Innocence - Ghost in the Shell 2

For instance, the deeply complicated concepts of human "minds" (ghosts) in mostly cybernetic bodies offset by a lovable basset hound (Oshii has dogs in all his movies). The art is super good and the action to dialogue ratio is just right to keep things moving quickly.

I only wish I could understand Japanese! The movie is (on the DVD I bought), is not dubbed so us English speaking fans have to rely on the subtitles. I generally don't mind subtitles unless they really obscure the art, but in this case...

Well, let's just put it this way - Dreamworks (the company that brought this movie to the US), really, really fucked the subtitles up! The decided to do the "for the deaf" captions in the same layer as the subtitles. So, what happens is, you read what the person is saying and then when a helicopter flies in the picture, you read "[helicopter noise]". When the phone rings, your read "[phone ringing]"!

I don't mind that a hearing impaired subtitle layer exists, but making it in the same layer as the regular subtitles was a big foul. The hearing impaired subtitling has to have the possiblity of shutting it off! Otherwise it is a nuicence.

In all the Oshii movie: Innocence is superb. Once again, a US production company ruins an excellent piece of work. I'm sure enough people will complain and Dreamworks will release another version. Just another way Dreamworks can get paid again - maybe their "flaw" wasn't an oversight...