First look at ScarJo as the Major in Ghost in the Shell

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Basing it on her movie design.

Not picking an actress who is ripped as fuck.

Failure on all levels. Unless ScarJo got a six pack recently I have serious misgivings about this casting.

Others have already done a good job going over the whitewashing so I don't even have to get into that.
 
shagg_187 said:
I don't know how to feel about this. Something tells me the movie won't do the series any justice.
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Arise is not bad... But really the series was best with the first movie and select bits of stand alone complex.

I like what I see. I can deal with a white lead (movie marketing, is what it is), but I hope the cast is very diverse then.

I think it looks great though. If it looks just like the anime she'd look too cosplay-y, I think the balance is right.
 
Is there really a problem with whitewashing here? If it would be some chinese or korean property or had asian-american in it, then sure. But I somehow doubt japanese people mind that americans are starring in their roles, considering they themselves yellowash on regular basis.

I mean, does anyone really think that a nation that made damn Thermae Romae will mind? :D
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KonradLaw said:
Is there really a problem with whitewashing here? If it would be some chinese or korean property or had asian-american in it, then sure. But I somehow doubt japanese people mind that americans are starring in their roles, considering they themselves yellowash on regular basis.

I mean, does anyone really think that a nation that made damn Thermae Romae will mind? :D
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surely they could've found white actors for those roles!
 
KonradLaw said:
Is there really a problem with whitewashing here? If it would be some chinese or korean property or had asian-american in it, then sure. But I somehow doubt japanese people mind that americans are starring in their roles, considering they themselves yellowash on regular basis.

I mean, does anyone really think that a nation that made damn Thermae Romae will mind? :D
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I would bet there is a greater number of english speaking Asian actors in America than there are Japanese speaking white actors in Japan. I'm going to make an uneducated guess that the pool of white talent they can pull from to cater to a Japanese speaking audience is much much smaller than the pool of asian talent Hollywood can pull from to cater to an English speaking audience. But hey, if you're a non-Japanese person who would like to see more non-Japanese actors in non-Japanese roles in native Japanese films, then you by all means have the right to demand it.

Maybe Japan doesn't care about diversity in hollywood, but as an asian american living in the United States, I would love to see more asian roles filled by asian actors, especially starring protagonist roles.
 
is produced by Avi Arad (“THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 1 & 2,” “IRON MAN”), Ari Arad (“GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE”), and Steven Paul (“GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE”). Michael Costigan (“PROMETHEUS”),
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VOO6H6s.gif
 
BudokaiMR2 said:
I would say it is even better than it was 10 years ago.

Also, guess what? Even as a white actress ScarJo is marginalized to an extent because she is a woman. That is a point expressed in the article you just linked.

She obviously has it better than a lot of people, especially now that she has become popular, but I find it a little bit disingenuous to just write her off because "white people, right?"

I would expect that as an attractive actress in Hollywood she has had to deal with her fair share of bullshit.
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Reduce the time scale and shit hasn't changed. I know ScarJo is a woman and I haven't written her off. But she's intersected as a white woman which has given her more opportunities than women of color and as mentioned this was a prime opportunity to use a woman of color given the source material and they didn't. You can say things have changed, things have changed till the cows come home but that doesn't change the fact that the problem still persists. I'd love to award Hollywood for trying but trying isn't solving. It's moments like this one where a new sort of step could have been taken and it wasn't.
 
That's Scarlett Johansson alright.

Im hoping the films good. Whinge all you like about whitewashing, but she's a fantastic actress and works incredibly hard in action rolls, so as long as the script and direction is up to snuff, she'll do a fantastic take on the roll.
 
Stilton Disco said:
That's Scarlett Johansson alright.

Im hoping the films good. Whinge all you like about whitewashing, but she's a fantastic actress and works incredibly hard in action rolls, so as long as the script and direction is up to snuff, she'll do a fantastic take on the roll.
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I hear her rolls are the best in Hollywood, a true tumbling master.

sorry, couldn't resist :P
 
Very poor first impression. The people involved in the production inspire even less confidence. But ultimately, none of this was unexpected (there have been no good live-action anime adaptations, and that will obviously continue to be the case).
 
It's just frustrating. It's fucking frustrating. You know Asian women always get typecast into the acrobatic lady assassin roles or smart doctor/hacker lady roles. And the one time Hollywood conveniently decides to break the stereotype is when it's a starring role. Just like how people thought it might be racist to cast an Asian person as the Mandarin when the entire point of the character in that film is to lampshade how fucking ridiculous that character is. Ben Kingsley did fine. But would it have even been problematic if they cast an Asian person considering the true nature of that character?

It's just funny how Hollywood only pretends to care about poc representation when it lines up with their agenda.
 
The creepy robot Scarlett Johansson doll would've been better casting than the actual Scarlett Johansson. SAC Kusanagi purposely looks artificial while the GitS movie Kusanagi might be able to pass for a human Japanese woman, but this cheap wig business isn't accomplishing either.

But all of that stuff is sort of beside the point, because it's fairly obvious why they're casting a well-known white actress ($$$), and debating whether or not it's justifiable in the story isn't really the issue. Maybe GitS is getting a Hollywood adaptation because they can plausibly cast a white actress and kind of get away with it.
 
This thread is great because I still remember the old threads about the next movie Spider-Man being played by a non white person were filled with people saying how they should make a brand new character rather then change the race of an existing one. Yet here we are in this one with people making excuses as to why it's ok to do so here.

Changing race is only alright when you're turning them white it seems.
 
Robot Scarlett got robbed. Sanders directed a pretty amazing Halo ODST commercial so I'm gonna give him a shot at this. David Finchers first movie was Alien 3 and the world gave him a second chance. Turned out well
 
Pretty horrible first shot. I don't mind Johansson in the role but the hair looks dumb...hopefully it looks weird because she just got cyber-birthed or something

This shit where people ruin cyberpunk (stylish? nah, lets make it mopey and dull looking) is the true Hollywood tragedy here
kidding
 
Avi Arad (“THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 1 & 2,” “IRON MAN”), Ari Arad (“GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE”), and Steven Paul (“GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE”). Michael Costigan (“PROMETHEUS”), Tetsu Fujimura (“TEKKEN”), Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, whose animation studio Production I.G produced the Japanese "GHOST IN THE SHELL” film and television series, and Jeffrey Silver (“EDGE OF TOMORROW,” “300”) will executive produce.
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Some of these are really not inspiring.

When Spirit of Vengeance (super awful but also incredible) is your reference, you've gone wrong.
 
As long as they don't try to make her Japanese then I don't see anything wrong with it so far.
 
I knew it was happening with ScarJo but still disappointed. I don't know why Hollywood is so fascinated with Asian cultures but so hesitant to cast an Asian as the lead.

SuperStiltzkin said:
It's just frustrating. It's fucking frustrating. You know Asian women always get typecast into the acrobatic lady assassin roles or smart doctor/hacker lady roles. And the one time Hollywood conveniently decides to break the stereotype is when it's a starring role. Just like how people thought it might be racist to cast an Asian person as the Mandarin when the entire point of the character in that film is to lampshade how fucking ridiculous that character is. Ben Kingsley did fine. But would it have even been problematic if they cast an Asian person considering the true nature of that character?

It's just funny how Hollywood only pretends to care about poc representation when it lines up with their agenda.
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Funny you should mention Marvel, since they've changed the Ancient One to a Caucasian. Infact I was trying to think of one "good" Asian character in the Marvel universe... And I'm drawing blanks here.
 
I've always felt that Ghost in the Shell is one of the few animes that could make a live-action transition pretty easily.

But the people involved are not the visionaries that I can confidently sit there and say they'll make a good movie.
 
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