Hollywood live-action adaptions of popular anime properties have an unfortunately long history as big studios attempt to market a popular story to an audience unfamiliar with, and uncomfortable watching, anime. While there has been the occasional success, the general consensus is that attempting to make a live-action adaptation of an anime is ultimately a poor business venture. One studio didn’t listen to this however and Ghost in the Shell, an adaptation of the popular 1995 anime of the same name, was released in 2017. There are multiple reasons why this adaptation, like many others, failed to succeed.
Originally acquiring the rights to the anime in 2008, Dreamworks set out to produce an adaption. The film went through several writers, before finally having a script made with credits to three different writers. In 2014, Rupert Sanders was signed on as director and there were initial rumors that Margot Robbie would be playing the lead role. After Margot accepted the role of Harley Quinn, Scarlett Johansson was then announced to star in Ghost in the Shell. The rest of the cast soon followed and filming took place in and around Hong Kong.
The Path To Release
Some of the initial struggles with this live-action adaptation came with the announcement of Scarlett Johansson in the lead role. Many fans of the anime and manga spoke out against this decision, decrying it as white-washing of a Japanese character. Dreamworks and the director denied this accusation, claiming the world of the story to be multicultural and thus not limited to a solely Japanese cast. Many Japanese fans and actresses were asked their opinions on the matter, to which they replied that they weren’t bothered by the casting. Many, in fact, expected that a white actress would be cast. There were many back-and-forths that ultimately hurt the movie’s marketing leading up to release, not helped in the slightest by a report that Paramount had run tests on digitally altering a white actress to look more Asian.
The Story After Release
These marketing, and possibly casting, mishaps certainly didn’t help the film. Upon release, audiences were treated to a film that, while visually rather pretty, unfortunately, presented some glaring issues. Many scenes from the anime were directly adapted, camera angles and all, leading many to ask the glaring question of why this was made. Simply recreating the same thing with a live-action cast makes the film feel ultimately derivative of the original work rather than worthwhile. The well-recognized building jump, the chase into shallow waters, and more were all scenes the live-action adapted nearly shot-for-shot.
In addition to these adapted scenes that didn’t inject enough new elements into them, the story presented many of its own issues. The original anime and manga tell a tale of a far-future wherein technology has become so integrated into normal life that many people even have technology implanted in them. Gone are the days of smartphones and here are the days of neural links. The live-action film, however, instead made the film about the Major looking for answers about her past and where she came from.
Although this seems like it could be a new, and interesting, departure from the original, the story ultimately feels tired. Stories about amnesiac characters finding danger in seeking answers about their past have been done many times over from Robocop to The Long Kiss Goodnight. With the goal of the live-action adaptation being to find a new audience for this story, the fact that this story is reminiscent of others could only hurt it in the long run. It’s not faithful enough for the original fans to enjoy it, and not different enough to entice new fans.
Is There Something Redeeming?
While there were a lot of stumbles with this film, not everything was that bad. Scarlett Johansson, despite people disliking her casting, turns in a solid performance in the lead role and is able to sell the dispassionate human trapped in a cybernetic body that is Major. Many other members of the main cast turn in very solid performances as well, with some of the characters being dead ringers for their anime counterparts. The CGI especially stands out as fairly solid throughout, portraying a very accurate depiction of the far-future city that Ghost in the Shell takes place in.
Although this attempt at a live-action adaptation was ultimately misguided and likely suffered some from not being a passion project and instead aimed as a money-maker, there are some redeeming qualities about it. Some fans have come out to praise the attempt and many have said that while it doesn’t match up to the original, it’s still pretty good overall. The low box-office returns of this film, $169 million worldwide on a $110 million budget, certainly didn’t hold back studios from trying this type of thing again, and it’s unlikely this trend will ever truly have an end.