her performance is body language, which is probably a good thing, not the best script ever. But I'm somewhat surprised that I haven't seen other people getting hit quite as hard by the bit off the Major and the prostitute, asking/forcing her to take off everything on her face; for me, it worked as both her desire for contact, but also deeply uncomfortable in how she prys, forcing her partner to be intensely vulnerable.

Okay, I totally missed picking up on that. You're right, and now that I think about it, shouldn't respecting privacy and consent be super important to her considering her own circumstances.

Some lines felt really clunky like being so on the nose with ghost and shell but that's pretty obvious. I really don't have much of a problem with the ScarJo Major being 'muted' then, since yeah, the kind of story the movie wants to tell.

[2Bad]

Wow the Fast 6 stinger is infamous but that's even dumber and more hilarious than I thought

Also everything about that Plane Sequence


Not quite as good as 5 but god damn good

[SeiKeo]

Okay, I totally missed picking up on that. You're right, and now that I think about it, shouldn't respecting privacy and consent be super important to her considering her own circumstances.

Some lines felt really clunky like being so on the nose with ghost and shell but that's pretty obvious. I really don't have much of a problem with the ScarJo Major being 'muted' then, since yeah, the kind of story the movie wants to tell.

Spoiler:

I forgot to mention that later on, it actually gets repeated, when Kuze takes off her face panel - it's almost exactly the same thing, except focused on the eye and not the mouth, even the feeling of the touches are similar. That time, it's unambiguously horrifying, machine under flesh, but it's not actually different from flesh under makeup.

e: There's probably a relation (which I'm not going to think about right now) between this and the remarkably insistent focus on her clothes.

[2Bad]

I think the main thing that puts 6 below 5 for me ends up being that 5 is so briskly, perfectly paced. There's not one dull moment, whereas 6 has a few parts that just kinda drag, especially the Dom/Letty stuff. Shaw is easily the best antagonist of the spread thus far though.

I love the dedication to folding in shit from the first half into the second. Stupid shit like saying grace, or Shaw straight up saying "boy the path from A to B sure is stupid huh?"

[Sunara]

So just got back from GitS. They basically cut a bunch of stuff from Stand Alone Complex into the plot of the first movie. Badly. Everyone speaks English, (sometime very badly, but not from who you'd expect) and 90% have English names, yet Aramaki speaks in only Japanese. He's the only one in the whole damn movie to do so. Oh and the movie constantly has Motoko calling herself "Major" like it's a name not a title. Like "My name is Major." or "This is Major.". It's weird.

So...

Movie Plot

This movie is basically the plot of the original, but instead of the opening scene they basically use the the hostage situation from the first episode of SAC, but only use the Major, instead of the whole team. Puppet Master is replaced by Kuze from 2nd Gig, who instead of being a pacifistic hermit like Kuze (TV) or trying for asylum like Tits McTorso, he instead on a roaring Rampage of Revenge ^TM. The Foreign Ministry is replaced by Hanma, goon squads and all, and they created the major a year before the movie begins. They perfect their robots by abducting anti-tech hippies runaways and erasing their memories and seeing if they mesh with their new robo-bodies. They then lend these robots out to the government, while still owning them. Thus Japanese hippy Mokoto Kusanagi becomes white-girl Major Mira Killian. I don't know how you can be a Major when you're not part of the armed services and are instead on loan from a private entity, but whatever. Hanma orders all section 9 wiped out. Aramaki kills like six people, and guns down the main Hanma rep who is remotely piloting the Tachikoma (which is actually a really solid set piece scene). Oh and instead of doing something subtle to the garbage truck drivers by messing with their memories, Kuze just directly controls them and makes the ram the truck into the car of one of the scientists who made him. They still have the scnee where they interrogate the guy afterwards, complete with non-photograph, but it lacks the set up as they were talking about takeout before they went all "Assuming Direct Control". And at the end only Kuze gets headshotted by the Helo snipers, and the Major just walks away with Batou.

Some character stuff: Batou is mostly human, only has an artificial arm, but over the story gets exploded and needs new eyes. Ishikawa is Black now and has a roibo liver for better drinking (I think that's his only line). Togusa is still Asian but speaks English, unlike the chief. Paz is now an English girl. And Borma is there, apparently, since the shots all have the right number of people but damned if he does anything. Oh and the major can swim fully using only flippers despite being made of metal.

All said, I couldn't get a good read on the movie because I was to occupied wondering why they did a certain thing with the story to enjoy the film as a whole. All the shots lifted directly from the source worked and looked good, but since it was so disjointed in my mind I felt detached from the whole thing. My friend with almost no knowledge of the material enjoyed it however, so maybe I'm just being too much of a neckbeard. I mean I liked ARISE and this just felt 'meh' to me.

I had also watched GiTS on opening night. Just finally getting around to posting.

Sadly, my memory is bad so I don't remember too many details from the series. To be fair, it has been several years since I watched it. I should have re-watched before the movie. As a result, I thought the movie was ok. Very pretty to look at. Perhaps if the original was fresher in my mind, I'd feel differently. (I'd still prefer the original any day.)

It did bother me that only one of them spoke in Japanese; I expected at least Kusanagi to. You know... when someone is speaking to someone in Japanese, I at least expect them to respond in Japanese. But considering she couldn't even say the character's names right, her Japanese would probably be horrendous.

I've been curious about something. In the original, was she naked like that when cloaked? Or was that fan-service?

[Arashi_Leonhart]

95 movie was a skintight partially transparent or flesh-colored suit. Manga was more like a battlesuit or armor. SAC its implied to be a sort of field that includes the clothing you're wearing.

[Five_X]

Yamatos too polite to say otherwise.

you could say its lost in translation

...my most sincere apologies I need decontamination

Super underrated joke, I laughed.

[Sunara]

95 movie was a skintight partially transparent or flesh-colored suit. Manga was more like a battlesuit or armor. SAC its implied to be a sort of field that includes the clothing you're wearing.

Ah. Sounds like they based it off the movie.... That's probably why it bothered me. I kept thinking, "wait, wasn't it different?"

[2Bad]

Get Out has broken Blair Witch Project's 20 year hold on Highest Grossing Original Screenplay.

[Neir]

Holy shit. That's both good and bad. Good because Get Out was good, but how the fuck did Blair witch project manage to get that much money? It was so bad

[2Bad]

BW was always a big success story, though it also says a lot about how hard original screenplays have it in hollywood

[Neir]

That doesn't mean it wasn't hot garbage

[Mattias]

Get Out has broken Blair Witch Project's 20 year hold on Highest Grossing Original Screenplay.

That has to be a stat based on ratio or something. Inception made 8 times as much money and Avatar made billions.

[Neir]

That has to be a stat based on ratio or something. Inception made 8 times as much money and Avatar made billions.

yeah, it's probably amount of money made relative to how much was spent to make it (~$15)

[Seika]

I forgot whether I read this here or somewhere else, but apparently either Shirow or Oshii actually commented to say that they thought Scarlett Johansson as the Major was a perfect choice and exactly how he imagined the character to look in live-action. So... if it's white-washing then it's white-washing that the original creator (or somebody very closely involved) strongly approves of. *shrugs*

When THR interviewed Japanese fans about the whitewashing claims, they weren’t bothered by it, and neither was Mamoru Oshii, who directed the 1995 anime version. How do you feel about their response?


Yoshihara: People in Japan worship white people.

Kato-Kiriyama: Even in the story, there are Japanese people involved in creating these beings and they also may very well see the ideal human being as a white woman. So you’re sort of messed up all the way around.

Agena: Yes! I felt more messed up watching this movie. It reinforced my own personal messed-up standards of physical beauty.

Okatsuka: This is an important conversation to have.

Yoshihara: Even my ex-boyfriend, who is Asian American, said, “What Asian lady has a body like Scarlett Johansson?”

Agena: There are certain priorities there.

Okatsuka: It’s this weird thing where Asian Americans or Asian nationals living here like me, working in film, are fighting both our motherland and white producers here. We’re walking this in-between where I scream at Hollywood but I’m also like, “Why’d you do that, Japan?!” Et tu, Brute, on both sides.

Yoshihara: Japanese people are self-loathing.

Okatsuka: Is it crazy that suicide rates are so high in Japan?

Yoshihara: Even my sister committed suicide. That’s how many people commit suicide in Japan. That’s how messed up it is.