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Looks like many film sites and publications are picking up on the movie's twist ending controversy.

There will be SPOILERS. Scroll to the bottom of the OP to read the details:

"Asian American Media Group Accuses Scarlett Johansson of ‘Lying' About ‘Ghost in the Shell' Whitewashing Controversy" Variety

"Ghost in the Shell's Twist Ending [] Makes the Whitewashing Even Worse" Slate

"‘Ghost in the Shell' Is Racist in Unexpected Ways" Collider

"‘Ghost in the Shell': The most intriguing arguments about the whitewashing charges" Washington Post

"The Twist In ‘Ghost In The Shell' Somehow Makes The Whitewashing Even More Racist" Bleeding Cool

"How Ghost in the Shell Fumbles Race and Identity" io9

"The Whitewashing in ‘Ghost in the Shell' Is Even Worse Than We Thought" Complex

"Opiate for the masses: ”Ghost in the Shell," ”Iron Fist" and Hollywood's addiction to whitewashing " Salon

http://variety.com/2017/film/news/scarlett-johansson-ghost-in-the-shell-whitewashing-1202020230/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ing-arguments-about-the-whitewashing-charges/
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat...ell_s_twist_makes_the_whitewashing_worse.html
http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/...hell-whitewashing-worse-than-thought-possible
http://www.salon.com/2017/04/01/opi...ist-and-hollywoods-addiction-to-whitewashing/
http://io9.gizmodo.com/io9-roundtable-how-ghost-in-the-shell-fumbles-race-and-1793909653
http://collider.com/ghost-in-the-shell-racism-explained/
https://www.theguardian.com/film/20...ewashing-does-hollywood-have-an-asian-problem


The twist:

Spoiler

The Major was Japanese all along. Her brain, the film reveals, was transplanted into the body of Scarlett Johansson. This manages to make Ghost in the Shell's racial politics even more groanworthy (and, judging from the screening I attended, laughable) than previously imagined.

At the beginning of the film, we glimpse the procedure that created the Major and are told that after her body was killed in a shipwreck, they were able to save her brain and transplant it into a completely synthetic cyborg ”shell," making her the first of her kind. In the Major's previous life, we're told, she was a woman named Mira Killian. When the Major finally meets the mysterious hacker Kuze (Michael Pitt), however, viewers learn that Hanka Robotics, the corporation that commissioned her creation, has been suppressing the memories of her true identity. Eventually, she finds her way back to the doorstep of an older Japanese woman (Kaori Momoi), who lives alone in a tenement building with her cat and a shrine to remind her of her long lost daughter, who was named Motoko Kusanagi. The woman welcomes the Major into her home and dishes on how Motoko was an outspoken opponent of the government's use of technology, and was arrested and killed just a year prior—around the same time the Major was created. (Motoko Kusanagi, of course, was also the Major's name in the manga and in the 1995 animated version.)

edit: More about the the true nature of the film's antagonist, Kuze (from Bleeding Cool):

Spoiler

Not only do they do this with Motoko, but also with our antagonist Hadley Cruz (or as we find out later, Hideo Kuze as played by Michael Pitt). The casting was baffling to begin with but the fact that the writers decided that this was the best way to address it is flabbergasting. This is setting aside the fact that the movie spends a large amount of time telling us that the Major and Hideo are ”the next stage of evolution" and ”perfect" which should make anyone with the faintest acknowledgement of racial injustice uncomfortable. The perfect person in these movies, the thing they say everyone is striving to be, is the mind of a Japanese woman put inside a white woman's body.

 

[John Kowalski]

Oh dear.

 

[Litan]

Also, one of the supporting cast, played by a white dude, was also Asian before his mind transfer.

 

[wwm0nkey]

You messed up the tags but here are my thoughts

Spoiler

Would have been much better after getting her identity back she also got her race back.
Like she had her memories and race stolen from her but only got one back which I thought was super dumb

Other than that I still enjoyed the movie

 

[tuxfool]

It is incredible the way they fumbled it. All they had to do is leave it alone.

 

[BannedEpisode]

Worst problem this movie had was being boring. Painfully so.

 

[HowZatOZ]

So let me just get this clear, the controversy is that

Spoiler

their original selves were Asian

, yes?

 

[PSqueak]

If you think about it, putting a brain in a body of

Spoiler

a different race of the being whose memories they are trying to suppress

makes a bit of narrative sense.

But mostly feels like an attempt to hand wave the character's race.

 

[7Th]

Not sure why they didn't just go with a Hollywoodized version of Puppetmaster as the main antagonist.

 

[Unspeakable Evil]

Some folks have compared this to another movie. I'll spoil tag for does who haven't seen it yet.

Spoiler

Get Out

 

[tuxfool]

Not sure why they didn't just go with a Hollywoodized version of Puppetmaster as the main antagonist.

Because they were absolutely desperate to get the details of the originals. Unfortunately they looked at the wrong details and consequently half assed the parts of Gits that actually matter. They replicated scenes, visuals and surface level plot points into a hodgepodge of slick Hollywood nothingness.

 

[ezekial45]

Yeah, it was pretty bad. I was enjoying the movie before that happened, and it left a bit of a sour taste. They must've thought they were so clever when they came up with that.

Honestly, they would've been better off not trying to rationalize as they did a surprisingly good job of presenting their vision of a cultural hodgepodge, which made me feel ok with a white Major.

Then the twist happened. >_<

 

[Ridley327]

So let me just get this clear, the controversy is that

Spoiler

their original selves were Asian

, yes?

Pretty much.

Spoiler

It gets all the more frustrating since there is a Japanese actress for the original Motoko, and she gets no face time.

 

[Puck Beaverton]

...but why?

 

[The Kree]

There's some dark meta humor to this. The studio is basically giving the finger to Japanese actors.

 

[CrackPebbles]

woof not a good look

 

[Not]

At least we finally figured out how to make audiences care about Asian people

Put their brains in white people

 

[tuxfool]

They must've thought they were so clever when they came up with that.

Yup.

It wasn't a fix, they actually thought they were being clever.

 

[Maintenance]

 

[akira28]

Also, one of the supporting cast, played by a white dude, was also Asian before his mind transfer.

woah the fuck

It wasn't a fix, they actually thought they were being clever.

we live on completely different planets compared to these people in respect to race dynamics

also this guy makes video game movies, baby geniueses, and fuck load of direct to video features, Bratz: The Movie, and this.

 

[Grizzlyjin]

I wonder if this is something they wrote into the script as a "fix" for the controversy about ScarJo's casting.

It's either one of two things.

1. This was seen as a way to remedy complaints about whitewashing, which is LOL-worthy

Or

2. This was in the script the entire time and everyone involved is really that blind to the implication.

It's "dig up, stupid" territory either way.

 

[ultracal31]

It's so white wash we have a new term for it called 'white bodied'

 

[Not]

I think there are a few reasons this keeps happening, but one of them is that when the people making a movie in Hollywood are envisioning their lead, very, very, very few of them see an Asian person.

They can't ever be the main characters. They can't be the heroes. And now we're bending over backward to try to make excuses for that fact.

 

[kirblar]

Yeah, it was pretty bad. I was enjoying the movie before that happened, and it left a bit of a sour taste. They must've thought they were so clever when they came up with that.

Honestly, they would've been better off not trying to rationalize as they did a surprisingly good job of presenting their vision of a cultural hodgepodge, which made me feel ok with a white Major.

Then the twist happened. >_<

The lesson here to other creators is a simple one- you either go all-in w/ translating to an American locale (see: Death Note US Version, Edge of Tomorrow, The Departed), or you maintain everything about the original work.

Trying to do both will leave you in a really bad spot.

 

[Nanashrew]

I am simply amazed by this. They went above and beyond anyone's expectations for whitewashing.

Just wow.

 

[Slayven]

I think it is a giant fuck you, totally unnecessary

 

[The Kree]

"I would never attempt to play a person of a different race, obviously."

You kinda did, though.

 

[Not]

Yup.

It wasn't a fix, they actually thought they were being clever.

This is the most white person thing I've ever heard of. Holy poop.

He thought by making her an Asian "really," then everyone would stop complaining

Jesus Christ dude

How the fuck are we STILL so tone deaf

 

[VeryGooster]

Yeah I read a twitter thread from someone who had gone to screening and I was really taken aback they went in that direction.

Also I love this shade from Collider:

That being said, studios have never balked at casting white, nothingburger actors to lead their movies, which is how we get stuck with folks like Sam Worthington, Jai Courtney, and Garrett Hedlund. Paramount is a studio that needed Johansson’s name recognition for Ghost in the Shell, but seemed oddly okay to put Ben-Hur on the shoulders of Jack Huston, a fine actor but one who had never carried a movie before.

 

[RinsFury]

Ugh, that's really gross. The studio just wanted to shoehorn in white actors after all, just...what the hell.

 

[Not]

The lesson here to other creators is a simple one- you either go all-in w/ translating to an American locale (see: Death Note US Version, Edge of Tomorrow, The Departed), or you maintain everything about the original work.

Trying to do both will leave you in a really bad spot.

Edge of Tomorrow is pretty great. But they still could've done an Asian lead in that and set it in America; the cast in the original novel is multicultural.

But yeah, if you're going to whitewash, this is the DUMBEST way to do it possible.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

I didn't see this movie or the original so maybe it's a dumb question but:

In-universe, is there a reason Hanka Robotics created a white woman's body?

 

[Nepenthe]

The fact that the rumors played out exactly as expected cracks me the fuck up. All the bending over backwards to justify why an Asian Motoko absolutely could not be the lead in a goddamn Ghost in the Shell film, and she ends up in the film anyway but having her mind transferred into a white woman because God knows we couldn't just play it straight.

This shit writes itself.

 

[PSqueak]

The lesson here to other creators is a simple one- you either go all-in w/ translating to an American locale (see: Death Note US Version, Edge of Tomorrow, The Departed), or you maintain everything about the original work.

Trying to do both will leave you in a really bad spot.

What was The Departed based on or originally set in?

 

[Rumblebones]

I watched this with a couple of buddies from work yesterday. I'm a big of the series and had seen the original film close to 10 times. My buddies all had seen the original as well and one of them even was familiar with the other variations.

When this shit came to pass on screen, we just looked at each other. We had all been very critical of this film for months, myself most of all, and thankfully not one of my friends defended this.

 

[Megalosaro]

Ugh, that's really gross. The studio just wanted to shoehorn in white actors after all, just...what the hell.

Yes. Let's ignore the fact that despite the fact the main character is played by a white actress, this still manages to be one of the most diverse and international casts in a Hollywood movie in ages.

This movie is going to bomb and the studio is going to take the wrong lesson away. Crucifying this movie for racism is some real cutting off your nose to spite your face.

 

[Gattsu25]

Double Toasted review was pretty great when they touched on this subject: https://youtu.be/hhnpYhs01Dc?t=1339
(skip to 22:19 if on mobile)

 

[Not]

Yeah I read a twitter thread from someone who had gone to screening and I was really taken aback they went in that direction.

Also I love this shade from Collider:

That being said, studios have never balked at casting white, nothingburger actors to lead their movies, which is how we get stuck with folks like Sam Worthington, Jai Courtney, and Garrett Hedlund. Paramount is a studio that needed Johansson’s name recognition for Ghost in the Shell, but seemed oddly okay to put Ben-Hur on the shoulders of Jack Huston, a fine actor but one who had never carried a movie before.

Yup. The "we don't want to take a risk on an unknown actor" thing is horseshit.

 

[Salty Rice]

Its a movie plot point not some kind of statement.

I can see why people could be upset about the ScarJo casting but now because of the movies plot?

Oh boy thats really something

 

[Dash_Riprock]

I bet they were patting themselves on the back for this, thinking they'd be praised for being "inclusive."

 

[Killer Queen]

This is lol worthy

 

[GaimeGuy]

They made the whitewashing meta-controversy a part of the actual script and plot.

How tone deaf do you have to be? Jesus

 

[kirblar]

What was The Departed based on or originally set in?

Infernal Affairs

 

[DontBeThatGuy]

What was The Departed based on or originally set in?

Infernal Affairs. Hong Kong. (It's also excellent)

 

[akira28]

well this is hollywood's take on anime...so many cyborgs everywhere.

 

[Ninjimbo]

What was The Departed based on or originally set in?

It's a remake of a Hong Kong crime drama called Infernal Affairs. They basically took the same plot and set it in Boston.

 

[Puck Beaverton]

What was The Departed based on or originally set in?

Infernal Affairs is a Hong Kong film. It is also better.

 

[tuxfool]

What was The Departed based on or originally set in?

From Infernal Affairs. Set in Hong Kong

e:Quintuple beaten

 

[PSqueak]

Infernal Affairs

Oh damn! need to check this out then, i loved the departed.

 

[SixMachine]

What was The Departed based on or originally set in?

A chinese trilogy called Infernal Affairs. I didn't know at first until I saw a certain scene, then I turned to my friend and said, "you know I think they took this plot from a chinese movie." But they wrapped it up in one movie, there was a lot more going on naturally in the original trilogy, with the second one being a prequel.