Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: The Laughing Man Blu-ray Movie Review

Ghost in the Shell: The Next Generation.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 4, 2011

The Ghost in the Shell franchise is not for the faint of heart, or at least for those who want mindless entertainment. As is perhaps evidenced by the Westernized title (the original Japanese is better translated as “Mobile Armed Riot Police”), Ghost in the Shell is an unusually philosophical enterprise which deals with all sorts of Big Questions, including, as the western title itself hints at, the interplay of spirit and matter. If Shirow Masamune’s original manga series was a serious and thought provoking affair, once it was adapted into two films by Mamoru Oshii, the ante was considerably—as in considerably—upped. Oshii imbued the series with a hyper-intellectualism that was both bracing and frankly annoying. This futuristic police thriller became a piece where characters would stop and reflect, sometimes seemingly endlessly, on those selfsame Big Questions, usually without coming up with any similarly Big Answers. Nonetheless both Ghost in the Shell movies really should be seen by anyone who loves anime, as they are both among the best in this far reaching and increasingly disparate, hard to pin down genre. In a sort of Star Trek: The Next Generation way, young Japanese auteur Kenji Kamiyama helped develop a television series based on the original concept which aired for two seasons in 2002-2003 and then again in 2004. The first season was entitled Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and it’s from that season’s 26 episode arc that this The Laughing Man compilation film is culled. Set in 2030, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: The Laughing Man (is that enough colons for you?) deals with several characters and elements which will be familiar to fans of Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell films, including the special ops team Public Security Section 9 and its members, the cyborg Motoko Kusanagi and her partner Batou. The Laughing Man of the title refers to a terrorist who has disguised his identity under a sort of Joker-esque logo, but whose motives may not be as nefarious as they would seem to be on their surface.

While it’s well nigh impossible to easily sum up Ghost in the Shell generally, and this edited version of the television series’ first season in particular, basically what we have is a very convoluted thriller that plays like a futuristic John Grisham or Ken Follett novel, set in (of course) a dystopian future society where cyborgs and humans and everything in between live in a technology dominated society that is also the frequent victim of all sorts of terrorist activity. In the case of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: The Laughing Man, Motoko and Batou find themselves investigating what has become known as The Laughing Man Incident of several years previously, but which rears its ugly head once again when a police investigator who claims to have uncovered some previously unknown information about the case is mysteriously murdered. That starts a rather labyrinthine chain of events into motion which includes everything from nanite cameras implanted in police officers to supposed vaccines with unexpected added “bonuses” to a cascading series of duplicity and shifting alliances that will keep most viewers guessing as to what exactly is going on until the climax.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: The Laughing Man shows what an able writer and director Kenji Kamiyama is. This is a film which has been whittled down from rather massive amounts of material but which has lost little in terms of story clarity and may in fact have gained somewhat in momentum. Kamiyama, as he discusses in an excellent extra interview included on this Blu-ray, redid little in The Laughing Man other than rewrite some bridging dialogue which was looped during the editing process. Otherwise, everything here is drawn whole cloth from the original series, but there’s never a feeling that we’re watching something diced and sliced to fit into a feature length commodity (though truth be told The Laughing Man clocks in at well over two and a half hours, a rather epic length for an anime feature).

As with Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell, Stand Alone Complex: The Laughing Man presents us with a futuristic world that has both incredible opportunity as well as an ominously disturbing proclivity toward dysfunction. Kamiyama’s take on this source material is perhaps less philosophical than Oshii’s, and tends towards more straightforward thriller-mystery-action elements, but that’s not a bad thing. In fact one of The Laughing Man’s salient saving graces is how compelling the central mystery is, and how shadowy so many different elements turn out to be. Despite its bright, colorful animation style, tonally Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: The Laughing Man boasts a very film noir aesthetic, one rather akin to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner.

Stand Alone Complex very creatively thrust the Ghost in the Shell universe into a new set of plotlines and character arcs, and the good news is that this compilation of sorts manages to hold on to large swaths of what made the series so exciting and notable. While those who loved the original series are no doubt going to have issues with various elements which have been dropped by the wayside, newcomers to this revisionist take on Ghost in the Shell will more than likely be captivated by The Laughing Man’s central mystery and the nice interplay between Matoko and Batou, as well as the bracing action elements which are as visceral as ever, if not actually more so. Often when a huge fan of some original source material comes along to put his own stamp on a franchise, the results can be devastating. The good news is Kamiyama had the good sense to respect this material, and instead of drastically altering everything to fit some sort of hubristic directorial vision, instead subtly shifted everything and added some intriguing new layers on what was already a very solid foundation. The Laughing Man is therefore a fitting testament to what can be achieved when filmmakers approach a known commodity with a serious intent.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: The Laughing Man Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: The Laughing Man arrives on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.85:1. This distillation of the television series' first season looks remarkably clear and crisp and is testament to Kamiyama's professed desire to imbue this outing with a "big screen" look, despite its small screen genesis. Both CGI and hand drawn elements are interwoven fairly seamlessly, and detail throughout The Laughing Man remains top notch. Line detail is also exceptional and colors for the most part are appealing and very robust. A couple of the characters (notably Batou) are cast in a pretty drab palette, and that may bother some persnickety videophiles. Despite what can be a very busy frame at times, and considering its interlaced source elements, rarely if ever do any passing artifacting issues crop up (occasional very minor motion judder is noticeable, though negligible), and this is about as clean and precise a visual presentation as one could hope for.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: The Laughing Man Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While perhaps not as consistently sonically bombastic as Mobile Suit Gundam 00 the Movie - A Wakening of the Trailblazer, which I reviewed here recently, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: The Laughing Man's two lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 tracks (in Japanese and English) come close and provide stellar aural accounts of the film. From the first moment, when thundering helicopters pan convincingly through the soundfield, we know we're in for some robust, effects-filled sonic action, and the film, while a good deal quieter (at least relatively speaking) than the Mobile Suit Gundam 00 film still delivers an earful of activity with frequently very appealing immersive qualities. The action sequences are of course a riot of activity and offer excellent discrete channelization. Dialogue is aptly handled and is clear and very well balanced with the effects and score. The score, by Yoko Kanno, deserves special mention, as it is inerrantly evocative and contains some gorgeous vocal music which almost sounds like a techno version of Hildegard von Bingen, a la the Vision album of many years ago.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: The Laughing Man Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Stand Alone Complex Archive (1080i; 32:07). This excellent and really informative featurette offers voice actress Atsuko Tanaka (Motoko in the original Japanese version) interviewing writer-director Kenji Kamayama.
• Tachikomatic Days (1080i; 2:44) is a comedic short about ADR and voice acting. Amusing, but strange.
• English End Feature Credits (SD; 3:00)
• Trailers and BD Credits

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: The Laughing Man Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you've been jonesin' for more Ghost in the Shell since the Oshii films and weren't able to catch the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series, this is a worthy distillation that hits most of the major plot elements and is surprisingly succinct and well crafted. While not as overtly philosophical as Oshii's approach, this is a really fun, incredibly complex outing that should satisfy the large (and growing) Ghost in the Shell fanbase. Highly recommended.