Ghost In The Shell: Vital remake or total whitewash?

With its huge budget, A-list cast, and Manga heritage, you might think the live-action Hollywood reboot of Anime classic Ghost In The Shell is a sure-fire cinema hit.

But since the film's announcement, there have been murmurs of disquiet. Some fans questioned the need for a remake of such a seminal original, and Hollywood's patchy record adapting Manga (Dragonball: Evolution, external anyone?) can't have helped allay their worries.

It was the announcement of Scarlett Johansson in the lead role, though, that gave the film more serious image problems, external, with many citing her casting as yet another example of Hollywood 'whitewashing'. A petition entitled Stop Whitewashing Asian Characters, external was set up shortly after the casting announcement in 2015. It asked a simple question.

"The original film is set in Japan, and the major cast members are Japanese. So why would the American remake star a white actress? The industry is already unfriendly to Asian actors without roles in major films being changed to exclude them."

As you can tell from the petition's title, this wasn't the first instance of Asian characters being played by caucasian actors. The practice has a long lineage - including notable offensive examples like Mickey Rooney in Breakfast At Tiffany's, external- but a few recent instances have reignited the issue.

Tilda Swinton's casting as Doctor Strange character The Ancient One - originally a mystic from the Himalayas - even led some to suggest ditching 'whitewashing' in favour of a more striking term: 'yellowface'.

Matt Damon's role in The Great Wall also proved problematic, with the blog Angry Asian Man, external describing it as "The latest movie in the grand cinematic tradition of the Special White Person."

So when rumours began that Paramount had tested post-production effects that would make characters in Ghost In The Shell appear 'more Asian', this did little to reassure critics that the film-makers had minority representation on their radar.

Since its difficulties began, various parties have weighed in to defend GITS - one, perhaps predictably, being Stephen Paul, one of the film's producers:

Hollywood producer and screenwriter Max Landis told critics to blame the complex politics, external and algorithms that underpin Hollywood funding models for the decision, and the publishers of the original Manga were naturally pleased that such a bankable US star has been cast: "She has the cyberpunk feel. And we never imagined it would be a Japanese actress in the first place. This is a chance for a Japanese property to be seen around the world.”

The director of the original 1995 Anime version was also supportive of the choice, external of Johansson.

But with studies still finding a " vast underrepresentation of racial/ethnic minority groups, external" on screen, and despite the prominence and momentum of campaigns like #OscarsSoWhite, many see this as a further glimpse of systemic racial discrimination that keeps Asian actors struggling for visibility.

What do the experts think?

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Pilou Asbæk, Takeshi Kitano, Juliette Binoche, Michael Pitt

The Lowdown

A big-budget sci-fi flick combining futuristic, crime-fighting robots and mind-hacking terrorists. Scarlett Johansson plays Major, a crime-fighting human-turned-cyborg, her body unwittingly modified after a terrible car accident.

Who's it for?

As we said above, fans of the original might struggle with the Hollywood sheen that's been added, and evidently the plot has changed in places. But sci-fi buffs who value a dystopian aesthetic and can't wait for Blade Runner 2049 might get their fix here.

What do the experts reckon?

"Ghost In The Shell is bland, soulless garbage. It’s occasionally pretty, bland, soulless garbage, mind you, in a cyberpunk sort of way." Polygon, external

"Ghost in the Shell is a solid film made on a broken foundation. Maybe this is the movie that needed to be made so the backlash would help Hollywood question the kinds of cross-cultural adaptations it can make." The Verge, external

"It is a spectacular movie, watchable in its way, but one which ... sacrifices that aspect from the original which over 20 years has won it its hardcore of fans: the opaque cult mystery, which this film is determined to solve and to develop into a resolution, closed yet franchisable." The Guardian, external

Worth seeing?

It's evidently a spectacular watch, so if you're not bothered by the politics around the film's cast, you could do worse.

Originally published 31 March 2017