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 Posted - 03/19/2009 : 3:16:45 PM
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From Portland Indie Film Examiner - March 16, 2009
Removing the Shell (best of film nudity)
March 16, 2:40 PM
 It's hard to be attracted to a woman when she's coming apart at the seams.
Masamune Shirow first introduced fans to the character of Motoko Kusanagi (The Major) in 1989, in his ground breaking manga Ghost in the Shell. The character was a spunky female who liked to drink, curse, and kick ass... usually in the nude. Yet despite this vibrant personality, it is Mamoru Oshii’s more introspective re-imagining of the character in his 1995 film version that makes the most of her initial appearance. Standing on the edge of a skyscraper, Motoko strips naked, except for white stockings and a gun strap. Then, with a bland look at the viewer, she lets herself free fall, arms wide, fully exposed. Moments later, she brutally assassinates a government agent through the glass windows of the sky scraper.
Aside from being a shocking introduction to the character, the moment demonstrates an amazing freedom of expression and form. Throughout the film, the cybernetic Motoko continues to treat nudity with a casualness that suggests she’s lost all connection to her physical body and has moved beyond matters of the flesh. While Motoko strikes an attractive figure, she isn’t sexualized in the film, instead becoming something mechanical and hard, the same way we don’t consider a naked greek statue to be alive, or human. When one of the male characters insists on continually covering her nudity, it becomes a statement on his desire to bring her back to reality, to reconnect her to that sense of humanity.
Despite Motoko appearing naked in almost every scene she’s involved in, it never seems out of place or bawdy. Instead it provides continual insight into her character’s desire to both find herself and be free of herself. Whether she’s falling naked off a skyscraper, sinking into the darkness of the ocean wearing only a skin tight suit, or fighting terrorists bare-chested, few films are able to exhibit such control over their subjects, especially when using such evocative imagery.
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Removing the Shell (best of film nudity)
