Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. 2004. Japan. Directed by Mamoru Oshii. Screenplay by Oshii, based on the manga by Shirow Masamune. With the voices of Akio Ôtsuka, Atsuko Tanaka, Kôichi Yamadera. 35mm print courtesy of Production I.G. In Japanese; English subtitles. 100 min.
One of the few animated films ever to be presented in the main competition at Cannes, Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell 2 has become a landmark of anime. The breadth of its literary and philosophical pretensions—quoting Milton, Confucius, Asimov, La Nouvelle Eve, and the legend of the Golem, just for starters—is matched only by the splendor of its aesthetics, rendering Hong Kong 2032 at once sweepingly epic and intimately tender.