‘Ghost in the Shell’ Is Finally Hitting North America IMAX Screens
Get ready, animation fans. The 1995 cult classic anime film Ghost in the Shell is coming to the big screen. IMAX theaters across the country will soon be showing a 4K remastered version of the cyberpunk hit. The new format promises to expose never-before-seen aspects of the film, enhancing the nuances of the vibrant anime characters. Advanced technology gives filmmakers the unique opportunity to bring the film to life how it was meant to be seen.
The history of ‘Ghost in the Shell’
The original storyline for Ghost in the Shell came from the manga of Masamune Shirow. Since its inception, the comic book tale has been transposed to theatrical anime movies, animated television series, and numerous video games. According to Comicbook, the most recent version of the story is told in the Netflix television series Ghost In The Shell: SAC_2045.
In 1995, acclaimed director Mamoru Oshii created a highly successful film, attracting an audience of countless anime fans. The futuristic sci-fi thriller, based in 2029, features Major Motoko Kusanagi, an elite cyborg police officer who pursues a mysterious cyber criminal called the Puppet Master.
Newsweek claims the anime classic is “often heralded as one of the best in the genre.” The remastered version of Oshii’s 1995 vision will be released simultaneously in the U.S. and Japan in an exclusive IMAX format.
Remastered for North American theaters
The legendary anime film has been remastered in 4K for a North American IMAX theatrical release on September 17, 2021. Nerdist claims the Ghost in the Shell anime film is “perfect for the enhanced IMAX viewing experience.” They explained how the images have been reformatted to a “high degree of accuracy in every detail, including sound, brightness, and contrast using IMAX’s image processing technology.”
Anime enthusiasts will be thrilled to discover new information that was “lying dormant in the original 35mm film, which could not be reproduced with the technology used at the time of its release.”
The enhanced 4K resolution brought to the big screen by Lionsgate will captivate audiences, telling the story of Ghost in the Shell in a whole new way.
Controversy surrounding the live action adaptation
According to IMDb, actor Scarlett Johansson, of Black Widow fame, starred in a 2017 live-action remake of Ghost in the Shell. Controversy surrounded the film, as viewers accused producers of whitewashing Johansson’s character. In an interview with IGN, Oshii claimed she was “the best possible choice” for the character and that there was “no basis for saying that an Asian actor must portray her.” The director defended the casting decision, saying the main protagonist is a cyborg, making the question of whitewashing irrelevant.
The Japanese director continued, saying, Rupert Sanders, the director of the live-action adaptation, does not have to “remain faithful to the way things were expressed in the anime.” He pointed out that it would be pointless to remake the film if Sanders didn’t “exercise his directorial freedom.”
In the end, viewers preferred Oshii’s take on Ghost in the Shell. Rotten Tomatoes gave the 1995 classic a 96 percent score on the Tomatometer. In contrast, the film starring Johansson received a mere 43 percent, with the Rotten Tomatoes critic consensus being that it lacked “the magic of the movie’s classic source material.”
Several older animations have found their way into North American theaters, such as Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away and Koyoharu’s Gotoge’s Demon Slayer: Mugen Train. Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas animation is a movie that has received profound accolades. If the success of these films is any indication, the IMAX release of Ghost in the Shell should prove to be a significant box office hit.
RELATED: Scarlett Johansson’s ‘Ghost in the Shell’: Everything We Know So Far
Related post url:
