#gints

I was re-watching Ghost in the Shell last night, and I started ponder about the themes of the movie. There is heavy duality, or should I say dialectic nature between “human” and something technologically modified. However, I started to think maybe the movie also in other instances is build upon in a duality/dialectic nature, where two themes/components intertwine, and compete with each other? 

Also I will touch upon a little bit of the theme birth and of rebirth that is present on the movie. I will only talk within the context of this movie, and only use material and scenes from it.  . 

Rich / Poor

As the characters traverse trough the cyberpunk landscape, you see areas that are either very poor or rich looking, or an odd mix of both. You see poor slums, where houses are in poor conditions. There are trash and dirt on the grounds and in the river where a boat sails trough.

Above these slums massive modern and expensive looking skyscrapers tower over the slums, casting their shadows upon them. The gap between the rich and the poor can be seen. 

There are then areas where these elements are mixed. Slums where near them sky scrapers and richer looking areas rise from. Poor looking areas with expensive and fancy looking stores. 

Old / Modern

The areas that are poor seems also old looking. Some of them seem to be devoid of the new technological advancement that is happening in the world. There are still old fashioned markets and etc... Not everyone even has taken cybernetic modifications, or at least to lesser extend that some others. 

You can see modern elements in many places. The technology and weapons are modern, the buildings and etc.. look very modern. Weapons that are used are rather advanced . Powerful tanks, cloaking devices and etc... 

At times these two elements are in conflict. I think a wonderful example about this is the fight between Major and the Tank. The battle happens in a old building, in an abandoned old part of the city. Major and the Tank, two highly modern and advanced weapons of war, are in a conflict in old, historical building. As they fight the tank shoots a fossil of a seal creature full of bullet holes. Old and new are in a conflict. Maybe the destruction of the fossil symbolizes the dominance of the modern weapons of way of life, over the old and an already dead?

Human / Machine

Trough out the movie the connection between human and machine is present. There are those who have not taken cybernetics (or not as much as others), and maybe they in a sense are “more human”. The Major in the other hand, whose only human part are her brains in a machine body, is she a human? 

Parts of human and machine unit in the body, crafting an union. 

The fields of vision also change from the green virtual network, to the “normal” landscape seen trough eyes. These two act together, they have formed a synthesis. 

Birth rebirth

Lastly I would like to talk about the theme, or maybe more accurately the iconography of birth/rebirth. At the beginning of the movie we see how Major`s body is build. Brains are inserted into a mechanical body, that circulates in tubes full of water. Her body finally emerges from the dark, blue depths. On the surface the color of the water seems brown/gold/yellowish.

Very similar symbolism and iconography is used later in the deep diving section of the movie. The Major is diving and swimming in the ocean. She reaches to the dark, deep blue parts of the ocean, where she slowly start to rise to the surface. As she is closer to the surface, she sees her reflection from the water, illuminated by the setting sun. Her face and body partially emerge to the surface, and the setting sun has painted the water in a gold like color. 

The first scene is quite literally the Major`s “birth” since we see the construction of her body. The diving scene also talks about the concept of birth and rebirth, since the Major tells to Batou that she ponders while in the water, that maybe she could change/turn into another person as she surfaces. Not only that, but I think the similar color schemes of the scene, and emergence from water are also links between the two scenes. 

Major (thesis) and the Puppet Master (anti thesis) also seems to fuse and create a synthesis, resulting into the birth of something, something potentially new. (All though the Puppet Master calls them more as an reflection from the other sides of a mirror, maybe in a bit similar fashion of the diving scene picture, that I use at the beginning of this post. It also fits since the Puppet Master uses a similar like body as the Major).  

I also think it´s fitting that Major is then seen in the body of a child, linking even more heavily that a rebirth has occurred. She also goes back to the lines she heard in the boat with Batou, even linking back thematically to a scene that was about rebirth.