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Dom Robinson reviews
Manga Entertainment / Palm Pictures
- Cert:
- Cat.no: MANG 5529
- Running time: 83 minutes
- Year: 1995
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 15 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English, Japanese
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £15.99
- Extras : Scene index, Trailers, “Making of Ghost in the Shell”, DVD-ROM content
Director:
- Mamoru Oshii
Producer:
- Kodansha
Screenplay:
- Kazunori Ito
Music:
- Kenji Kawai
Ghost in the Shell is the phrase coined for the human-like behaviour within the cyborgs that live among the humans themselves in the year 2029 A.D., where the internet is everything and work, pleasure and all of life’s necessities can be found online.
Cyborgs Major Motoko Kusanghi and Bateau are after The Puppet Master, a hacker so deadly he/she/it is ghost-hacking and needs to be stopped. To divert attention, the blame is put upon others such as a trashman who is made to think he has a wife who wants a divorce and a child who he’s no longer allowed to see. He’s a bachelor though and when he thinks he’s hacking into his wife’s synapses, he’s actually committing crime by delving into government secrets.
Things go awry when a naked girl apparently walks into the path of an oncoming vehicle in the road. Actually, it was a body without any human brains involved at all that was hacked into and managed to escape under its own artificial intelligence. The level of intelligence present could indicate that there’s a real ghost in this shell.
The cyborgs also have a clever part to play in the guise of “thermoptic camouflage”, making them literally disappear to the untrained eye.
The film is presented in an anamorphic 1.85:1 and looks nothing short of fantastic. Any type of animation, without adequate encoding, could have pixellated so much but it hasn’t and a perfect job has been done. The average bitrate is a very good 8Mb/s.
The sound is also first-rate. When the sound effects kick in, there’s plenty of exciting steering in its direction. Bass is used to good effect too, especially in the opening theme tune and the ambient sounds.
The disc contains English and Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks.
Extras :
Chapters & Trailers : There are 15 chapters during the 82-minute film which is fine.
The trailers included are a theatrical trailer, plus three trailers for other Palm Pictures DVDs – Dancehall Queen, Baaba Maal and Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense.
Languages & Subtitles : Japanese and English DD 5.1 sound with English subtitles. The subtitles don’t always match the words spoken, but they generally fall along the same lines, except when the spoken number of the dump truck 58 becomes No.79 in subtitles.
Also, one of the bad guys, Tsuan Gen Fang, is said to be aged 48. The subtitles take twenty years off him.
And there’s more… : A 29-minute Making Of is included which goes into the concept of Japanimation and the digital processes involved. It’s presented in the style of an American made-for-cable sort of show.
The DVD-ROM content features music samples, info and rough-looking video clips of a range of Palm Pictures produce: Sly and Robbie, Baaba Maal, Mocean Worker, Ernest Ranglin and Kora Revolution.
Menu : The main menu is static but has music from the film over the top and options to start the film, select a scene, watch the trailers or ‘making of’.
Overall, it was rather an interesting film, but not one I’d go back to time and again as it did seem to go on a bit at times. I did like the style of the film though, so I’m looking forward to seeing more anime hit DVD, especially if it will look and sound as brilliant as it does here when the action starts – if only this film had some more of that.
Ghost in the Shell has rather a complex plot for such a short film, going into things more than I have described here. It looks more like it was made this year rather than back in 1995, since it’s only been in the last couple of years over here that everything you see, watch or buy has a website attached to it.
Will the Internet be taken to such extremes in the future? We’ll have to meet up in 29 years and discuss it then.
The disc appears to have all the features of the Region 1 equivalent, so there’s no particular reason for you to choose that one ove this.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL For more information, please visit PalmPictures.com and Manga.co.uk
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.