Casshern
by Kazuaki Kiriya
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Actor: Akira Terao, Fumiyo Kohinata, Kanako Higuchi, Kumiko Asô, Yûsuke IseyaDirector: Kazuaki Kiriya
Brand: ASO,KUMIKO
Writer: Kazuaki Kiriya
Producer: Chiaki Noji
Producer: Hideji Miyajima
Producer: Makoto Tanaka
Writer: Dai Sato
Writer: Shotaro Suga
Writer: Tatsuo Yoshida
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Japanese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Japanese (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 117 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-10-16
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Paramount Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Casshern
DVD Review: Look Beyond The Eye Candy
Summary: 5 Stars
No matter what, the movie was difficult to follow. In the end, it did not matter because the visuals where so stunning one just had to allow for subliminal influence to take over. This review of Casshern will explore 4 independent yet interrelated topics. The movie is difficult to follow because what seems like plot complexity on the surface might just be a result of trying to do too much. What saves the movie from its own complexity is its visual display - it is a pretty movie. But "just" a pretty movie it is not. My take on the movie is that Azuma (Akira Terao) - despite all the attention placed on Tetsuya (Yusuke Iseya) and Brai (Toshiaki Karawa) is really about - at least on one level - about a new Dr. Frankenstein.
Arguably the plot of this is both unbelievable and incomprehensible. I have to admit to being confused a lot and I thought I needed special training and research anime plot analysis or just an ability to suspend belief and not worry about plot leaps. One has to allow for the tortuous twists and turns and try not to dwell too much on the motivations of the extensive cast of characters. My argument rest on the viewers ability to balance not getting too stuck on a character that you lose out on the rest of the movie - I say just go with it. Why, and this might seem shallow but Kazuaki Kiriya's good use of CGI.
Once in a rare while you get a movie that promises that all the latest and greatest will enhance rather than detract form a movie. Chen Kaige's The Promise - fell far short of that "promise." Now, with the release of Casshern, we get to see the results of creative genius. We could argue until we are blue in the face about how much was shot with in what format but a movie looks this consistent, it hardly seems to matter. Kiriya Kazuaki's first (and hopefully not last) feature film is consistent - yes, it looks like a long music video - but if you hold on I will explain why and how he succeeds on those other levels.
One of those levels that Kiriya succeeds is making us forget that Azuma is really the the new Dr. Frankenstein. Set in a war-torn futuristic earth, Casshern brings to the screen the stock sci-fi dangers replete with a images of a dystopic, post-apocalyptic backdrop. A short synopsis can be forgiven me here. After 50 years of war between the "Great Eastern Federation" and "Eurasia" Earth is awash with all sorts of genetic consequences. We get visions of mice with eyes in odd places. Let us not forget the wonders of Imamura Shohei's 1989 classic Kuroi ame (Black Rain) and the dangers of war - not just any war - nuclear war. So, it is fitting that mankind suffer the consequences of his own folly in the cornucopia of artificially-produced postwar sicknesses and genetic deformities. This obviously foreshadows that man is not in conjunction with nature. This brings me back to Miyazaki Hayao's 1997 classic Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke) calling to question the duality of either/or but placing man squarely at the center of both man and nature. The remedy, as both Kiriya and Miyazaki warn us is not more technology, particularly the notion of the "neo cell" project. Enter Professor Azuma, the neo-Dr. Frankenstein. As much as we cannot blame the Frankenstein monster we cannot blame the "Neo Sapiens" and Testuya for all the rage. Mind you, the source of all the rage is in the movie and I won't give that away - that you as a viewer need to figure out for yourselves. However, like the Frankenstein monster, the creature fights its creator. Ironically, one of the main issues of the movie is that fact that Tetsuya gets to live again. Our reluctant hero, cum nationalistic warrior is brought back from the dead and in effect we are not really sure what he is fighting for - which brings us back to plot complexity. I say never mind... focus on the metal suit and battle armor and his recently provided for superhuman abilities - which we are not really sure, how he gets... Tetsuya is now Casshern! And that is all that will matter for 2.5 hours. On many levels, Casshern is just a movie - or is it?
It would be good though to leave you with these final musings, the movie does depend on emotions and the kind of reactions from its cast so be ready for it and forgive the director this one excess - one of many. The message is unambiguous war is hell and coupled with technological advances without soul - that hell is made even worse. On that level alone I think the movie is worth watching. That we are presented with this lesson though the creative use of CGI and a not really complicated script is a real treat - but that is my opinion. For the length of the film - and it is 2.5 hours in the original cut - so the new DVD at 2 hours is no "Director's Cut - but edited down. No matter what, as far as I am concerned, Casshern has something for everyone on several levels - particularly the superficial ones - but those with a more sublime and deeper appreciation - don't fret - you won't be let down.
Miguel Llora
Description of Casshern
No Description Available.Genre: Foreign Film - Japanese
Rating: NR
Release Date: 16-OCT-2007
Media Type: DVD
Kiriya Kazuaki?s spectacular Casshern is an impressive marriage of live action drama and animated effects that, taken together, look like something both very old and very new in cinema. A wild, science fiction tale with an echo or two of Bladerunner, Casshern is set in a dystopian future following a 50-year-long war between Europe and Asia. The latter wins, calling the resulting Eurasia the "Eastern Federation," but the high-tech weapons used in the battle have affected the whole of mankind through widespread devastation and illness. A geneticist whose son, Tetsuya (Yusuke Iseya), has gone off to fight terrorists, promises the military his work on "neo cells" will result in the cultivation of spare human parts for the wounded and afflicted. But two unexpected results occur: a small band of superhuman mutants rise up out of the scientist?s chemical muck, and Tetsuya--killed in battle--is brought back to life with his own superpowers. While the mutants rise up against the human race, Tetsuya, now known as "Casshern," takes them on against a fascinating psychological backdrop with Oedipal overtones. The film?s look of hyperreal, pop culture pastiche (in which action often evokes the look of 1930s movie serials blended with a whirl of dreamy, free-associating images) is reaching for the same thing as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. But it is much grander in its effort. --Tom Keogh
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