@virics said:

I expect it to be none. People who care about this kind of issues don't go to the theaters to see this kind of films anyway. I'm not even going to pirate it.

Most of the original fans, and the majority within the Asian American community, do not accept this decision.

@Salt-and-Limes said:

Many people seem to be very upset that they couldn't have chosen Japanese/Asian actors in this movie - rightfully so. How many of you all think this could effect the BOX Office #?

Is the major actually Japanese? I think it actually would have a positive effect on the domestic box office because ScarJo is such a big name. Internationally I don't expect it to have an impact because it effectively cancels out (big name vs "whitewashing")

Personally I find most anime race neutral so it doesn't upset me. Not to mention I've only seen her character referred to as "Major"

Well, Scarjo is the only reason I'm interested in it, so...

I think the public's apathy towards a weird-looking sci-fi movie will be far more impactful than the casting choices they made. I find that news outlets put far, far, far too much emphasis on social media controversies without placing the amount of furor in context. I've seen too many stories with about ten Twitter quotes that seem to be cherry-picked to stir up controversy while in the real world few if any people actually care.

I don't think GiTS will do well--I expect $20-$25M, tops--but apart from those of us that have seen and care about the Anime, it's a non-issue for 95% of the moviegoing public. It's still not going to make a dent against Beauty's third week at #1.

@Letthewookiewin said:

@Salt-and-Limes said:

Many people seem to be very upset that they couldn't have chosen Japanese/Asian actors in this movie - rightfully so. How many of you all think this could effect the BOX Office #?

Is the major actually Japanese? I think it actually would have a positive effect on the domestic box office because ScarJo is such a big name. Internationally I don't expect it to have an impact because it effectively cancels out (big name vs "whitewashing")

Here's a good argument that she is not:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mukokuseki

This will have zero impact on the box office. Its just some SJW looking for anything to try to clasp onto to show how 'white privilege' rules the world blah blah blah. If this movie is going to fail its going to fail at the script/story level, not the casting. This is an American version of Ghost, they bought the writes to the story so they can tell it how and with whomever they want as the lead. The only issue I personally have with it so far is that it seems like a watered down version of the original, obviously made by a big studio to try and get as many people in the movie seats as possible for a max profit. The soul of the story is unfortunately lost in translation. But Id rather get this than nothing at all. On a side note, I believe this production has more minority roles represented than any other film out in the past year. But the lead is white so fuck them right.

Weird how the Major and Kuze were both originally Asian as humans and then became white as AIs.

@Movie Queen41 said:

Weird how the Major and Kuze were both originally Asian as humans and then became white as AIs.

While the main reason for the casting was that they had a big star in the lead instead of an unknown asian actress, it makes sense in the story as well.

One reason could be that they wanted to make their new bodies as different from the old ones as possible.

Another might be that Hanka Robotics seems to be run mostly by white people. For their newest and most important "product" it makes sense that they created them in their own image.

I'm hard pressed to think of a gal with the amalgam of screen presence, dramatic proficiency, and sex appeal that's required for the role.

This.

(Spoiler warning) Well, lets examine this "controversy". In this movie she is Asian, they just didn't put her in an Asian body. In the original they do make a blonde, which we can assume from that is not Asian, so even in the original they used non Asian bodies in Japan. There is no actual way to determine which ethnicity Major is in the movie, it's just assumed she looks Asian because of black hair and the story being set in Japan. Now considering that this movie is vastly different from the original, so much so that it misses the whole point of the original movie, it wouldn't be the same character people grew up with anyway. The original actually had a lot to do with race issues being raised here, pointing out that ultimately diversity is part of how life survives and that through these differences merging we grow stronger and are resilient. The very point in the original is that not only does she chose to stop being Asian, she stops being completely human, she abandons the entire human race in order to evolve into something new and arguably better. This new movie takes the cowards way and try to avoid any racial or political implications, which changes the whole story, yet they managed to create a "controversy"? The original was far more controversial than this, and in a good way.

From what I remember the majority of people who were upset about the controversy were largely Asian American and seeing as how vastly under represented they are in American media, I can't really blame them either. Also, from what else I remember, not many people in Japan cared about it whatsoever - probably because they are well represented within their own media.

I finally got around to watching this and during the entire thing all I could think was "Blade Runner 2" is going to demolish this. I haven't watched the original anime and I don't really have any plans to either, but the entire film felt very familiar and literally all I could think was "Blade Runner" and how much I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Also, I live in Hong Kong. I thought they only shot a couple of scenes here but it looks like the entire film is set here...or...whatever fictional "state" the film is supposed to take place in.

@simian_ninja said:

I haven't watched the original anime and I don't really have any plans to either

Brutal man, the original and its (2004?) Sequel are timeless masterpieces. Just go watch some YouTube analyses on it, even Nerdwriter1's. See if anything gets your interest is piqued at all. Those two films are essential viewing.

This adaptation completely sh** on the main, groundbreaking theme of the animé. I'm trying to figure out whether it was through stupidity or greed. My jaw actually dropped when I watched the ending of this, especially since there was so much other stuff ripped shot-for-shot from the original.

From what I remember the majority of people who were upset about the controversy were largely Asian American

Actually it was mostly SJWs with nothing better to do but bitch about a non issue like this. As for Blade Runner, I think Masamune Shirow the creator of Ghost said he was inspired by the original Blade Runner so of course we would see that in the stories he told. The sad part is that Ghost 2017 had sooooo much material to pull from and they wasted that. Instead we get a generic bad corporation plot with little to no character development, I enjoyed what they did visually but the story...oh man it was bad.

Im looking forward to Blade Runner 2049. I want to see if America has gotten aboard the cyber punk train, or if its going to get left behind like the original movie. Time will tell.

@simian_ninja

I got a far more Hong Kong vibe than Japan as well... This is despite having a Japanse speaking character in the movie!

But yeah... Still very Cyberpunk...