Ghost In The Shell: The Laughing Man [Blu-ray]

Movie / Show Details

Amazon.com

The OAV Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex–The Laughing Man (2005) consists of footage from the 26-episode Stand Alone Complex TV series (2002), recut to tell the story of a police battle with an über-hacker. Writer-director Kenji Kamiyama oversaw the re-editing and rewrote some of the dialogue for greater clarity. The main arc of the first season of S.A.C., The Laughing Man is a complicated tale of cyber-espionage and government corruption. Major Kusanagi, Batou, Chief Aramaki, and the other officers of Public Security Section 9 must untangle an intricate web of deception to discover a hidden scandal involving a bogus cure for the debilitating disease of “cyberbrain sclerosis.” In the original series, this story was interwoven with brief adventures involving the black-market sale of human organs, the growing consciousness of the Tachikoma robots, and Chief Aramaki’s colorful past. The Laughing Man, a title borrowed from J.D. Salinger, is interesting enough to stand on its own, but at 2 hours and 40 minutes, it feels very long. Bandai has rerecorded the dialogue with a new cast, which sounds jarring to audiences familiar with the series. The Laughing Man may appeal to viewers who didn’t see S.A.C. in its initial release: otaku who know the original may find the reworking feels like a gimmick. (Rated 13 and older: violence, violence against women, grotesque imagery, alcohol and tobacco use) –Charles Solomon

Product Description

The year is 2030 and six years have passed since a criminal known only as “The Laughing Man” swept through top medical nanotechnology firms committing acts of cyber-terrorism, kidnapping, and espionage leaving no known suspects. New information is revealed, as Section 9 enters the hunt for a suspect capable of unfathomable actions in this compilation of Stand Alone Complex content.