Not surprisingly the translation of Ghost into the English language version is very adequate. There are a few voices that sound remarkably like Don Knotts and Casey Kasem. The actor who voices Motoko, Mimi Woods, is very believable and satisfactorily appealing. She is able to convey a detached emotionalism and yet at the same time add a hint of melancholy that makes her sympathetic. It also doesn't hurt to see a cyborg go scuba diving in a frog suit as a means of meditating. The film's sound design is very even and well balanced.

Motoko, the main character in Ghost in the Shell. © Manga Entertainment.	The surreal vision of director, Masamune Shirow. © Manga Entertainment.

In an attempt to broaden the film's appeal in the West, the producers commissioned Brian Eno and U2 to contribute a tune which turns up over the end credit crawl. The original soundtrack was composed and performed by Kenji Kawai. And I recommend you purchase the CD--pricey since it is an import, but what a treat. Throughout the film there are transitional scenes that are several minutes long and linger on: rain falling on city streets or a passing barge floating a consumer product advertisement or naked mannequins waiting to be dressed in a showroom window. Over these visuals pound the eerie percussion and meditative synthesized keyboards that inspire you to sit back and float away as you are lured into a cinematic hallucinogenic. Here the use of traditional native music is embraced and the original soundtrack features 11 tracks that echo a spiritual and transcendental awareness or desire. Interestingly, the Eno/U2 cut does not appear on the Japanese soundtrack.

The Puppet Master
For clarity sake, 'Ghost' is the term used for the stored memories, real and manufactured, that are placed in cyborg machinery to make them more human. 'Shell' are the bodies the machinery are housed in. The main plot is about a program titled 2501 "The Puppet Master" designed to hack into foreign network systems for the use of manipulation for economic or military advantage. When the program begins to develop its own sense of self, it designs a hugely elaborate plan to free itself from its originators and create a new, more advanced species that do not require any human limitations ultimately. When the agency responsible for the Puppet Master tries to retrieve the wayward program by any means necessary, the Security Police get involved with Motoko taking the lead. In the end, all the characters fighting each other, or fighting to defeat the presumed enemy, were all puppets under the Puppet Master. The program manipulated its way through various individuals one at a time until the final outcome was achieved. When the merging of The Puppet Master and Motoko is completed, the new individual stands overlooking a huge metropolis like a virus about to be released into a computer hard drive and all hard drives connected to it.

It is a not too happy an ending. The evolution of man rests in man's ability to overcome limitations. And the survival of man rests in man's ability to limit his hunger for evolution. It is a genetic program for man to move forward. But whether technology holds the key to the future of man, the question remains to what outcome. As the cyborgs in Ghost are tormented about their destinies, so humans face the same predicament. If we are in fact masters of our own destiny, why are there so many lost souls struggling to find their way amidst a sea of limitations?

John R. Dilworth is a New York based independent filmmaker whose recent short animated film, The Chicken From Outer Space, was nominated for an Academy Award.