It begins with a few ominous lines: “In the not so distant future where the corporate networks fill the earth with electronic and optical communication lines …” Talk about prescient. AI is the new boogeyman, but in the mid-1990s it was the technology explosion, how invasive it could be and its growing threat to one’s identity (think artificial body parts and brains). In Mamoru Oshii’s groundbreaking animated film, based on the manga (later remade in 2017 as a live-action film in 2017 with Scarlett Johansson), the story is told through the eyes of a female cyborg security agent in search of a mysterious hacker, the Puppet Master. With eye-popping animation, Kenji Kawai’s imaginative score and a persistent sense of dread, it’s no wonder Ghost in the Shell has garnered a reputation as one of the great anime films and influenced the likes of James Cameron and the Wachowskis. — Doug Pullen

Rated: R