"Who am I? Where am I from? Where am I going? It is the eternal question of life, self and existence in the long history of human beings.
At the end of the 60s, Kubrick meditated on the fate of mankind through "2001: A Space Odyssey", and the science fiction film "Blade Runner" in the 80s, and later "The Fifth Element" and "The Matrix", etc., all expressed the confusion of human beings about the real, morality, self, survival and other issues caused by modern technology.
In the film sequence of the same proposition, "Ghost in the Shell" directed by Mamoru Oshii has a pivotal position. Not only did it push cyberpunk animated films to a new level, but it also influenced a group of Hollywood directors, inheriting his discussion of issues and aesthetics in "Ghost in the Shell".
The original manga of "Ghost in the Shell" was born in 1989, and due to the complex worldview set by the author Shirou Masamune, and the obscure theme, the market response was mediocre. When the project for the theatrical version was handed over to Mamoru Oshii, he made a drastic adaptation of the original work, retaining only its story framework and spiritual core, and incorporating his own thoughts on modern society on this basis, combined with advanced animation production technology, making "Ghost in the Shell" (later simplified to "Attack the Shell") famous all over the world. (In 2017, Hollywood adapted it into a live-action version)
After 29 years, the film is about to be re-released in Chinese mainland. At this time, it is necessary for us to sort out and analyze what kind of movie it is again? And, how should we make sense of the philosophical speculation?
01
The film is set in the year 2029 A.D., and the world is already connected by a vast and dense network. At this time, biotechnology was highly developed, and human beings could break through the limitations of the physical body through "prosthetics", and even let the brain connect to the network to achieve digital computing.
In this world, new types of cybercrime are frequent, and the "Public Security Ninth Division" directly under the Prime Minister is a special team responsible for this type of crime. The captain of the "Public Security Ninth Lesson" is the cyborg Motoko Kusanagi, who has extremely strong combat effectiveness and is almost invincible. One day, there was a criminal case of hacking "puppeteer", and in the process of Kusanagi Motoko's pursuit of the "puppeteer", she had an urgent impulse to explore her own existence and the meaning of life.
What is "self"? What is "being"? If consciousness can be modified, the body can be replaced by a "prosthetic body", and memories can be connected to others, then "body = me, consciousness = me"? Since neither of these definitions is accurate, how should we define life and define ourselves?
Suzi's series of questions are exactly the topics that the film tries to explore. In cyberspace, the ubiquitous myths of science and technology have disrupted the living conditions and ethical order of human beings, causing confusion in the judgment of "man" that we once believed to behold, and "alienation of man" and "loss of human subjectivity" occur at the same time. In this regard, "Attack on the Shell" uses four types of life forms: ordinary people, robots, cyborgs, and computer programs to show the alienated state of life in cyberspace.
The truck driver (an ordinary person) always thought that he was already married and had a lovely daughter. Suddenly, he was told that his memories were fake, just an illusion created by the information stored in his head. Through this character, "Attack on the Shell" shows that real life in post-human society is attacked by virtual information, and human beings are reduced to slaves of digital technology.
Barthes (Cyborg) is a man-made mechanical substance except for the brain, which is the original part of the physical human body. The remnants of human consciousness put him in a dilemma between the machine and the soul, and it was difficult to discern which one would better represent the "self". When humans and machines gradually merge into one, can a living body with a "human brain" and a "mechanical body" be counted as a "human"?
The protagonist Motoko Kusanagi is a completely mechanical being as a pure prosthetic person (cyborg), she was born under the industrialization of human beings, and has a string of "soul codes" entered into it. Although she has a human brain, she has no memory, so she has the ability to think as a human being, but it is difficult for her to be aware of the existence of the "self". It can be said that Motoko Kusanagi's impulse to think and her confusion about the positioning of "self" support the value system of the whole film.
The situation is even more special for puppeteers (computer programs). It has no entity, is a program used for intelligence work, and gradually develops a "self-awareness" in the network, out of the control of the relevant authorities. After being caught, it claimed to be a living being born through the Internet and applied for political asylum from the government because, in its view, "human DNA is nothing more than a program designed to store itself." ”
These four types of characters present the chaotic picture of life cognition and real existence caused by the disappearance of the boundary between human beings and technology to different degrees and dimensions, resulting in the physical and psychological alienation of human beings, and plunging the whole society into a colossal nothingness.
02
If the plot before the fusion of Suko and the puppeteer shows Mamoru Oshii's anxiety about modern society, then the "new life" generated after the fusion of Suko and the puppeteer may be regarded as a way out for him.
The puppeteer has very clear values and self-awareness, and its strong subjective initiative and "disembodied" life characteristics make it a highly abstract living entity. As a pure cyborg, Suko has a powerful body, but her self-consciousness is firmly imprisoned in that mechanical shell.
The fusion of the two has the possibility of evolution and death for the puppeteer; For Suzi, it allows the consciousness to shuttle through the online world and get rid of the limitations of the body.
In the end, the newborn Suzi existed with a pure spiritual core and made a leap in life.
"Spirit" is a reins that "Attack the Shell" gives to the audience to anchor themselves when the separation between the physical and the mechanical, the memory and the reality, the individual and the collective is removed.
In addition to the revelatory value construction, the unique audiovisual language of "Attack on the Shell" has also become an important element of participating in the narrative. The contrast between the futuristic city and the dilapidated streets creates a sense of contradiction that is both modern and dilapidated, dazzling and colorful, and lifeless.
In order to present this "heterotopian" atmosphere of cyberspace, Mamoru Oshii and his team members adopted a production method that combines 3DCG technology with the hand-drawn tradition of Japanese manga, using traditional celluloid coloring and digital coloring together, focusing on realism in the part of scene depiction, and focusing on freehand in the part of emotional expression of characters, so that the audience can have a sense of strangeness when they get a real situational experience. This kind of fragmented viewing experience is just against the highly intelligent but lonely Xingang city in the film.
After its release in 1995, "Attack on the Shell" had a huge impact on the development of cyberpunk films. The Wachowski sisters, who filmed "The Matrix", are avid fans of "Attack on the Shell", and many scenes in "The Matrix" are directly copied from "Attack on the Shell" as a tribute.
In addition to its visual impact, "Attack on the Shell" has also been inherited by many subsequent sci-fi films.
What is the essence of human existence? How to define "self" in the era of artificial intelligence? While we are still in the process of finding answers, it and the science fiction movies that influence it paint a picture of the future in advance are a constant reminder of the urgency of confronting these issues.
One
Editor-in-charge: Chai Yingrui