Who Should Take Responsibility for The Ghost In the Shell Failure?

Like many of a sci-fi fan, you wait with so much anticipation for a film to come out that as each day draws nearer for the premiere, you find yourself salivating with primal behavior as all logic and rational thought takes a back seat. The film, Logan, was one of those films that many were anticipating and it lived up to caliber everyone had expected and then some. The Fast and The Furious was another film that lived up to the hype and it hit some impressive numbers in its opening weekend. Such was not the case for the Scarlett Johansson vehicle, Ghost In the Shell or GiTS as it is referred to. Ghost in The Shell is a Japanese anime that came out in 1995 and became a cult hit with the fan boys. It was unique with its story line, with its music and with its breathtaking anime that defied the conventional elements for this type of art. For a long time, fanboys have wanted a live action version of GiTS and finally that day came. A GiTS would be coming in 2017 so who will star in it? For the fanboys, picking the right actress would be key in making this a successful venture. But the gods did not smile on the fanboys as word came down that an actress had been selected and her name was Scarlett Johansson.

Scarlett Johansson got her start in the Robert Redford film, The Horse Whisperer. Throughout her career, Ms. Johansson has had some hits and misses along the way. She has found success in the Marvel Avengers series movies as well as the independent film, Lucy, a sci-fi thriller that apparently the producers of GiTS thought would make her a better candidate than others. The problem with her selection with the fanboys was that she was not Asian. And this became a problem from the very beginning with this film. The producers of this film had made the assumption that Scarlett Johansson is a big name star and that her presence alone would enhance the marketability of the film.

There was an immediate outcry from across the board with allegations of whitewashing. Whitewashing is a term used in the Hollywood industry of having a white person plays an Asian or other minority characters where clearly there is a history of appropriation after a character has been defined by other media sources or historical facts. Hollywood has a long history of whitewashing starting with Birth of A Nation where white men in black face depicted blacks as caricatures who were lazy, scheming and nefarious villains who couldn't be trusted. Warner Oland AND Sydney Toler, white actors, portrayed a Chinese detective named Charlie Chan for many years in several movies helmed under that name. Mickey Rooney played a Japanese man in the film, Breakfast At Tiffany's that was so blatantly over the top that it was not only racist but insulting as well.  And the numbers of white actors portraying Native Americans in the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's is too numerous.

Enter Scarlett Johansson into the controversy that is GiTS and whitewashing. On numerous interviews she had stated that “she would never presume to play the race of another person.” But play another race she did and you can't help but not see that even with her ineffectual protest. Just like with the Pepsi commercial that starred Kendall Jenner, there is a tone deafness with this situation. Ms. Johansson appears to be a reasonably sophisticated woman in interviews. But because the film, Lucy, did well does not translate into playing a role designed for an Asian woman. Hollywood has taken the approach the big nae actors will bring in the big bucks. That theory has been disproved many time over with films helmed by Tom Cruise and Will Smith failing miserably. Now Ms. Johnasson has added her name to another failed film. There have been films with no named stars that became blockbusters like The Blair Witch and Napoleon Dynamite and Paranormal Activity to name a few.

So, what went wrong with the film itself? Well, you could tell that many of the scenes that were filmed were done on green screen because the quality of matting was not good. They tried to make her and mold her into some amalgamation of something with feelings. The original character had no feelings and was steadfast in her determination as a police officer. And as I kept looking at the film and at Scarlett Johansson's performance, the Asian thing kept creeping back into my consciousness. I had selected several Asian actresses that could have played the part of Major. There was Rila Fukishima, known for her work in the 2013 Wolverine movie, would have been an excellent choice. She has training to do the stunt work as well. Maggie Q is another one who has the training to do the stunt work in these films. So the argument that there weren't any to choose from doesn't meet the smell test. The film just seems to lay there and some of the elements are nothing like the original anime. They do put some of the original in this film but overall, the film just lay there. There is too much visual pollution with so much stuff going on in the background that your visual senses become overloaded with what's going on. The most obtuse thing I saw with this film and this was my last straw was when her boss unloads a revolver into the bad guy and he empties it out over the body like he's a gangster from some 1940's era. Was that really necessary?

There are some lessons to be learned from this. One of them is to listen to your core fan base. If they want an Asian playing an Asian, perhaps it is a good idea to trust their instincts. Fans no longer sit on the side anymore like they did 15 years ago. Social media has changed that dynamic tremendously. The fans made their own protest statement by steering clear from this film. The film has made to date, only $37 million on a budget of $110,000,000. By comparison, Fast and The Furious has name over $100 million in three days in its initial release and overall a whopping $538 million worldwide. The moral to this story? Nerds and fanboys rule.