There is a fine line between keeping things simple and over-explaining them, and it is a moveable and permeable barrier. What might seem clear to one person is opaque to the next, and vice versa.  I bring up this vague, but hopefully explanatory, truism in connection with today’s film, Ghost in the Shell (2017).  It is based on the original, 1995 Japanese animation (known more familiarly as Anime) version.  Already, there may be some of you who will say that I have drifted into the verbose.  With apologies, I see it as illustrating what I think is the fundamental difference between the two.  In the main, they are pretty similar, with the more recent iteration being embellished and having a different ending.  This brings up an age-old question about re-imaginings or retellings, or whatever it is you want to call them: why can they not be more like their forerunner?  There was a time in my life when I would have been on the side of those who complain about these deviations from the source material.  The older I get, the less this bothers me.

The 2017 Ghost in the Shell immediately departs from its predecessor by giving you a clue that the main character, Major Mira Killian (Scarlett Johansson), had a life before she became a cyborg.  We see through her bleary eyes her being wheeled into a hospital setting, and groggily hearing that her brain function is still good after whatever previous accident had befallen her.  It is that gray matter between the ears that is implanted into a robotic body.  This process is overseen by Project 2571 lead scientist, Dr. Ouelet (Juliette Binoche), and the head of Hanka Robotics, Cutter (Peter Ferdinando).  Dr. Ouelet takes a more motherly approach to her new creation, whereas Cutter looks upon Major (this is how they refer to Major Mira Killian throughout, thus so will I) as a weapon.  Thus, she is assigned to the newly formed Section 9, an anti-terrorism police force headed by Chief Daisuke Aramaki (Takeshi Kitano).  It is in this role that we next see Major, taking part in a Section 9 operation assigned to protect against a possible attack on a Hanka meeting.  During it, a robotic geisha grabs a high-level corporate official and attempts to hack into his mind.  Major stops this from happening before it can get too far, and the automaton is brought back to Section 9 headquarters.  During the mission, Major’s body is damaged, prompting a visit to Dr. Ouelet.  While there, Major admits to having glitches and hallucinations, indicating that there is something about her past that is still affecting her.  Her search for answers leads her to where they are dismantling the artificial geisha.  Against protocol, she makes the decision to dive into the geisha’s computer despite the risk of becoming infected by the entity that had corrupted it in the first place.  It does attempt to latch on to her, but she is saved by her partner, Batou (Pilou Asbæk).  She is able to find their enemy’s location, leading them to a club controlled by the yakuza, but it turns into a trap.  Meanwhile, their target accesses Section 9, looking for information on Project 2571.  When it does not get all the answers for which it is looking, it next targets Dr. Ouelet.  Batou and Major arrive in time to save the scientist, and they take one of the accomplices into custody.  The would-be assassin turns out to be another puppet for Kuze (Michael Carmen Pitt), the mysterious cyborg’s nom de guerre, and he is seeking vengeance against Hanka.  He is also drawn to Major, and getting to the bottom of why this is the case continues to drive her.  While questioning Kuze’s unwitting slave, Section 9 again gets a fix on his location.  This time, Major comes face-to-face with her adversary, and he tells her that she is not as unique as she previously thought.  He claims that she is just the latest in a string of lives Cutter has used in order to push forward the next step in cybernetically enhanced humans.  He had been one of their earlier attempts, but was deemed too violent and disposed of, but had escaped.  Aside from revenge, he wants to know what Cutter stole from him.  These revelations cause Major to go rogue, finding Dr. Ouelet to get answers.  Fearing that she knows too much, Cutter labels her a terrorist, claiming Kuze corruption, and has Section 9 go after Major.  It is Batou that finds her, but she comes in of her own accord.  Cutter orders Dr. Ouelet to terminate Major, but the scientist instead gives Major a clue to her real identity before helping her creation escape.  In response, Cutter kills Dr. Ouelet.  As for Major, one of the leads she is given takes her to an apartment where she meets Hairi (Kaori Momoi).  Hairi talks of a daughter she once had who ran away from home to fight for the cause of anti-technology.  Much of Hairi’s home, including stuff in her daughter’s room, bumps up against stray memories for Major.  In any case, it all points to Cutter being responsible for some terrible crimes.  When the executive finds that he cannot rely on Section 9’s cooperation, he attempts, and fails, to kill Chief Aramaki and the rest of his team.  Meanwhile, Major arranges to meet Kuze at a sight associated with how she became a cyborg.  Cutter sends a tank there to destroy her and Kuze.  It takes Major jumping on top of the mechanical beast and tearing apart her synthetic body to stop it from killing them.  Her broken parts lay for a moment next to Kuze, who offers for her to come with him into a separate network he had made for himself.  She declines, saying there is more work to do in the real world.  A large part of that is taken care of by Chief Aramaki and the rest when he takes down Cutter, killing the corporate stooge with Major’s consent.  She then goes back to anti-terrorism work, and this is where we conclude.

At the end of the 1995 installment of Ghost in the Shell, Major Kusanagi (voiced by Mimi Woods) mind-melds (for lack of a better term) with the Kuze equivalent, known as the Puppet Master (voiced by Tom Wyner).  This is a stranger ending than the 2017 version, but more open-ended, which speaks to the over-complication I mentioned in the introduction.  What they share in common, though it is less explored in the modern update, is the notion of the soul surviving in a body composed of circuits and metal.  Nonetheless, we have in today’s film some interesting things said from a Catholic perspective on the periphery of this notion.  The central question is what makes us human?  The answer seems to be our souls, and that is a statement with which I can agree.  Where it gets murkier is in who creates that humanity.  Another place the film agrees with Catholic teaching is on the subject of memory.  Dr. Ouelet points out the error in thinking that it is our memories that define us.  Instead, it is our actions.  Indeed, it is what we do that determines how we have a relationship with God, and it is only through Him that that we can truly know ourselves.  The mistake Dr. Ouelet makes is in the purpose of these actions.  Yes, God gives us free will.  In this sense, it is up to us to orient ourselves towards God and thus gain those valuable insights into ourselves.  Doing right and being a good person are all well-and-good, and it would be fantastic if everyone strived to do so.  Faith calls us to something more, something deeper, and it is the final stage of our human evolution, to borrow the parlance of the movie.

The first time I saw this version of Ghost in the Shell, I confess I was a little bored.  I did not have that same experience the second time.  As mentioned in the introduction, this could be another sign of old age, though I like to think of it as maturity.  Speaking of that word, this one can be seen by less mature audiences in terms of the fewer nude scenes it has when compared to its forerunner.  To simultaneously cause less and more scandal, I recommend this one over the original because of its wider appeal.