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3:31 · 1.6M views · May 21, 2011
The wordless city montage from Mamoru Oshii's 1995 film Ghost in the Shell, in 1080p, showing the city and its people as Motoko travels by boat.
Referenced as a model of a contemplative, mood-setting sequence that shows a city away from the main plot.
3 comments from Hacker News
I hear that. The older GiTS really took its audience seriously. I mean a finale scene that's a conversation about Jameson and similar theories? Heady stuff for an anime. The original movie is one of my all time favorites because it hits such a poignant mood, and it's portrayal of a Hong Kong that's ravaged by climate change and technological advancement that isn't utopic was prophetic imo. Edit: re the last sentence this is the sequence I'm thinking of: this video
There's high praise in some movies or animation where they depict the mundane; the long sequence in Ghost in the Shell just showing the city as it is, away from the main story ( this video ), most of Studio Ghibli's films, a lot of Breaking Bad and especially Better Call Saul, where there's a lot of scenes of people just going about their day, John Travolta getting a can of paint and a pizza in the opening of Saturday Night Fever ( [LINK] ), etc.
Mamoru Oshii's style seems to heavily include this kind of sequences. Your link is from Innocence, right? The original Ghost in the Shell also has a sequence of Motoko simply walking and riding a boat, doing nothing but staring: this video (I love this movie!)