#ign interview? mentally blocked it out

[zahra-hydris]

enjoying bg3 by ignoring everything larian says about the characters outside of the game

[byakuyasbastardson]

Thoughts on Ghost in The Shell...

I went and saw Ghost in The Shell today because as a fan of the original movie I was very interested to see this take on the series and to form my own opinions. My opinion is that, well, it was treated very unfairly by the public. Many folks, especially on here will disagree with me, some will say I don’t “get it” because I’m white, some will tell me to shut up, some will try to silence me saying “stop talking now”, some of you will un-follow me (i won’t hold it against you), some will block me, some will ask if I voted for Trump, some will call me racist. I get that, and you’re welcome to think what you want. But if you have an open mind...

First, as a film, it was totally fine. Enjoyable to watch with great acting, shots, cuts. The CGI was some of the best I’ve seen. The action scenes were amazing and thrilling, they new how to keeo your attention and heart pumping, mixed with the score. It was great to hear the original score during the credits. Critics have slammed it and they are probably correct in may aspects I’m not a film major or critic. But I think it was no terrible, maybe a 7/10 which is pretty decent for films.

Look, I will be quick to call something out for white washing. Netflix’s Death Note: WHITE WASHING..or in L’s case Black Washing??? but I doubt that drew too much criticism because POC in a lead role, which is awesome...but not here. Exodus Gods and Kings: WHITE WASHING, ATLAB LA: White Washing, and the Michael Jackson biopic where they cast a white actor to play MJ: WHITE WASHING. These are all cases of White Washing in films and it happens in television too. But in this case in the casting and portrayal of The Major I don’t think is white washing. That is not to say that I would not have preferred a Japanese actress to play her, but it didn’t happen. The reason I do not think it’s White Washing is because of 2 questions: 1. Do Robots/Androids have a race? 2. Does Race go beyond skin color, meaning is it a mental thing? The answers to these questions are hard to find, they are. Robots’ “skin” can be easily changed, if you take a “white” “skinned” robot and replace it with “black” “skin” is it now Black? It’s programming hasn’t changed, it’s still acting as it did when it looked white. Which leads us into the second question, does race go beyond skin color? We take this robot and reprogram it to “act” black, “speak” black, dress “black” is it now Black? It’s skin looks it, it speaks, acts, and dresses like black people.  The simple answer is “no” and I’d be called a racist. You’d also say that this is a robot not a human mind, so let’s take the human mind. In this film, Motoko Kusanagi was a *SPOILER ALERT*  Japanese girl who was kidnapped by an evil corporation and had her brain put into a white looking robot. They program false memories into her to think she’s a refugee coming to Japan and her name was (what sounded like) Miranda Killian which could be and sounds like a white name, and she believed it. *END SPOILERS* Does this mean that she was“White” since her mind believed this past? Which means in a world as ours where we know you can be born into the wrong sex, is it possible to be born into the wrong race? Can an Asian person honestly believe that they should be white? or Black? The general answer is “no because race is defined by skin color” and they'd probably be called racist or a cultural appropriator, especially if this person was white. These questions are hard to answer, and they lead to more complex answers. For me, we are one race: Humans, skin color or “race” is just a way to divide us up into groups, and robots don’t have a “race” if anything, they are their own race. But since Matoko is a human mind in a robot body this becomes impossible to answer.

Motoko looked like this in the Original GITS Movie:

She doesn’t look Japanese to me.

But as you’ll see in the various reiterations of her:

She does look like a Japanese woman. But this film isn’t based around the revivals and reiterations, it’s based around the original. Which is why based on looks, I don’t think it’s exactly White Washing and as the original creator said when asked about it in an email with IGN; “What issue could there possibly be with casting her? “The Major is a cyborg and her physical form is an entirely assumed one. The name 'Motoko Kusanagi' and her current body are not her original name and body, so there is no basis for saying that an Asian actress must portray her. Even if her original body (presuming such a thing existed) were a Japanese one, that would still apply.” Also when you look her up, the various wikis never make mention of her having a race.

Which brings up another question, Does it matter if they cast a Chinese or Korean actress? Would that have solved the problem? Does it matter which Asian heritage the actress is? Or what about a series like Attack on Titan or Fullmetal Alchemist, these films were filmed and being filmed with an all Japanese cast but we know that in Attack on Titan there is only 1 Asian person in the whole series being Mikasa. Am I allowed to be upset by this? In Fullmetal Alchemist we know that it’s a fictional land based around Central Europe mostly German heritage and culture. The land of Xing is based around China. Am I allowed to be upset that the whole cast is Japanese? The answer to these is “No and I should shut up, because the Japanese film industry is basically all Japanese with some other Asian cultures here and there” I’d be very surprised to find a white actor or actress in Japans film industry. But now what if Hollywood got the rights to both these films to make adaptations and they cast the cast according to what we know of the series. Ed, Eren, Col. Mustang, Winry, Riza, Jean, Armin, all being white, while Mikasa and Lin Yao were Asian. Would the same people calling upset over Ghost in the Shell call these adaptations White Washing? Does this mean that just because these are Japanese properties they MUST be played by Japnese actors even if we know the characters are not Japanese or even Asian? Or another question, is it White washing that the voices of the three main protagonist and two main antagonist in Kubo and the Two Strings were voiced by white actors even though it takes place in Japan? There was no controversy about that film. These are all questions that must be answered, but it’s difficult to do so if not impossible.

Due to how terribly this film is doing due to this controversy and it not being reviewed well, it’ll make producers less likely to attempt Live Action adaptations of Anime films, and if they do it will not be on an budget of this scale (110 million), and it also means less opportunity for Asian actors to get lead roles because the production companies will feel they have to “drive” ticket sales. I talked about Exodus, when it was coming out it was dogged by white washing claims that were correct, and when asked about it, Director Ridley Scott said in an interview to Variety; “ I can’t mount a film of this budget, where I have to rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such. I’m just not going to get it financed.” It’s a terrible terrible quote and horribly worded but he’s been in the business and he might unfortunately be right. The actors and directors in Hollywood may be very very liberal but it’s still a racist place and especially when dealing with filming in other countries. But yes, we do NEED to change this and it will take one brave person to cast an Asian or Japanese person.

So in my opinion, should Motoko Kusanagi have been played by a Japanese actress? Absolutely! Would I have liked her/preferred her to be played by a Japanese actress? Yes, of course! Is this White Washing? No.