FA/FILM 3610 Sec D Fall 2007-08

Hey guys, I just got the holiday newsletter for the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (JCCC) and noticed that they are screening Okamoto Kihachi’s “Samurai Assassin” at the JCCC on Thursday January 31 at 7:00PM. For JCCC members the admission fee is $5 and $7 for non-members.

Here is the description from the newsletter:

“Samurai Assassin is director Okamoto (Sword of Doom) Kihachi’s best film. It is also considered by many to be the best samurai film ever made!
On March 3, 1860, a group of 32 men assembled at the Sakurada Gates of the Edo Castle, and waited for Shogunate Elder li Naosuke to arrive. Their mission- ASSASSINATION!
Legendary actor Mifune Toshiro, in one of his greatest and most complex roles, stars as Niiro Tsuruchiyo, a ronin who has joined the conspiracy in the hopes that taking Elder li’s head will win him enough renown that one of the greatest Samurai houses will offer him a position. Fate has dealt Niiro many hard blows. The product of a youthful indiscretion, he doesn’t know who his father is. An ill-fated love affair has broken his heart and delivered him into abject poverty. All he has left is his sword and his burning desire to succeed. Nothing, not even the lives of his friends, matters more than becoming a real Samurai. But what Niiro does not know, as he waits in the snow for the arrival of the Elder, is that cruel fate has not yet finished toying with him!
This film is the first in a series of screening in 2008 to acknowledge the 150 anniversary of the bakumatsu and the birth
of modern Japan.”

For more information on the JCCC, their website is http://www.jccc.on.ca

Reel Asian Festival

I saw this film, Homestay at Reel Asian. It was hilarious and I highly recommend it. Homestay takes on a kind of documentary/reality form as it blends fact and fiction. It’s about this Japanese student, Yasuki who comes to Vancouver and stays with Skeena Reese, a poet/comedian/singer/songwriter. Just as he arrives, Skeena is kicked out of her home, by her step dad.  Skeena takes Yasuki on the road to live off the land as she goes to learn about her Tsimshian ancestry. The communication in this film is really interesting and becomes very comedic as the audience is able to understand their conversations through subtitles, while they attempt to communicate but cannot understand each other. The film is charming and hilarious with moments of epiphany.

After having some time to view a selection of Japanese films that deal with the postwar Yakuza chaos, I have a few comments in late response to the topic that Jaime brought up on New Wave Cinema and the development of the Art Theatre Guild (ATG) in Japan and Jay’s discussion of the Yakuza film.

We are all aware of the problems that production companies were having around the world during the 1960s when television invaded the home space. The ATG was developed in Japan as a desperate means to lure audiences back to the cinema (I’m sure the “Pink Films” were quite a lure). The focus was on innovation and experimentation with exhibiting the problems and struggles of the individual. Director Akira Kurosawa tackled that theme with his various samurai epics such as the well-known Seven Samurai (1954) and Yojimbo (1961). Kurosawa depicts the wandering samurai of the nineteenth century as the noble outlaw. After social reforms in Japan around the 1860s, there was no longer an employment need of the honorable samurai defender. The samurai was forced to do whatever was necessary to earn his income based on what he was trained by his country to do – to kill. When under the employ of corrupt gamblers, the noble samurai becomes an assassin for the common criminal, and thus the outlaw is born. There is a direct linkage from the samurai film to the Yakuza film by how the protagonist is forced to become a criminal because of the drastic change in their society at the time. Both timelines also have links to the influence of western invasion.

If you haven’t seen Yojimbo or its sequel, Sanjuro (1962), check them out because it is clearly observable how they influenced the Western Clint Eastwood outlaw character just as Hidden Fortress (1958) influenced Star Wars (1977) (all Kurosawa films).

The ATG came in 1961, the same year Yojimbo was released and the wave of new film styles emerged depicting social outcasts as heroes to society. The ATG films reflected a lot of the postwar mentality of confusion and moral corruption as a result of the “liberation” by America. The search for one’s personal identity forced many to land into the loyalty of the Yakuza families. Kinji Fukasaku directed a number of films on postwar corruption in the Yakuza gangs including five volumes of Battles without Honor and Humanity (1973-74) and Graveyard of Honor (1975) and Yakuza Graveyard (1976). If you didn’t gather it from the titles, there is a common storyline to pledge ones body to the honor of the Yakuza, and then to the graveyard. I would say that Graveyard of Honor was the best out of all of them because it really went into depth about the problems that Japanese society faced following the reforms of the war. The third nations people living in Japan such as the Chinese, Koreans, and Taiwanese were suppressed by Japanese law prior to the war, but the American liberation gave them more freedom to roam on true Japanese territory and interfere with the Yakuza. There is a scene where feuding Yakuza and third nations gang members are arrested and imprisoned. A Japanese officer gives his key away and allows a full jailbreak for the Japanese Yakuza members. He tells them to regain order and reclaim “our” territory. This goes to show how corrupt the society was becoming when the upholders of the law were not doing their job, and it goes to show that forced social change does not come easy. The rights and freedoms of America do not always apply to those bound by their own honor and tradition. America just loves to mess around with the traditions of other countries with their “liberation”.

American liberation in Japan forced rebellion and many lost souls to take allegiance to honor in a Yakuza family. Like the wandering samurai, the Yakuza are left in a ruined postwar Japan wandering the black markets in search of a means to make a living. One can see the theme of the individual struggle at work here and the representation of harsh times in Japanese history. They serve as a critique to the social structures at the time and deconstruct moral values, not to mention a showcase of the contagious inhumanity through the countless murders and gang wars. Fukasaku’s films are based on the lives of actual Yakuza members of the late 1940s through the 50s. Certainly the most interesting aspect of the films, I found, is the portrayal of the Japanese psyche at the time and their senseless pledge to violence and a code of honor as a means to find personal identity in a ruined society.

Fast-forward thirty years and still on the subject of the Yakuza, (the ATG seemed to have accomplished its goal to bring moviegoers back to the cinema) modern director Takashi Miike deals with Yakuza on a whole new level, as Jay discussed with Ichi the Killer. Keeping with the ATG goals, Miike without a doubt brings innovation into Japanese cinema with some of the most explicit films ever made. Miike brings the corrupted psyche of the Yakuza member into the modern time where they are now completely psychotic instead of just merely misguided. Where Fukasaku focused on the Yakuza brutality forced by society, Miike focuses on brutality forced by revenge. Fudoh: The New Generation (1996) is a good example of revenge, brutality, and the Yakuza honor.
A Yakuza member is forced to take drastic action in order to prevent a gang war from erupting. In keeping with the honor code he presents the head of his eldest son to the rival families’ godfathers as a formal apology. Apology accepted, but not by his youngest son who witnessed the decapitation of his brother. The film focuses on the young boy growing up to put his foot in the Yakuza order to eliminate the “old blood” in retaliation and revenge for his murdered brother. One can observe how the theme of the individual struggle remains in place, but the humanity has taken a turn towards the large common interest in brutality, revenge, and gore in modern cinema by moviegoers around the world.

The road to economic recovery was tough for postwar Japan and I highly recommend checking out Fukasaku’s work for anyone unfamiliar. They portray the real problems faced by Yakuza at the time and serve to exhibit historical events in an innovative way. Takashi Miike’s films do not portray any historical significance but they deal with modern Yakuza in a somewhat surreal psychotic way basing many of the stories upon popular Japanese graphic manga novels. If you are a fan of Asia Shock cinema or love explicit images and subjects, then definitely check out Takashi Miike’s work.

Before taking this class my prior knowledge of Japanese cinema pretty much consisted of kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira and a number of other contemporary films.  However after viewing Suzuki’s Branded to Kill and then learning about the Yakuza films of the early post-war period through Logan’s excellent presentation, I thought I might look the study of a contemporary Yakuza film.  In this case I would like to discuss Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer, in regards to Branded to Kill to outline the representations of violence in contemporary Japanese media and also the growing consumption of violent imagery by the audience. 

            In Branded to Kill, Suzuki brilliantly takes the classical Japanese theme of the lone hero from the Samurai film and relates it to the hierarchal structure of the Yakuza. As Logan pointed out this can be seen as an allegory for the unfulfilled desires and efficiencies of the rising ‘salaryman’ demographic of the 1960’s. The aspect of being stuck in dead end job creates a sense of loss of freedom because of the societal need to conform to ‘your’ place within it, generating unrest.  In this film, the protagonist Hanada, is the hero of the story standing up against the administration. He is the no. 3 hitman in the Yakuza who desperately wants to be no. 1. This is a reflection of the ‘salaryman’s desire to climb to the top of the ladder, however in is this case and many others he is unable to do so because of the bureaucracy of the system. But instead of being complacent in his position and accepting death, Hanada chooses to fight back and take down the Yakuza, here enters the lone hero, who engages in violent battles to enforce his independence against the establishment. For Hanada, being a hitman literally becomes a dead end job, not matter how hard he fights against it he is eventually killed at the end.  This is an indication of the individual’s inability to take down the administration that is too big and faceless to be destroyed. A happy ending in this case would have defeated the purpose of the film.

            The 30 year difference between Branded to Kill and Ichi the Killer is blatantly apparent in the changes to the genre and the stylistic approaches. What can be characterized as ultra violence in Ichi the Killer is Miike’s envelope pushing of violence and consumption, this is portrayed through his representation of the duality between Sadism and Masochism. Ichi is the story of Kakihara’s (the protagonist) desire for pain. He is the lieutenant to Anjo, the boss of a powerful crime syndicate in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, their sadomasochist relationship with each other ends when and Anjo goes missing, this leaves Kakihara with no one to fulfill his desire for pain. Anjo has really been assassinated by Ichi, a post-pubescent male who is being controlled through hypnosis by the boss of another crime family, Jijii. The rest of the film consists of Kakihara searching for Anjo and killing and torturing anyone he suspects may be involved. Once he discovers that Anjo is dead, his search morphs into finding someone to replace Anjo and his sadist role. In essence Kakihara is a rootless killer, he acts only on the instinct to fulfill his desires. He has little respect for the hierarchal system and loyalty of the Yakuza, making him an outcast like that of Hanada, this is seen when he tortures a member of an allied syndicate with pleasure by suspending him by hooks through his flesh then going to work on him with needles and boiling oil. (Mes, p. 231)

            However Ichi is an even more rootless killer than Kakihara. Because he is being controlled through a post hypnotic suggestion by his boss, through this he has lost his identity completely. This hypnosis preys on Ichi’s immature sexual desires, where a false memory has been imprinted of a group of bullies raping a high school girl and while Ichi wants to intervene he is unable to but at the same time he is sexually excited at the violence and humiliation. The aspect that Jijii is able to identify Ichi’s victims as bullies and combine it with his sadist desires make him a powerful weapon. The way in which Jijii manipulates him is almost mechanical making it so that he hasn’t just lost his identity but his humanity as well. (p. 232) This is similar to Cure where the killer has no aspect of self and everything about him is outwardly portrayed, Ichi has no sense of self and is easily manipulated. One of the more interesting aspects of this character is the way that he is initially shown as a hero through his representation, he wears a padded leather suit with a logo and large ‘1’ on the back, (pronounced ‘ichi’ in Japanese). This is reminiscent of the superhero, and this how the audience identifies with him at first. However he does not follow the definition of a hero, he does no good deeds through his actions, his actions are not even his own, they are being controlled by Jijii and his intentions taking away any semblance of heroism. The viewer is then denied this identification with the character, when we think he is going to rescue the hooker from her pimp, at this point we come to the realization that he is merely a voyeur that gets off on seeing people in pain.

             Because of this denial of character, the viewer is forced to identify with the other, Kakihara. However this is a suitable connection with the audience, as we know Kakihara is a masochist, he takes pleasure from pain and worships violence. The audience is doing something similar in our consumption of the violent image, we readily take it in not unlike he does. (p. 235) In many cases throughout the film the graphic, explicit exaggerated representation of violence is meant to show the ridiculousness of it in a playful and darkly humourous ways. Although right after Miike does this he punishes us for reveling in the ‘playful’ violence by immediately juxtaposing these images with depictions of ‘painful’ violence. Such as after seeing Jijii slip and fall on the floor covered in blood and entrails the viewer is forced to sit through the beating and rape of a prostitute, which is farthest thing from playful. In these scenes he does not explicitly show violence like he does in the comedic scenes, instead Miike uses montage to make the viewer infer what happens the moment the camera cuts away. Because of this the viewer is forced to internalize the violence and make it our own by filling in the blanks in our head of what Miike doesn’t show us. “…Violence that is more painful and disturbing than anything Miike explicitly shows in the film because each individual viewer decides the intensity of it for himself.” (p. 237) In the final confrontation of the film, the fight between Ichi and Kakihara on a Shinjuku rooftop, the audience is expecting to see an epic, violent fight sequence. Kakihara is expecting the violent death he desires, however Ichi is injured by Kakihara’s soul surviving group member Kaneko, rendering him impotent to Kakihara’s masochistic desires. This is a very self reflexive scene in the film, the viewers becomes aware of its appetite for violence and then Miike denies it, much like he does to Kakihara.  

Both of these films represent the needs and desires of the outcast, one in the post war period, the other in contemporary Japan’s urban landscape. In Branded to Kill, Hanada represents his inability to move higher up in the social structure by indulging in his carnal desires, smelling boiling rice and lots of sex. However in Ichi the Killer these roles are reversed, Kakihara climbs the hierarchal structure, but only to satisfy his desires. Both films explicitly represent violence as a mode of survival in the Yakuza lifestyle, however is this violence justified? In Branded to Kill we never know the victims of Hanada, or why they are being killed, likewise in Ichi we never know why Jijii wants to destroy and humiliate Anjo’s clan. Even if the film is working to show us our own desire for violence can it ever really be justified if it reasonless and senseless?

Mes, Tom. Agitator. The Cinema of Takashi Miike. Fab Press; 2006.

Hello everyone,
My apologies on the semi tardiness of this posting however I wanted to ensure
that whatever I posted was concise and useful to anybody using the information
posted. I was originally going to just post my presentation notes however with
recent thoughts about the approaching essay and the nearing deadline I wanted
to produce an insightful base of scholarly readings and bibliographies that
would aid in those writing their final papers on Ghost in the Shell. However
the information and notes I’m going to post will not only be useful in research
and analysis of ghost in the shell but also in any facet of the anime form that
deals with post humanism, cyborgs, the post modern city, globalization, and
national identity. I have included a bibliography with a brief overview of what
the reading deals with and also notes on the important aspects of the above
mentioned themes and along with the appropriate citations. If have any
questions you can email me at maddhatter85@hotmail.com. Best of luck Jason
Paradis

Bibliography
Appadurai, Arjun. Globalization. Durham and London: Duke UP, 2001. 279-307.

I used this a brief guide to the concepts involved in globalization

Baudrillard, Jean, and Sheila Glaser. Simulacra and Simulation. 1st ed.
Michigan: Ann Arbor University of Michigan P, 1994. 1-41.

This is useful for the exploration of what is simulation and examples of it but
also for the furthering of the concept of empire.

Baudrillard, Jean. “The Ecstasy of Communication,” in Hal Foster, ed., The
Anti-Aes-
thetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture (Port Townsend: Bay, 1983) 127, 126.

This deals with communication in the information age and hows its evolved but
more precisely how its affecting us.

Brown, Steve T. Cinema Anime Critical Engagements with Japanese Animation. 1st
ed. New York, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. 12-104.

The first portion of notes is on this article- dealing mostly with what a cyborg
is and posthumanism as a concept

Cazdyn, Eric. The Flash of Capital Film and Geopolitics in Japan. Durham and
London: Duke UP, 2002. 204-254.

This is the second portion of the notes and was touched upon heavily in my
presentation – it deals with Ghost in the shell in terms of national identity
in the coming of globalization

Drazen, Patrick. Anime Explosion! the What? Why? & Wow! of Japanese Animation.
Berkley, California: Stone Bridge P, 2003. 3-341.

This was a work I consulted for the presentation to gain an informal background
on Ghost in the Shell

Frederic Jameson, Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 9, July, 1982, pp 147-158

This article deals with critical Eutopias and Distopias in science fiction and
science fictions ability as a genre to

Held, David, and Anthony McGrew. Globalization/Anti-Globalizati

on. Malden, MA:
Blackwell Inc., 2002. 25-38.

More information on globalization as a concept and also cultural implications in
regards to identity

Johnson, William. Focus on the Science Fiction Film. 1st ed. Englewood Cliffs,
New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1972. 139-142.

This is a discussion on humanism and its toes to science fiction as a genre and
its interaction with the survival of man in the face of alien invasion and the
onset of technology

Kellner, Douglas. Media Culture Cultural Studies, Identity and Politics Between
the Modern and Postmodern. London and New York: Routledge, 1995. 297-327.

This chapter deals with Baudrillard’s simulacra a and simulation, necromancer
and how they work to decode the cyberpunk genre.

Lungstrum, Janet Ward. “The Display Window: Designs and Desires of Weinmar
Consumerism”. New German Critique.76: (Winter 1999), 115-160

This article deals with modern to postmodern cities, commerce, consumption

Notes
Please note: I’ve posted these notes as a guide towards additional research and
sourcing for your research papers. If the notes presented are vague in anyway
and you’re unclear about the content then please consult the original source.
These are my summary of the these articles and are subject to error so please
enjoy but keep in mind that they aren’t to be taken as absolute truth but
rather a launch pad to help deepen the research for your papers (if they tie in
to you subject that is ).
Cinema Anime
Pg 11
•       Human machine hybrids in relation to changing visions of the city, cyborg
politics and the transgression of boundaries associated with the liberal
humanist subject, and the role of technology in the negotiation and formation
of adolescent identity.
•       Exploring how humans envision their relationship to technology and the
physical environment they inhabit, examining the history of modes of
subjectivity emerging from various historical junctures.
•       Changes in city can be seen as equal to changes in human embodiment
Pg 92-95
•       Ghost in the Shell is about cyborg subjectivity and how they reproduce
•       What sense does a cyborg species have historical continuity into the future?
•       Sexual reproduction is at the heart of this film- however the main character
Motoko’s body is completely mechanical and doesn’t have any organic fluids,
blood etc.
•       However the opening sequence reveals that the main character still seems to
have the residual effects of human bodily systems- the opening reference to
Motoko having static in her net connection due to her being on her period
•       This film is also about technological negotiated merging the organic or the
“human” with the inorganic structures of urban life
•       The ‘ghost’ is all that distinguishes the cyborg/human from being a pure
android or AI
•       The puppet master was originally a computer program that becomes sentient and
is then forced by its makers to abandon the net (where he was birthed amidst
the sea of information) and enter a manufactured cyborg body from the same
company that created Motoko’s shell
•       This character hacks into users ghosts when they access the net and takes
control of them forcing them to commit acts of terrorism
•       Kusanagi watches as the garbage collector (who is a victim of the puppet
masters ghost hacking) is informed in interrogation that all that he knows and
holds dear in his life is actually an artificially implanted identity
•       This ultimately leads to Motoko questioning the authenticity of her own ghost-
is everything she knows (or he feeling of existence) also artificial
•       Pg96Director Mamoru Oshii’s mise en scene: There is a linkage of bodies and
consciousness through the networks that are intrinsic to urban life- computer
networks, phones, garbage collection routes in the city act as the backdrop as
Kusangi ponders her existence. This visually underscores the link between
cyborg evolution and the city; information. Technology constitutes the city.
•       Here the author presents Frederic Jameson’s concept of Schizophrenic
temporality which suggests all times past and present collapsed together in
historical references. This is used to explain the cityscape in blade runner
and its varied historical, cultural and technological references combined
together into an altogether new urban identity that’s neither past present and
future but all at the same time.
•       Chapter 6 – the Animatrix Pg 113
•       The Animatrix can be read as a metaphor for the complex and reciprocal
relationship between anime and global culture in general
•       Pg 114 The Animatrix, explores/celebrates rather than resists the liberatory
possibilities and the positive consequences of post human life, cyborg
politics, and the transgression of the boundaries of the human form. At times,
in spite of the man versus machine theme that carries though out the collection
of shorts, to celebrate the idea of post human linkages between human/nonhuman
and revel in placing “human” in quotation marks.
•       Animatrix is seen in the genre of mecha anime, with its often complex and
ambivalent attitudes towards human- machine hybridism
•       Why anime lends itself more openly towards a positive representation of the
post human;
•       Pg 115 Hayles argues; our concept of the post human depends upon a conception
of reality that treats the material world as a vessel that contains information
while it remains distinct from that information. The human body is this seen as
a material form that embodies, yet remains separate from its informational
“context”. This gap in info and material allows is to conceive of ourselves as
informational patterns that could be embodied in a wide variety of material
contexts.
•       “posthuman” often found in relation to postmodern, post capitalism, post
gender and so on. Often equated with the term “cyborg” a category part
human/machine. It exists in liminal space between nature and technology
•       Posthuman is more than simply fusing organic and mechanical materials. Post
humanism refers to an entirely new way of thinking about humans and the
widespread cultural embrace of an emergent set of paradigms and philosophical
assumptions about our very existence itself
•       Thus Hayle’s defines post humanism as a process of, “envisioning humans as
information-processing machines with fundamental similarities to other kinds of
information- processing machines especially intelligent computers. Because of
how information has been defined, many people hold this view tends to put
materially on one side of a divide and information on the other side, making it
possible to think of information as a kind of immaterial fluid that circulates
effortlessly around the globe while still retaining the solidarity of a reified
concept.”
•       Pg 116 Posthumanism means assuming humans primarily consist of information
that has been embodied in material form, a premise that also rests on the
assumptions that information can be transferred from one medium to another
while still remaining intact. This concept was a post WWII concept
•       We are made of information that resides in a given material context operates
on the basic premise that enables is to experience more overt instances of
human-machine interfacing both real and imagined as something plausible
•       Complex patterns of DNA in all living tissue constitutes “code” or “blueprint”
of life- proof of ideas’ naturalization in society
•       Cyborg emerges and can only inhabit a world where distinction between
physicality and non physicality, between what is real and simulated has become
blurred
•       Pg 117 Cyborgs, humans and all hybrids that inhabit cyberpunk, mecha and
science fiction, work as metaphor for our collective anxieties, hopes and
expectations concerning the posthuman condition
•       See posthumanism as cultural shift in what we view the human “body” and
“humanity” itself. Thus post human bodies represent our fears/anxieties of
what’s to become of us as posthumans-usually (in anime) results in mixture of
power and control, dominance and submission, empowerment and alienation.
•       The Matrix- those who actually live in the matrix live in artificial amniotic
pods and who have their entire experience fed to them though direct neural
linkages – the ultimate example of how a disembodied consciousness could be
enslaved and completely controlled by the ruling powers in society. Those who
escape realize the world constitutes itself on information and can in turn
manipulate the construct. Therefore the hope that post humanism will also allow
us super or post human abilities- transcend the limitations of physical body
•       Pg 118& 119 Animatrix’s view on man versus machine shows humans as unfit to
run things- as aggressor- however its ambiguous in its views sometimes
•       Pg 120 Renaissance Part 1 and 2
•       The narrative of the progression of the war between humans and machine exposes
humans being in fault was that it had become inhumane- not that it had pushed
science beyond the natural realm. Machines are seen as much more “human” than
the humans they are struggling against. The humans are also exposed to be at
fault for not showing compassion for the sentient beings
•       Pg 121 Images of massacre act as disturbing reminder of historical atrocities
– genocides and mass human extermination. This elicits sympathy for machines by
making them human and the humans inhumane
•       01 is the nation that machines create after being thrown into exile by the
forces of man. 01 as a nation takes form and the UN goes to war after it’s
unable to compete economically with the machine or come to any peaceful
negotiation.
•       Pg 122 – The simulated reality of the matrix and humans whose projected
consciousness inhabit it as a metaphor that captures the experience of post
humanism (split between the embodiment of the material reality and information
and the experience of reality as information), then the live action films
appear to take a rather strong stand against this phenomenon
•       Pg 125 The Animatrix’s ambivalent attitude towards post humanism; the
Animatrix thus ends with the message that humans and sentient machines are
really two variations of the same type of machine because we understand that
their consciousness is made of data
•       The problem seems to lie in the fact that humans have created thinking
machines but in fact we cannot realize that we are also thinking machines. This
is a general theme of trend through all 9 mini anime features.
•       Pg 133 “in all of these scenes that depict corporeal embodiment as a crisis,
we see an exaggeration of anime’s inherent tendency to highlight the gap
between characters as idea and character as physical manifestations on the
screen- this allows an amplification of the abstraction that can be achieved
with each character.
Geopolitics: VI rereading canon, body, geopolitics (242-254)
•       Ghost in the shell is clearly about the body and subjectivity. The question
asked is what is an I and how may I exceed this category?
•       This film is an allegory of the break up of the nation. I is to ‘cyborg’ as
nation is to the ‘global’
•       The puppet master has no physical body (initially) however Motoko’s body is a
cyborg shell manufactured by a corporation – the whole question throughout her
journey in the film seems to be whether her ghost is original or merely a
corporate creation. She is in search for the puppet master so she manage her
own doubts on her identity
•       There seems to be a lack of understanding of ourselves as national subjects
•       Globalization forcing Japan at that current time and place to question its own
authenticity as a nation. Culturally
•       Nation is the agent though which self, other and world are known
•       New global order has emerged coined as empire. Relies on global monetary
systems, new global policing and military forms, and a new flexible and global
network of communications, Empire has become the political subject that
regulates the global market and global circuits of production
•       Empire is not bound by limits of time and space or any linear definition
•       Empire is one of the more ambitious and productive conceptualizations of
globalism
•       It produces the concept of globalization and its entire set of requisites;
juridical, philosophical, cultural, economic, corporeal, and social categories
•       Globalization promotes change, a change which the nation state is intent to
resist
•       Capitalism could only recuperate by changing its mode of organization- hence
the shift to globalization
•       Globalization has equated to more corporate mobility and power but also the
weakening of power of the nation state
•       With these trans-global corporations comes the exportation of the cultural
industry (via mass media and production) and with this its attached set of
cultural codes of cultural identity or global western identity
•       Berrida’s concept of the specter- a way of thinking out way out of pitfalls of
everyday life and existence and that we must search for alternate ways to
organize our lives
•       For Ghost in the Shell the specter rattles for the global, for empire and for
something beyond the assemblage of nations
•       This is in response to the early 90’s growth in neo nationalist sentiments in
Japan after the bursting of the economic bubble
•       Break up of the individual as a desire to express the break up of the nation,
a desire that still cannot be seen
•       Allegory for how individual and biological events are simultaneously social
and political events. They ask us to make the impossible connections between
these elements
•       They are attempting to articulate socially and politically a statement about
contemporary global cultural codes during a time when the ideas surrounding
these subjects were very vague
“In the near future, corporate networks reach out to the stars, electrons and
stars flow throughout the universe. The advance of computerization, however has
not yet wiped out nations and ethnic groups”
•       ‘Nation’ as an ideology has yet to be wiped out. Although political economy
exceeds the nation, culture and ideology are still deeply rooted in it. This
uneven development is pressed throughout the work but most acutely in the
narrative line of subjectivity.
•       Characters have exceeded the human body but still are rooted in culture. A
residual human persists in its present cyborgian self; the technology of the
body has developed more quickly than the ideology on the body.