Unmasking the Ghost In The Shell: Orientalism's Phantom Pains in Film Adaptation

As a film enthusiast and past student of many film classes here at OPRF, the art of adapting a film to a new time period, stylistic direction, or audience seems equal parts intimidating intriguing. The director's task of competently utilizing a remake's source material while also attempting to give the film a distinctive identity is a daunting game of balance. Remaking a film, in short, is an artistic, risk-versus-reward question that only the director can answer. While critics oftentimes consider a bad remake to be a poor or inaccurate reflection of the original source material, accuracy, to me, should be the last thing that any filmgoer should look for in a film adaptation - the first thing they should see is a competently made film.

The current stigma of Western filmmakers warping or "Westernizing" any source material originating from the East, while still relevant, is grossly misinterpreted and decontextualized to a point where the film itself loses relevance in the controversy. Note that when I talk about "Westernized" films, I'm not referring to movies that depict Eastern culture in a traditional, bleak manner, like The Great Wall (2017) or arguably the Karate Kid film series, but movies that seek to adapt films of Eastern origin or with strong Eastern influence, such as The Last Airbender (2010) or live action adaptations of Japanese manga series. These two approaches to bringing Eastern media or elements overseas, despite seeming similar in the context of the definition of Orientalism, are distinct from one another. As the former's target material for adaptation is Eastern culture as a whole movies of its type can easily be classified as reinforcing Orientalist mindsets, usually the result of the filmmaker lacking a sufficient, multi-cultural background to properly portray the East within its own context. On the other hand, the former has the capability and excuse to tamper with elements of its source material to satisfy the filmmaker's style or artistic view. Such changes, in my opinion, cannot and should not be association with the perpetuation of Orientalist portrayals of the East, as they tamper with how a piece of media should be adapted and not an entire culture. Film adaptations should not be targeted as appropriations of the region of origin's source material, but as strong or weak films.

The biggest example of this idea as of late is the upcoming film Ghost In The Shell, which adapts a Japanese manga that was previously adapted as one of the most successful anime films ever made. One of the major controversies surrounding the release of the film's first trailer was the casting of Scarlett Johansson as The Major, a character who many critics thought should be best portrayed by an actor of Japanese descent, as it was heavily implied that the manga version of the character was Japanese. Johansson and director Rupert Sanders were effectively being accused of white-washing the character of The Major and, to an extent, the beloved story of the Ghost In The Shell manga. However, this controversy has recently become an open-and-shut case in favor of the director's artistic view on the source material -  straight from the mouth of the original anime film's director, Mamoru Oshii. In an email interview with IGN, he stated his belief that Johansson was chosen not with an Orientalist intent, but because she was simply the best possible actress for the role. According to him, "[i]n the movies, John Wayne can play Genghis Khan, and Omar Sharif, an Arab, can play Doctor Zhivago, a Slav. It's all just cinematic conventions...If that's not allowed, then Darth Vader probably shouldn’t speak English, either ... I can only sense a political motive from the people opposing it, and I believe artistic expression must be free from politics." To sum up, Rupert Sanders was essentially passed down the torch to adapt the next film adaptation of the Ghost in the Shell franchise with whatever creative liberties he sees fit. Film adaptation is a transformative art, and the dangers of associating ideas like Orientalism with creative freedom, while not paranoid, risk severely limiting the adaptation process. As stated by Oshii, "[i]f this is to be a remake of the anime, I don't think it's necessary to remain faithful to the way things were expressed in the anime. The director should exercise his directorial freedom as much as possible. If he doesn't do so, there would be no point in remaking it."