A quirky but acceptable disc. (Ghost In The Shell (DVD))

Member Name: Brett Bligh

Product:	Ghost In The Shell (DVD)
Date:	26/10/01 (252 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A good animated film, choice of dubbed or subtitled versions, 5.1 surround sound and a Making Of documentary.

Disadvantages: Eccentric choice of print presentation, many of the ‘extras’ have nothing to do with the film, or even with anime in general.

In Japan, animation is regarded as a serious medium in which films fully intended for adults can be crafted. ‘Ghost in the Shell’ is an example of such a film, and is an example which is surely good enough to convince even the most jaded Western audience that there is more to the animated form than Disney and other sentimental children’s cartoons. Plus, given the fact that digital effects are so prominent in this film, can there be any more suitable medium for viewing it than DVD?


THE FILM
Ghost in the Shell is one of those films whose impact can be severely reduced by the audience knowing beforehand what is going to happen, and so it is probably best to be deliberately vague about the plot. Section 9 is a covert government agency in a near-future Japan. Its recent operations include the assassination of a foreign diplomat to prevent defection to a foreign power by a top Japanese programmer and the protection of an aide to a top Japanese diplomat who has been Ghost-hacked, probably in an attempt to make her kill someone at an upcoming diplomatic function, as well as many others. All of these incidents can, it seems, be traced back to one individual: a super-hacker known as The Puppet Master. Unfortunately, no-one knows who he is or what his real motives are, and as further mysterious occurrences dog the section and operative Major Kusanagi becomes obsessed with what she seems to be constantly on the brink of discovering, Section 9 must face the very real possibilities that other government departments, particularly the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, know far more about The Puppet Master than they are letting on, and that the truth behind the web of linked cases is something far bigger than anyone could have anticipated.

Probably the most admired aspect of Ghost in the Shell is its highly impressive visual style, which is dark and forbidding and yet at the same time understated and refined, the film successfully incorporatin
g computer generated animation into its more traditional cell-based animation to create a look and feel which is truly futuristic and novel. Thankfully, this style is matched by the substance of the film — Ghost in the Shell is very big on ideas, with characters allowed lengthy monologues on issues such as human identity from which Western film producers and studios would quite simply flee in terror. The film also has a plot which is relatively complex and which some viewers, especially those not used to viewing anime, may find takes more than one sitting to fully absorb, although admittedly this is not helped by the films presentation, which often chooses to follow a lengthy, sometimes semi-hypnotic sequence devoid of dialogue and accompanied by music (which sends the viewer into a relaxed, unconcentrated state) with an expository scene full of facts and figures delivered at high speed; the director obviously had no intention of suffering the fools in the audience gladly with this project, and if Ghost in the Shell has a flaw it would have to be its slight inaccessibility.

Essentially, Ghost in the Shell is an excellent science fiction thriller which just happens to be animated. It is, as I have said, a film of considerable style and substance. It will probably not be appreciated by those of an utterly mainstream or technophobic bent, but for those who like their films densely constructed with political intrigue, technological speculation and relevant philosophical debate this film should go down a treat, and it would be a shame if the Western predilection towards viewing anything animated as childish prevented this film from finding its full audience in this hemisphere.


THE DISC

 Distributor: Manga Entertainment UK / Palm Pictures [MANG 5529].
Manga is by far the most well-known of anime distributors in the West, so much so that anime itself has become known as Manga to the uninitiated (an error which certain peopl
e seem to absolutely LOVE to point out to others in an attempt to make themselves appear sage-like and knowledgeable). Their first three DVD releases — this title was the first, followed by ‘Perfect Blue’ and ‘Ninja Scroll’ in succession — were of a rather high standard, containing decent prints and the opportunity to choose between dubbed and subtitled versions of the film. Unfortunately, however, I am led to believe that their more recent releases have started to become slightly less polished.

NB: The Manga UK website is located at www.manga.com/mangauk and NOT www.manga.co.uk as advertised on the sleeve (going to this second address simply confronts the browser with a server error, and no redirect information is given).

 Rating: 15.
Given that this film features full frontal nudity and the violent splashing of body parts across the landscape as the result of machine-gun fire, it is obvious that the BBFC considers animation to be an inoffensive art form. Were much of the content of this film to be replicated in live-action, this film would surely have been awarded an 18 certificate.

 Region: 2 (PAL encoding).
Region 2 is intended for Europe (including the UK) and Japan, whilst PAL is a system used by the UK and Australia, among others. Essentially, this disc will play on any region 2, multi-region or region-free player which is compatible with PAL playback — if you bought your player in the UK there should be no worries whatsoever.

 Type and case: DVD5 with black amaray case.
The DVD5 is a standard DVD which contains a single data layer on a single side of the 12cm disc.

 Running time: 82 minutes approx.
This is the standard international version of the film, uncut.

 Picture format: 4:3.
Ghost in the Shell was originally created in 1.85:1 but, strangely enough, the 4:3 print included here does NOT appear to be
cropped. In fact, what appears to have happened is that the print has been shrunk inwards horizontally to fit the 4:3 aspect ratio; when the picture is stretched outwards on a 16:9 widescreen television, therefore, it basically looks normal. Unfortunately, this has the side-effect that anyone watching on a standard television or on a computer monitor will see an image in which everything looks too slim and tall. Anamorphic prints were designed to maximise the look of a print on a widescreen TV without jeopardising the enjoyment of those watching on a 4:3 screen — this kind of encoding accomplishes the former, but not the latter.

Of course, given that this film is animated it is much easier to ignore the incorrect proportions which are displayed on a 4:3 TV if you have to, but I can imagine quite a few people were confused when they brought home a DVD with a black “Widescreen” sticker on it only to be confronted with a 4:3 picture.

As for the picture itself, it appears to be faithfully presented. Colours are convincingly vibrant, with the dark and shadowy atmosphere of the film being amply reproduced through dark blacks. If you can stomach the eccentric aspect ratio conversion then this is actually a very nice print.

 Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, English and Japanese languages.
Whilst both soundtracks might be technically equivalent (and both are certainly surround), the Japanese soundtrack is far, far, far superior to the English in both the quality of the sound effects and the performances of the voice artists. Many of the characters who possess a quiet, contemplative dignity in the Japanese version come across as spoilt-brat adolescents in the US dub — my advice then, obviously, would be to put up with reading the subtitles and choose the Japanese soundtrack.

With regard to the quality of the surround sound, both tracks make use of all surround speakers; the overall effect is impressive, especia
lly in the Japanese version which has considerably more surround effects and makes considerably more use of the rear audio channels. The sound on both tracks is crackle-free throughout.

 Subtitles: English.
The removable subtitles are presented in what I perceived as a slightly undignified rounded font which reeks of infant schooling. The text is, however, easy to read, presented in white with a very thin black outline. One point to note is that the text is really meant to accompany the Japanese soundtrack and is presumably a reasonably faithful translation of what is said therein; the English-language soundtrack has obviously been translated rather less faithfully in an attempt to make the speech sound more natural in English and to aid in lip-synch. In any case, switching on the subtitles while watching the English soundtrack shows up a considerable number of inconsistencies.

 Extras: Hyperactive [DVD-ROM feature], trailers, The Making of Ghost in the Shell.

The ‘Hyperactive’ feature turns out to be an information page directing the user to content which can be accessed through files on the DVD itself. Like the trailers discussed later, much (actually, all) of this material turns out to have no relevance to Ghost in the Shell and consists of promotional material for Palm Pictures, who mostly seem to be a music marketing company. Pointless.

The trailers are for an weird assortment of DVD releases. Thankfully, the trailer for Ghost in the Shell is included. Presented in 1.85:1 letterbox widescreen, this is the English-language trailer with a length of approximately 90 seconds and touts the worldwide theatrical release of the film in “Fall 1995”. The other trailers included are for ‘Dancehall Queen’, ‘Stop Making Sense’ and ‘Baaba Maal at the Royal Festival Hall’; a more irrelevant selection I can scarcely imagine!

The Making of Ghost in the Sh
ell has a running time of just under half an hour and is taken from Kodansha Video in the US. Obviously never intended for television broadcast — the entire tone of the documentary is both pedantic and patronising, and features an American narrator who seems to be talking slowly as though to an audience of schoolchildren — this is nonetheless an admirably in-depth look at the film and features interviews with many of those involved in its creation, including director Mamoru Oshii. It does, however, feature an unusual and rather amateurish visual motif in which faces, subtitles and other information appear within separate boxes set against a slightly patterned grey background.


CONCLUSION
The Ghost in the Shell DVD is, to be fair, a mixed bag. Most of the extras are at best irrelevant to the disc, and the choice of screen presentation will doubtless annoy many customers who do not have access to a widescreen TV.

On the other hand, this is a disc which certainly has much to commend it: a choice of dubbed or subtitled versions of the film, Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and a half-hour Making Of documentary certainly display that this disc has not been compiled by slackers. As for the print, it certainly does look brilliant on a widescreen TV, but to be honest I would suggest that it looks reasonably okay on a normal TV or computer monitor as well, given that the material on display is artificial (i.e. drawn or constructed on computer) and hence the human mind has no natural expectations of relative dimensions which can be confounded and confused.

In general, therefore, this disc is far from perfect, and the quibbles are obvious ones. But it is above average, and certainly to be recommended to the anime fan and to anyone who likes a good sf plot well told.

Summary: